Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 June 17

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June 17

Seeking a German to English translation of part of a video

Can someone please translate into English the conversation involving the captain and someone else, from 0:34 into this video clip, up until about 0:57? Or at least give me a rough idea of what it's all about. Is he talking to Air Traffic Control. Does it have anything to do with the song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvzeXXdunsI&t=28s I am familiar with the song, and translations of its words are readily available elsewhere. HiLo48 (talk) 00:23, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Ladies and gentlemen ... (garbled) ... on the way from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro ... (something about) Condor, this is a special anniversary ... we have prepared a small surprise, so, observe what our flight attendants are doing as these are preparing you for Brasil... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 06:15, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. HiLo48 (talk) 07:46, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I didn't even know Bayrodance was a thing... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 14:40, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

"Ladies and Gentlemen, hello and welcome aboard the Condor Boeing 767 on the way from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro. I am [garbled], the captain. And Condor is 60 years old this year and that is a very special anniversary. On our flight to Brazil we came up with a small surprise for you. So just pay attention to what our flight attendants are doing because they are going to put you in the mood for Brazil." (Condor is a German airline.) -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 14:12, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Past-related and future-related words with no counterparts

Some words related to the past have an equivalent for the future. For example, the future equivalent of "yesterday" is "tomorrow", while the single-word future equivalent of "ago" is "hence" (although we often use "years from now" rather than "years hence") and the future equivalent of "earlier" is "later".

But are there past-related words with no future counterpart, or future-related words with no past counterpart? GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 01:49, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

In English, some words that refer to the past with no direct future-related counterpart include erstwhile and today's vocabulary word-of-the-day: whilom (among others).

Btw, there are tenseless languages, (arguably) including Hopi language (see: Hopi time controversy) as well as Yucatec Maya language^[1] and (maybe) West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut).^[2]

136.54.99.98 (talk) 03:14, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

136.54.99.98 -- If aspect is considered separate from tense, then there are lots of languages whose verb system has mainly aspectual contrasts (starting with Biblical Hebrew and Qur'anic Arabic). However, if by "tenseless language" you mean one that has no real way to refer to events occurring in the past or future, then such languages do not exist (despite Whorf)... AnonMoos (talk) 05:33, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Future counterparts of erstwhile could include "to be", "intended", and "proposed".--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 00:55, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

The verb to expect means "to predict or believe that something will happen some time in the future". I can't think of a verb that means "to predict or believe that something has happened some time in the past". Also, although we have hindsight as a counterpart to foresight, and there is a verb to foresee meaning "to see beforehand", there is no verb *to hindsee for the sense "to see afterwards".  --Lambiam 09:16, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Predictably, I have to chime in with the word retrognosis. This is of course the opposite of prognosis.

Wiktionary's Citations tab is usually empty, but I've found this word used once in The Lancet and twice by Stanislaw Lem.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:31, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Lambiam -- The words retrodict and retrodiction exist, and astronomers speak of Precovery... -- AnonMoos (talk) 10:07, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Indians have apparently coined the verb "prepone", as in "Next week's cricket game has been preponed for tomorrow.". 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 14:33, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Definitely. I had to stifle a chuckle the first time I heard that from an Indian colleague. It was immediately clear what they meant, but is not a "normal" English term. (I guess it is now!) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:36, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Postdiction?--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 22:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

That could be what the Procrastinor's Club does at the end of the year, when they make predictions for the year that has just passed. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:36, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

"I expect he got it wrong" is perfectly good English. The 1990 Oxford dictionary of current English (which came into my possession this morning) says:

regard as likely, assume as future event or occurrence; look for as due (I expect co-operation); colloq. think, suppose; be expecting colloq. be pregnant.

I wouldn't describe my example as "colloquial." 2A00:23C6:2417:3101:3CC6:C1B0:3BFF:3DE2 (talk) 15:51, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

I interpret it, though, as short for, "I expect that it will turn out he got it wrong".  --Lambiam 21:45, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

I can't think of a future equivalent of 'ancient', that would mean 'pertaining to very far in the future'. -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 09:55, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Is it true 2 of the fake words in the "fatal joke" became real German words?

If the one I heard this from wasn't pulling my leg then what were the 2 words? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:10, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I'm not aware of that, but at the risk of getting me hospitalised for several weeks do tell me which words those might be. --Wrongfilter (talk) 17:15, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

"Wenn" and "ist" are both German words, I think. Deor (talk) 17:24, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

But they were words before the sketch, did any become words some time between the sketch and now? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:30, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I am a native speaker of German and none of the fake words are cromulent. —Kusma (talk) 17:44, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I believe John Cleese actually is fluent in German, but I guess real German wasn't thought to add much to the sketch... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 18:26, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

I might have been wrong, apparently, it was just that Cleese and Palin were good enough to fake their German for television... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 18:34, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

No, none that made the dictionary. The late Konrad Duden III, better known as "der kleine Duden", apparently attempted to add one of the words to a supplement to a major German dictionary but died while penning down a quotation that used the word.  --Lambiam 19:07, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Do you know which word? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:15, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Post-war, the Germans ruled with an irony first. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 19:20, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Don't mention the war.--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 00:31, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Did someone mention the war? -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 14:01, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

It's a Fawlty Towers / John Cleese joke. Deor (talk) 15:45, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

I know. Mine was an extension. (I am German, therefore one of the people in whose presence they should not have mentioned the war.) -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 15:53, 18 June 2023 (UTC)