I am in love with Umlaute... they are cute and adorable.. I did not even realize how fascinated I am with them in my rudimentary attempts to write a few words in German, till a friend pointed it out to me yesterday..
It seems I put them wherever my heart fancies even though they don't belong there..
well, may be I need to explain what Umlaute are.. these are those two adorable dots on top of a, o and u. Typically these become ä,ö,ü, additional three alphabets in German and in Swiss German. Do not ask me to pronounce them correctly, I simply cant. My German teacher used to exaggerate his facial movements to make us understand the difference in sound of this holy trinity of German language but every time he did it, it just cracked me up.. I never knew if it was his comical face or the sound of those alphabets.. but I just could not stop giggling inside my belly and trying hard not to blurt out laughing loud or fall off my chair in my bout of epileptic laughter... to be honest, I never attempted to pronounce those ä,ö and ü. Why should I? They were having party inside my imaginative brain... and felt no need to enter this world through my primitive vocalization.. I was also happy to play with them in my brain and have a bash, a creative bash...
but written words is a different story... I can express myself better in written words, even thoughts or sounds that I would shy away from vocalizing through my throat, flow effortlessly through my written words.. and so do Umlaute.. For example, my most favorite and first learned Swiss German word is 'Schlüsselblüemli'.. what a beautiful word!!! It sounds like a musical note to my ear but I cant pronounce it. So I just bug my friends to say this word to me again and again like a child pestering his mom to continue reading a bed time story and refusing to sleep.. But I write the word 'Schlüsselblüemli' as often as I like. I not only like writing the word Rösti, I also eat it with great joy every single time.. I play with Umalute in my words... because they look like little persons to me..
let me explain what I mean.. Imagine each alphabet is a person, a little person.. what Swiss German will describe as Männlli, may be a personalli is a better word but I don't know if that exists. ... so each alphabet has also a personality of its own.. some are naughty, some are geeky, some are bit depressive, some are always ready to play, some are snobbish, some are shy and some are obsessive compulsive.. now imagine my ä,ö and ü.. to me they look like little naughty but friendly aliens.. with little antennae on their heads to communicate with their world... or little angels with a halo over their head, or just prankster kids pulling tricks on poor souls like me who are terrible at phonating all these hard sounds of foreign language...
but I imagine these three to be like me somehow... for example, I am very sure that their antennae start beeping crazy in joy and excitement, even turn green and blue when they see Rösti or chocolate muffins or potato chips or any tasty vegetarian food any hour of the day... they get all mushy and humble when they see a beautiful sunset, new leaves of spring, or a tiny wild flower.. they cry while reading a letter from a friend or watching a movie or enjoying a book.. they also feel sad and struggle to express their sadness and instead start fanatically organizing something at hand... they can be pleased easily and they can break into an ear to ear banana smile at smallest of a joy coming their way... I like these little special characters because I can relate to them and they give me a means of expression of my own kind... so I use them generously as I go about my way in attempts to learn the language and smile along with them.. I leave them behind me as a trademark, just the way we all leave a mark, a legacy behind us in every person, every object we interact with in our life time... and I amuse myself when idle by imagining various tricks my ä,ö and ü could pull on me... and trust me they are very very naughty and funny and crazy when it comes to pulling tricks... and they also have nonverbal communication strategy through size of those dots, colors and distance between the two dots. Everything has a meaning and deciphering that meaning is no less than scholarly work that I do for earning a living...
So I leave you all with a line rich in Umläüte.
Häve ä beütifül weekend...
It seems I put them wherever my heart fancies even though they don't belong there..
well, may be I need to explain what Umlaute are.. these are those two adorable dots on top of a, o and u. Typically these become ä,ö,ü, additional three alphabets in German and in Swiss German. Do not ask me to pronounce them correctly, I simply cant. My German teacher used to exaggerate his facial movements to make us understand the difference in sound of this holy trinity of German language but every time he did it, it just cracked me up.. I never knew if it was his comical face or the sound of those alphabets.. but I just could not stop giggling inside my belly and trying hard not to blurt out laughing loud or fall off my chair in my bout of epileptic laughter... to be honest, I never attempted to pronounce those ä,ö and ü. Why should I? They were having party inside my imaginative brain... and felt no need to enter this world through my primitive vocalization.. I was also happy to play with them in my brain and have a bash, a creative bash...
but written words is a different story... I can express myself better in written words, even thoughts or sounds that I would shy away from vocalizing through my throat, flow effortlessly through my written words.. and so do Umlaute.. For example, my most favorite and first learned Swiss German word is 'Schlüsselblüemli'.. what a beautiful word!!! It sounds like a musical note to my ear but I cant pronounce it. So I just bug my friends to say this word to me again and again like a child pestering his mom to continue reading a bed time story and refusing to sleep.. But I write the word 'Schlüsselblüemli' as often as I like. I not only like writing the word Rösti, I also eat it with great joy every single time.. I play with Umalute in my words... because they look like little persons to me..
let me explain what I mean.. Imagine each alphabet is a person, a little person.. what Swiss German will describe as Männlli, may be a personalli is a better word but I don't know if that exists. ... so each alphabet has also a personality of its own.. some are naughty, some are geeky, some are bit depressive, some are always ready to play, some are snobbish, some are shy and some are obsessive compulsive.. now imagine my ä,ö and ü.. to me they look like little naughty but friendly aliens.. with little antennae on their heads to communicate with their world... or little angels with a halo over their head, or just prankster kids pulling tricks on poor souls like me who are terrible at phonating all these hard sounds of foreign language...
but I imagine these three to be like me somehow... for example, I am very sure that their antennae start beeping crazy in joy and excitement, even turn green and blue when they see Rösti or chocolate muffins or potato chips or any tasty vegetarian food any hour of the day... they get all mushy and humble when they see a beautiful sunset, new leaves of spring, or a tiny wild flower.. they cry while reading a letter from a friend or watching a movie or enjoying a book.. they also feel sad and struggle to express their sadness and instead start fanatically organizing something at hand... they can be pleased easily and they can break into an ear to ear banana smile at smallest of a joy coming their way... I like these little special characters because I can relate to them and they give me a means of expression of my own kind... so I use them generously as I go about my way in attempts to learn the language and smile along with them.. I leave them behind me as a trademark, just the way we all leave a mark, a legacy behind us in every person, every object we interact with in our life time... and I amuse myself when idle by imagining various tricks my ä,ö and ü could pull on me... and trust me they are very very naughty and funny and crazy when it comes to pulling tricks... and they also have nonverbal communication strategy through size of those dots, colors and distance between the two dots. Everything has a meaning and deciphering that meaning is no less than scholarly work that I do for earning a living...
So I leave you all with a line rich in Umläüte.
Häve ä beütifül weekend...
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