Monday 23 August 2010

Multilingual Phrases are not Dead

No, they're back with a vengeance!

Babelmum and the Babelkids are still with the in-laws in Algeria. Their Arabic is getting better and better and naturally the other languages are on a bit of a holiday, so to speak. Probably relaxing at the beach while I'm working, those lazy .... Anyway.

I had BK1 on the phone earlier via skype, and when we had finished, she said:

"Kann ich abcrochen?"

That's three languages, German, English & French. German provides two words ("Kann ich" = "Can I"), one prefix ("ab") and correct grammar, French provides part of one word ("crocher" comes from "raccrocher" = "to hang up") and English, well, my guess is that she translated "raccrocher" to "hang up" and then split "raccrocher" apart and tried to make it German by translating the "up" to "ab".

Or maybe she actually said "Kann ich upcrochen", I'm not sure.

Whichever it is, "crochen" is the correct verb form for this sentence. Or rather it would be if it was a German word.

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