this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Lol. For those wondering, bürger in german means civilian. It comes from Burg which means town, hence the city Hamburg, after which hamburgers are named.

So Bürgerkrieg is Civil(ian) war.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Excuse me, but Burg is a castle build for defence. People of the area could get behind their walls in a case of attack, so many settled in close proximity for safety. The resulting town was often called Burg in the middle ages, but thats not true for today.

In todays language Burg does not mean town anymore. It is only used for a kind of castle. You can't ask "In welcher Burg wohnst du?"

Unless you still live in the middle ages of course.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Thanks for the clarification.

For anyone wondering, the story is a little more muddy:

Old Frisian burich "castle, city," Old Norse borg "wall, castle," Old High German burg, buruc "fortified place, citadel," German Burg "castle," Gothic baurgs "city"), which Watkins derives from from PIE root *bhergh- (2) "high," with derivatives referring to hills, hill forts, and fortified elevations.

In German and Old Norse, chiefly as "fortress, castle;" in Gothic, "town, civic community."

https://www.etymonline.com/word/burg

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Additionally, in German the hamburger or burger is written with a simple u, not ü, Hamburger or Burger.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 months ago (1 children)

obviously it's also a friendly smiley face

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

The only acceptable misinterpretation Ü

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

As someone with an ø in my real name, I have had to explain it so many times 😮‍💨

Once, back when I was still on fb, some troll reported me for using a "fake" name based on it and I had to send fb a picture of my passport to reactivate my account 🤬

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

With a language that can't even comprehend all of their own letters and has to call one "double-U", they can't comprehend additional letters...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

With English as my only language I can confirm

Our brains go to mush like seeing a biblically accurate angel as we cannot the fathom the sheer infinity of another letter

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Such confident ignorance

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is if it's in a rock band's name though

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They are definitely the worst offenders :'D

I'll never not pronounce it motÖrhead

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

That just sounds silly

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I don't believe you.

It is a funny U in English, which is the only language that matters.

Yes, i'm American. How could you tell?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Do you mean a güt feeling?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Now listen here you little

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No, it's a metal U. Diacritics are vowels run through a distortion filter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Lol nice one

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Quick question, Answer of the top of your head: When was the last state sanctioned slave freed in America?

AnswerAlfred Irving was released 1942.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

I'd argue that they still exist, unless we're just ignoring prison labour.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

I've never heard of this so did a little digging. I'm not sure this fits the bill of state sanctioned since the "owners" were pretty much immediately prosecuted via joint efforts of the local sheriff and the FBI then convicted of violating federal law.

While looking through this, I learned of peonage where Mae Louise Miller ~~was released~~ escaped from slavery in 1961. I don't see any legal repercussions for her "owners".

I wouldn't say state sanctioned in her case either. Maybe state turning a blind eye.

Nonetheless, whether or not state sanctioned applies in either situation, it doesn't diminish the horrible reality that people were being kept as chattel well into the twentieth century.

Thanks for informing me of this. I really had no idea it existed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Yesterday probably. Someone probably got released from prison yesterday.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Today, possibly? Until the next one's prison sentence ends tomorrow.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Burger is short for Hamburger or Hamburg Steak a patty made of ground beef.

Hamburg, I think, means town like a burgh, an autonomous municipal corporation. so a bürgermeister is the chairman of the town council. A mayor.

~~Bürgerkrieg~~ Bürgerkrieg is a town conflict. A war between towns.

The best of times. The worst of times.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

Close enough

Burg in modern German means castle, but as part of city names I think your etymology sounds about right. Bürger, on the other hand, means citizen. So the Bürgermeister is chief citizen, and Bürgerkrieg literally is citizen war. A civil war.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Kreig ≠ Krieg

The order of letetrs matters

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

the duality of the bürger

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Every True American after learning slaves had no burger: "40 ACRES AND A COW"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

"Hey you guys wanna go to Burgerkrieg?"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I actually did learn world history in german, due to my third world origin and studying aboard aspirations. Like I have written essays on "amerikanishe bürgerkrieg" 💀

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

To any Germans out there, how funny is this to German speakers? Did you find it funny as soon as you first heard it?

[–] kwomp2 9 points 2 months ago

Imagine the letter H and G would look similar. Now imagine there was a language that didn't have the letter H. People who spoke that language would post: "Hot Dog" and then go like "aaaahahaha imagine God Dog, like a god thats a dog".

Now add the fact that germans know and use the word burger regularly and do posess knowledge of the existence of different languages and that "burger" is an english word, thus pronunciation differs.

So I'd say no, not funny.

Then again I have laughed about and made jokes that made use of the similarity of burger and Bürger. But I guess the "rofl different languages"-element needs to be combined with smth more to qualify as a joke.

Yours, german giving german answers

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Not really, the words are pronounced differently

Although I've seen the email address burger@[domain] and wondered why anyone would have an address named after a food - until realising the sender was a Mr. Burger (pronounced like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/De-Burg.ogg + er).

Also, the food burger is pronounced almost like the Americans do because we took the English pronunciation and modified it slightly to fit existing German sounds.

The "ü" in Bürger however is pronounced like the "ue" in the French word rue, which is a sound that doesn't exist in English.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I just realised we pronounce Burger like Böaga

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

If true, I'll rue the day I made this post.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Beeeee Kaaaaaaaaaayyyy have it your way!