debka_notion: (Default)
debka_notion ([personal profile] debka_notion) wrote2010-02-03 08:14 am

Obscure Or Obvious?

Do you know what a doppelganger is? More accurately, how troubled should I be that many of my rabbinical school classmates a. don't know what a doppelganger is, and b. try to spell it as two words?

Just a thought from the insane place in my mind that is me trying to avoid exams...

[identity profile] shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com 2010-02-03 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
In German, ä is pronounced exactly as if there were an e in its place. This includes the diphthong pattern äu, which is oy just like eu. So while in that language the name Karen would be pronounced KAH-ren, Kären is something like KEH-ren, which is actually closer to the way English speakers (especially Midwesterners) say the name.