Yellow of the Egg

Content note: This episode contains words and discussions relating to genitals. The words we use to describe parts of our bodies are often reflective of how we feel about these body parts. At the same time, these words we use can also affect how we feel and our relationship to these body parts, a case in point being perhaps the most intimate body parts, the genitals. In German, the word  Scham (&a...

“Words are not just words. We do things with words.” And among the things we can do with words is express our attitude towards something. We can say things in a certain way to express it as a fact, or as something unreal, or to show that we want to be neutral about whether something is true or not. For these purposes and more, we have the subjunctive mood – in German, the Konjunktiv . In this epis...

NOTE: In this episode, I say the following: "In simple terms, an AFAB queen is a cisgender woman who does drag as a drag queen." While AFAB queens are very often cisgender women, and the term is typically used to describe cisgender women doing drag, this is not necessarily the case for everyone. Anyone who does drag and was assigned female at birth can be considered an AFAB queen, and th...

Moving to a new country and starting a new life there is no small undertaking. There are some major changes that you can foresee, like having to get used to a new language, but there are so many smaller, day-to-day differences that you might not see coming and that can catch you off-guard. In this final episode of series 2, I talk to Dana Newman (YouTube "Wanted Adventure"), an American...

South Tyrol is an autonomous, majority German-speaking region in Italy bordering Austria and Switzerland. It's one of the few places outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland where German is an official language, alongside Italian and Ladin. But while these three languages are all recognised today, it was a difficult road to get here - the people of South Tyrol suffered some dark chapters w...

This episode is all about idioms in German! We look at a few German expressions, what they mean and where they come from. What does it mean if you plant someone, if you leave the church in the village, or if you throw yourself over the houses? And when is it good to be punched in the face? I talk to Vanessa Krebs about some of her favourite German idioms and expressions, as well as a couple of her...

How can corporate language contribute to a company’s brand? Why do companies often have at least two different voices that they use to speak to the same customers? And how can organisations deal with the issue of gender-sensitive writing in German, maintaining the balance between inclusion, readability and aesthetics? In this episode I talk to Martin Dunkl , a public relations consultant who speci...

How do people choose a first name for their child in Germany and Austria? What rules are there which determine the names that are allowed? And why has ‘Kevin’ become such an unpopular first name? In this episode I talk to returning guest Frauke Rüdebusch from the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache. We look at some of the most popular first names in Germany right now, which names are likely to be ad...

How much does a language constitute one’s identity? Are you a different person when you speak a different language, or even a different dialect? If you speak multiple languages and dialects, which one is really you? In this episode I talk to Katie Resch, a PhD student at the University of Vienna. We talk about being bilingual, identifying with “Austrianness”, and the question of feeling and soundi...

Harsh. Angry. Rough. These are words that are often used to describe how German sounds. But why do many people have this impression? What about the German language makes it sound so hard? And does German sound different to native speakers than to non-native speakers? In this episode I talk to François Conrad, a researcher and teacher of linguistics at the Leibniz University Hannover. We talk about...

This podcast is normally all about German, but in this episode we're switching things around. This time it's all about English! What is English like as seen through the eyes of a native speaker of German? What are some things we take for granted in English that German speakers might struggle with? And what is it like for an Austrian school student to learn English? In this episode I talk...

Texas German is a peculiar and endangered dialect, and time is running out to research it. What is this variety, and how did it come to be? What do Texas German speakers sound like? And what efforts are being made to preserve and record this dying dialect? In this episode I talk to Hans C. Boas, professor for Germanic Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, and the director of the Texas...

What does it take to create a brand-new, gender-neutral grammar system for German? What do you have to consider when coming up with new language forms? And what is it like to be non-binary while speaking such a strongly gendered language such as German? In this episode I talk to Jona Moro and Noah Frank, who have taken it upon themselves to create a whole new grammatical system for German, the NoN...

Why are there so many anglicisms used in German in the context of talking about the queer community? Is there an equivalent of the singular they in German for non-binary people? And what’s the situation like for queer people in general in countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland? In this first episode of series 2, I talk to Kai Witvrouwen, a radio presenter and host of the podcast Sputni...

Here are some extra bits from series 1 that didn't make it into the original episodes! We talk about how Vienna's rubbish bins communicate with us, what Germanism Lisa Simpson has on her bedroom wall, and the song Lady Gaga never knew she wrote.  Plus I reveal the launch date of series 2 of Yellow of the Egg! Hosted and produced by Luke Green. With special guests: Barbara Soukup, Frauke...

What is the difference between 'Heimat' and 'Zuhause'? Do German speakers think of 'home' differently than English speakers? And what do 'secrets' have to do with 'home'?  In this final episode of series 1, I talk to Sarah Heinz (University of Vienna) about what 'home' means, and how it can be expressed in German, looking at the differenc...

The Duden is undoubtedly the most widely-used, well-known, and prestigious dictionary in the German speaking world, and since its inception, it has grown to include many other kinds of reference work. Over the years, it has also begun to pay attention to other varieties of German beyond the standard German spoken in Germany. But how are these other varieties treated in the Duden? How is the Duden...

The symbol "ß" (Eszett, scharfes "s") is one of the few things that are truly unique about German. But what is it exactly? How do you pronounce it? And how did it come to exist?  In this episode I talk to returning guest Frauke Rüdebusch (Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache) about where this letter came from, when and where it is used, and about the problems that arise because of...

English has a great number of foreign words and loan words in its vast vocabulary, with many of them coming from German. Some of these are more obviously German in origin, like pretzel or zeitgeist , and some of them might not initially seem like they come from German at all, like lager or rainforest .  In this episode I am joined by Robb Knapp ( German English Words ) as we talk about words and p...

German is a gender language, which means that all nouns have a grammatical gender, these being feminine, masculine, and neuter in German. This makes it very tricky to be fully gender-inclusive or gender-neutral in spoken and written German, especially because the masculine gender is so dominant.  In this episode I talk to Maria Pober (University of Vienna) about the gender system in German grammar...

German is full of sounds and consonant clusters that might seem completely alien or unattainable to learners. How do you deal with the pronunciation of Knopf , Eichhörnchen , or Streichholz ? What ways are there for learners to get to grips with these unfamiliar speech sounds?  In this episode I'm joined by Anke Sennema (University of Vienna) as we discuss German speech sounds that might be p...

What are Krisenfrisen? How do you pronounce Quarantäne? What do baby elephants have to do with corona and German?  The coronavirus pandemic has instigated a wave of new vocabulary in German, and has caused the meanings of many existing words and expressions to change. In this episode I talk to Barbara Soukup (University of Vienna) and Frauke Rüdebusch (Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache) about how...

What does it take to learn German? What are some of the tricky parts, and what might be easier, especially for English speakers?  Is accuracy important when it comes to learning German?  In this first episode, I talk to Katie Bray, a learner of German, and Lisa Hlawaty, a secondary school teacher and native speaker of German. We talk about the challenges of learning this notoriously difficult lang...

This is Yellow of the Egg, a podcast exploring the German language. What is the best way to learn German? What has COVID-19 done with the German language? And what on earth is "ß"? We'll be talking about all this and more in this podcast. With special guests every episode, ranging from learners of German to university professors, language teachers to book authors. Let's explore...