Romance and Greek words in German; Sonja

[pne]

Today we talked briefly about a physics experiment where you attach a force measuring thing (spring-loaded, with a scale in newtons) to a block. You pull on the device and the block remains immobile until the force reaches, say, 6 N. Then it begins to move and the spring moves back until it reads, say, 2 N. The teacher asked why this is.

I had learned physics in English and didn't know the German terms, so what I said was, "Weil der Koeffizient der statischen Friktion höher ist als der Koeffizient der dynamischen Friktion."

When a chap came in (late) who is studying physics, the teacher explained the same thing to him and he answered that it's due to the "Haftreibungsbeiwert" and the "Gleitreibungsbeiwert". Ah, so that's what they're called in "German" German :D

For some reason, words derived from Latin and Greek sound more high-falutin' than words derived from German roots. "Koeffizient der Haftreibung" is probably a sort of middle ground; to me, "Haftreibungsbeiwert" sounds too German, and a bit contrived (a bit like "Kellerspeicher" for "Stack" in computing). But I'm sure there are people for whom that is normal terminology, just as some people work with "Eigenschaftswörter", "Zeitwörter", and "Hauptwörter" rather than "Adjektive", "Verben", and "Substantive".

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Oh, and Sonja was in church again today for the first time in months. Glad she was feeling well enough to come—apparently, she had pretty bad morning sickness for months on end.

Comments

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

I think sometimes it's easier to use words from other languages or at least some sort of equivalent like you were saying:)

[timwi.livejournal.com]

I sometimes have the same problem, since I also learnt most of those advanced science and maths terms in English. I find it particularly confusing that what they call a 'field' in English mathematics is a 'Körper' in German, and not a 'Feld' as you'd expect. Or maybe it is 'Feld' and what they call 'ring' in English is 'Körper'... you see, I get these mixed up every time. :)

I've never heard the word "Beiwert", only "Koeffizient"... but yeah, "Friktion" does sound a little bit weird.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

The same thing happens in English: the Germanic words sound more "normal" and the Latinate words sound more "high-falutin'." It makes Spanish speakers (when interpreted) sound more educated than they are. And it makes me sound like a know-it-all, 'cause I'm more likely to go for the cognate with Spanish (which obviously would be a Latinate word) than the more common Germanic one.

In English, it also leads to word pairs, especially in law: null and void (Latinate and Germanic respectively); last will and testament (the other way around). Notice that in each, if you're just going to say one, you say the Germanic one: the contract is void, he changed his will.