>There’s German.

And then there’s dialect.

Potatoes are Kartoffeln.

In Hochdeutsch – High German

They’re also Erdapfel – “earth apples”, which is also what the French call them – Pommes de Terre.

Where Mrs jb hails from, they’re even more linguistically economical.

Erpel

Around here they’re called Grumbeeren.

“Grum” will have come from “Grund” – earth – but “beeren”?

“Beeren” are berries – Erdbeeren (strawberries) Himbeeren (raspberries) Heidelbeeren (blueberries).

Seems like someone got all poetic in the 19th century and said “Well, these ones don’t like apples. They look more like pears.”

Birnen

Grundbirnen.

Grumbeeren

27 Feb This entry was published on 27 February, 2008 at 08:36. It’s filed under Mainz and tagged Language, Market. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.