Use of term 'Gadgetbahn'

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...exeter-via-okehampton-should-be-built.221942/

More especially, since we are no longer members of a certain European organisation, why do certain website members persist in using Germanic phraseology when making posting submissions on this website?

Not everyone who might be following a thread has the knowledge to comprehend what is being said in cases such as those. Is the English language not sufficiently evolved to describe what is being said in cases such as those?

 

[30907]

More especially, since we are no longer members of a certain European organisation, why do certain website members persist in using Germanic phraseology when making posting submissions on this website?

Can you enlighten us as to the German phraseology that offends? I have spotted one hybrid word in this thread which was new to me (I have fluent German) but explained in the context.
(BTW we have a number of members whose first language isn't English...)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Can you enlighten us as to the German phraseology that offends? I have spotted one hybrid word in this thread which was new to me (I have fluent German) but explained in the context.
(BTW we have a number of members whose first language isn't English...)

Glad to oblige. Look as the last word in the first sentence in posting # 59 on this thread.....Gadgetbahn

 

[30907]

Glad to oblige. Look as the last word in the first sentence in posting # 59 on this thread.....Gadgetbahn

Thought that was it. Apparently an English invention/borrowing and first evidenced in 2017. Pretty obscure but barely German.

Explained as a gondola - oops, Italian for small cable car cabin

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thought that was it. Apparently an English invention/borrowing and first evidenced in 2017. Pretty obscure but barely German.

Explained as a gondola - oops, Italian for small cable car cabin

I note you stated that you are fluent in German, so non-English words with a "-bahn" suffix would not be a surprise to you, whereas to others without your specialised language skill in German might wonder why the attempt was made to part-use that particular language, especially as the explanation in English is perfectly understandable to comprehend.

I too have certain language skills, but as a Classics scholar, Latin and Greek, with also passable Assyrian, I would rather use the English word or phrase. You would be somewhat disquieted if I were to refer as something off-topic as "Non de quibus". Latin phraseology is used in certain professions in this country.

 

[Starmill]

I would rather use the English word or phrase.

Why should anyone care what you would rather? The term correctly appeared in double quotes in the post you're taking issue with because it's a second-order reference to a 'borrowed word'. It is in previously recorded, albeit uncommon, English usage. It's also a hybrid word which includes a very well known English term 'gadget'.

Even if you didn't understand it from that, it was immediately followed by an explanation as an "aerial ropeway", which provides a lot of the necessary context given the rest of this conversation is about railways as forms of public transport, and the reputation that cableways have as forms of public transport i.e. close to none. Oops! There I go again using a non-English term. Perhaps I should say 'that is' rather than 'i.e' too because otherwise people might not know what I mean?

Finally, if you still didn't understand it, conducting an online search for "gadgetbahn" would have taken you to accurate information about the use of the term in English, and would have consumed a very great deal less of your time than you've subsequently spent here complaining about it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Why should anyone care what you would rather? The term correctly appeared in double quotes in the post you're taking issue with because it's a second-order reference to a 'borrowed word'. It is in previously recorded, albeit uncommon, English usage. It's also a hybrid word which includes a very well known English term 'gadget'.

Even if you didn't understand it from that, it was immediately followed by an explanation as an "aerial ropeway", which provides a lot of the necessary context given the rest of this conversation is about railways as forms of public transport, and the reputation that cableways have as forms of public transport i.e. close to none. Oops! There I go again using a non-English term. Perhaps I should say 'that is' rather than 'i.e' too because otherwise people might not know what I mean?

Finally, if you still didn't understand it, conducting an online search for "gadgetbahn" would have taken you to accurate information about the use of the term in English, and would have consumed a very great deal less of your time than you've subsequently spent here complaining about it.

Firstly, should you be offended by my reference to the German language, may I say here and now that your website signature did not come into this particular equation.

Secondly, the Cambridge English Dictionary gives the definition of the word "gadget" as being .....A small device or machine with a particular purpose.

That explanation does include the word "small", so how small would the arial ropeway have to be to conform to the dictionary definition?

 

[yorkie]

Firstly, should you be offended by my reference to the German language...

I doubt anyone is offended, but I think some of us are quite baffled by your posts in this thread (which I had to move out of the Okehampton thread)

 

[Starmill]

That explanation does include the word "small", so how small would the arial ropeway

Smaller than other forms of public transport? The analogy certainly fits in this case. An aerial tramcar or 'gondola' is certainly very much smaller than a two car class 150 as might be found on the line between Plymouth and Gunnislake.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Well, if we're to expunge all loan words from the English language, at least dictionaries will be smaller!

 

[edwin_m]

Perhaps someone can suggest a word that has been in the English language since Anglo-Saxon (err, wait...) times that means a transit system that uses advanced technology but isn't particularly practicable. Failing that it's a useful bit of terminology.

 

[TheEdge]

If you are so opposed to the use of Germanic language on this forum I suppose we'd better expunge the use of all Germanic language from the website.

Mae'n debyg bod hynny'n gadael Cymraeg ac Albanwyr Gaeleg fel yr unig ieithoedd brodorol derbyniol yn Ynysoedd Prydain y gallwn eu defnyddio yma.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

If there is one German word many English-speaking people know, it could be 'Autobahn'. Besides, English, like other languages, borrows or 'steals' words from many other languages.

I love learning new words, in whatever language.

 

[D365]

More especially, since we are no longer members of a certain European organisation, why do certain website members persist in using Germanic phraseology when making posting submissions on this website?

I'm not sure how our exit from the European Union can be used as a means to influence the writing of "certain website members".

 

[The exile]

Incidentally, I would suspect that the wo/man on the Frankfurt (or should that be Francfort - if we're to avoid all Germanisms if an English alternative [however outdated] exists?) omnibus would be as foxed by the term "Gadgetbahn" than the average RUK reader - quite possibly more so.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Message to all contributors on this thread.

Under advice, I withdrew at an early stage from this abstracted thread and the only time that I knew that someone had quoted me was by the fact that I received an "alert". Since two of these "alerts" have been made today, I have made this posting on the thread to inform all concerned and therefore, I will not be making any posting submissions in response to any "alerts"