back to article Language-mangling Germans fling open Handygate to selfie-snapping whistleblowers

The suffix "-Gate" has been honoured as the German language's "Anglicism of the Year", having recently resurged in Germany more than 40 years after the Watergate scandal spawned the popular, if awkward, English tack-on. -Gate saw off strong competition from "Whistleblower", "Hashtag", "Fake" and, inevitably, the celebrated " …

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  1. Gwaptiva
    Stop

    Don't you start, El Reg

    Please please please do not lose your position as one of the last bastions of proper journalism by quoting The Local. It's not big and it's not clever. Before you know, you'll be copy/pasting press releases and making shouty headlines about immigrants...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    -gate is a stupid prefix and anyone who uses it in English or German ist eine Fotse,

    1. Thecowking

      It's doubly bad because it's a suffix.

      1. Richard 120

        I think it's okay

        as a prefix,

        gateway, gatecrasher, gatehouse, gatepost, gatekeeper (I am the gatekeeper, you are the keymaster)

        um, gateaux?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I think it's okay

          > as a prefix,

          Except that your examples do not refer to use as a prefix (which has not so far been attested), but merely as the first element of a composite noun.

      2. Old Handle
        Headmaster

        What about lichgate?

        That's a real word, isn't it? Although I guess it could also refer to a scandal wherein a politician has been revealed as an undead wizard.

    2. 's water music

      > -gate is a stupid prefix and anyone who uses it in English or German ist eine Fotse

      I sorta felt inclined to make an exception for the meta-scandal surrounding the police handling of the investigation into the scandal of the alleged name calling by Andrew Mitchell over access by bicycle to the Downing Street gates: Gategategate but only as a sub-head gag

    3. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Good job you got the spelling wrong on that one!

      1. Someone Else Silver badge
        Coat

        I suspect you meant "ist einer Fotz"?

        1. Subtilior

          "ist eine Fotz", unless you're going for the genitive or dative for some reason

        2. Arthur Dent

          Or perhaps even "ist eine Fotze" ?

    4. cortland

      Wassergeht?

  3. Gordon 10
    Thumb Up

    Such a refreshing language

    Unlike the french who either dont try hard enough when adopting a new word le computer or try too hard that nobody cares - l'ordinateur, you've got to hand(y) it to the Germans.

    Handy has always raised a snigger from my inner Finbar Saunders. Handy-gate conjours full scale Fnnarrr Fnarrss from me.

    I suspect they know it too. Its all linked to the same gene that makes them love Benny Hill.

    And when they are stuck for a word - simply contatenate 10 descriptive words together - splendid!

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Such a refreshing language

      I hate that German thing for concatenating words. Obviously learning to pronounce longer words is harder than short ones, as you've got more chance of stumbling before you get to the end.

      But my real problem was my reading glasses. Which actually have a very limited field of vision, in order to get the correct level of magnification without distortion. In fact I can't quiute read magnification without moving my head, as I can only see up to the 'o' - so that's about 12 letters of vision in one go. 12 letters barely even gets you started on some German compound words.

      Can I sue Germany under the disability discrimination act? I'll take €1 from each of them to make the case go away...

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: Such a refreshing language

        I remember getting a German made model helicopter. The word for one of the parts spanned the whole page.

        1. cortland

          Re: Such a refreshing language

          Moeglicherweise Feurausgbrachendeungehuer, ja? (Heh)

  4. Richard Tobin

    If Watergate happened now...

    ... they'd have to call it Watergategate.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If Watergate happened now...

      We've already got "Downing Street Gategate"

      1. ravenviz Silver badge

        Re: If Watergate happened now...

        Try Torpenhow Hill for size.

  5. Turtle

    Impressed.

    "Language-mangling Germans fling open Handygate to selfie-snapping whistleblowers"

    I thought this was a really opaque headline. I was actually kind of impressed.

  6. thosrtanner

    Languages are good for you

    Nearly had a caffeine accident when reading that translating "fake-" into idiomatic English ends up with a latin prefix

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So the Euro Crisis would be called

    über Shitstorm?

  8. D@v3
    Stop

    -gate

    The whole *-gate thing has always pissed me off.

    No part of The Watergate scandal involved either Water, or more importantly Gates, so why the hell should all future scandals be labelled with something that had nothing to do with what they are being named after.

  9. Peter 39

    "Handy" - WTF

    How on earth did the Germans choose "Handy" as their term for a cell phone? It's puzzled me for a long time but no-one there seems to know. Or maybe they're too embarrassed to tell?

    1. Thecowking

      Re: "Handy" - WTF

      In Malaysia and Singapore, mobile phones (cell phones to our cousins across the pond) are called handphones.

      I presume it's a similar thing in Germany, only abbreviated.

      1. DiViDeD

        Re: "Handy" - WTF

        OK, I know I'm a bit of a pedant, but how can 'Handy' be an abbreviation of 'Hand'?

        1. cortland

          Re: "Handy" - WTF

          "...Handie-Talkie, which most of us have come to accept as being an integral part of our amateur radio inventory today, celebrated its 74th birthday during 2014. Like many of the other technological advances of that time, the handie-talkie was conceived and born of the Second World War. "

          http://www.clarkmasts.net.au/origins%20of%20the%20handie%20talkie/origins%20of%20the%20handie%20talkie%20-%20page%201.htm

        2. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

          @DIVIDeD: Re: "Handy" - WTF

          Simple: "Handy" is a new noun made by abbreviating the adjective "handtragbare" ("handheld").

    2. Gamrith

      Re: "Handy" - WTF

      It's Suabian. When the first mobes appeard in Southern Germany in the vicinity of Heidelberg or Stuttgart, people were always asking "Hen die denn koi Koabel dra'???", which of course got contracted to Hendie. However, that didn't sit well with the rest of Germany which assumed by dint of pronunciation that ist was an expression of the US Soldiers that were stationed in that area at that time.

      The rest is history.

      Georg

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: "Handy" - WTF

        Well, I smiled.

        But I guess the rest of the world needs to know that the Jormans have been taught to pronounce "a" as "e" so it's "hendy" which is even weirder. Other strange things "u" gets pronounced as "a" and "g" as "k". So, in the local news they're often talking about "blocking about the apdates to WatsEpp on the hendy".

        Even though I've lived here for years it's still the linguistic equivalent of fingernails being scraped on the blackboard.

      2. Mexflyboy
        Paris Hilton

        Re: "Handy" - WTF

        I find that theory less plausible than the theory re: Motorola's Handie Talkie radios in G.I.s' hands circa WW2....

        http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t42498.html

      3. cortland

        Re: "Handy" - WTF

        Yes, and so is "Goetz von Berlichingen!" Don't try that on anyone unless you're looking for a fight.

    3. mmeier

      Re: "Handy" - WTF

      Actualy Homo Sapiens Germanensis did not choose (or use) the word. Mobiltelefon is the term.

      It is only Homo Egoboosterensis and Home Incrowdis that use "Hääändy". And there are debates wether those (together with Politicus and MBAensis) really belong to the Homo group, some scholars putting them in the Pan group.

    4. Christian Berger

      It was some marketing accident

      Multiple vendors sold the same hand held analogue mobile phone.

      So there was the SEM340:

      http://www.oebl.de/C-Netz/Geraete/SEL/SEM340/SEM340.html

      The Pocktel

      http://www.oebl.de/C-Netz/Geraete/SEL/SEM340/SEM340BDH.JPG

      The Post, which also ran the network, called it the "Pocky".

      So for Bosch there was only one name left, "Handy C9":

      http://www.oebl.de/C-Netz/Geraete/Bosch/C9/Bosch_C9.html

      The name later was used for all hand-held mobile phones.

    5. teebie

      Re: "Handy" - WTF

      In typical German fashion, 'handy' was originally a long composite noun. The word is short for Handapparat-GerätfürdieKommunikationmitMenschendieweitweg-wieBarry-HalloBarry-ohnedieNotwendigkeitvonSchreiensind, which roughly translates to "Handset-based device for communicating with people who are far away-like Barry-Hello Barry-without the necessity of shouting"

      So who gave the true definition of 'Handy'? - it's got to be there somewhere...

      1. mmeier

        Re: "Handy" - WTF

        Na try:

        Tragbares Kurzdistanz Sende-Empfangs Modul für selbstvermittelndes, zellenbasierende Funktelefonnetz mit automatischer, Empfangsstärken-basierender Zellenwahl

  10. Chuck Kraisinger

    Not to mention:

    Obama apocalypso care ageddon gate.

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