This was at the time when the Corona epidemic was at its peak. There was a message in my apartment building’s WhatsApp group in Berlin. On his feet, he wore black socks and Adidas company slippers. In this video, he was stomping on some cardboard boxes with the help of his feet.
In his video, he wrote in German, ‘Canned box in five seconds’ and posted a kiss emoji alongside, ‘If I can do it, so can you.’ are.’
Berliners generally have a reputation for being cold-tempered, blunt, and blunt. And this behavior is cheekily called ‘Berliner Schnauzer which can be translated as ‘Berlin’s tongues’ or ‘nicks’.
A common victim of the ‘Berliner Schnauzer’ attitude of Berliners is outsiders or passers-by in the city when they are told about something they didn’t realize they were doing wrong. are
You may suddenly feel it when you are trying to board the metro that suddenly there is a voice saying ‘First comers out of the metro, then comers.’Whatever the case you could suddenly exhibit what is known as “Berlin Schnauzer” behavior. It’s a harsh circumstance that you don’t want to deal with.
Berliner Schnauzer is a German dialect that was originally only used in and around Berlin. In actuality, it is a dialect that is as fractured as it is different, influenced by working-class attitudes as well as French and Yiddish.
Dr. Peter Rosenberg is a West Berlin-born linguist whose familiarity with Berliner Schnauzers is based on years of study and life experience. They claim that Berlin slang reveals the inspiration behind a remark or your response to a circumstance.
There are undoubtedly distinctions between Hochdeutsche, or High German, and Berliner Schnauzer in terms of sound, grammar, and syntax (the standard German spoken throughout the country)
People don’t often consider language and syntax while talking about Berliner Schnauzers. It is a behavior wholly determined by the way we react to a certain circumstance.
“As it were, Berliner Schnauze is tied in with taking advantage of the secret humor in a circumstance, frequently to the detriment of the crowd’s nobility,” says Rosenberg. And in such a situation outsiders get misunderstood.’
Despite the cultural confusion, the Berliner terrier has been influenced by foreigners and minority cultures for hundreds of years.
Rosenberg says that Berliner Schnauzer and other Germanic dialects like Niederdeutsch, or Low German, have been called archaic forms of the language. It received mixed reviews, with critics claiming that Berliners’ bad temper was to blame.
During the time of the Berlin Wall, the Berliner terrier was additionally common in communist East Berlin, viewed by several within the social class of West Berlin society because of the language of the lower categories.
But Berliner Schnauzers don’t seem to be the merchandise of isolation. Rosenberg mentions many cultural and linguistic influences that have left their mark on this dialect
It also bears traces of French influence from the time of Napoleon’s occupation of Berlin in the early 19th century. So we see words like a boomerang for sick or commode for drawer and toilet or custume which are the result of French influence. It also has an English language component which is the second most spoken language in the city.
Rosenberg says that despite the dialect’s linguistic pluralism, it has not always been well received by outsiders. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is widely regarded as the most influential writer of the German language. He added, “You got to grit your teeth and typically get a bit spoiled simply to stay your head on top of the water.”
An informal survey of Twitter users from cultures with different communication styles and customs agreed that Berliner Schnauzers are often misunderstood as overly aggressive or rude. After all, Berliners are well aware of the schnauzer’s notoriety.
Alessandra Morris grew up in the city. According to him, the Berliner Schnauzer is both a dialect and an attitude. He said: ‘It means being disturbingly direct and brutally honest and free.’
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Sijlunde Toshi moved to Berlin in 1987. But they belong to Franconia, a region in south-central Germany, which is located in the state of Bavaria. Like Morris, she sees the Berliner Schnauzer as a tongue and a demeanor towards life that is normal for Berliners. According to Rosenberg, it could be described as a slap in the face because it is direct, bitter, funny, and cheeky at the same time.
Toshi asserts, “Even if you’ve lived here for decades, you can’t learn the dialect.” One thing is certain: non-Berliners are kept at a distance by Berliner Schnauzers.
He initially described the harsh tone of the Berliner Schnauzers as “terrifying” and a “real culture shock.” Toshi was waiting in a long line at a post office in the Schoenberg neighborhood of Berlin to pick up a package. She claims that the employees of the post office were having a great time as they moved from one counter to the next over a cup of coffee.
An irate elderly woman yelled from behind at the same time, “Translation: What is transpiring here? Should I wait until my funeral?’
Francesca Kohlers moved to Berlin in 2007 after growing up in Colorado. She previously resided in Dublin and Accra. He has considerably more harsh contemplations about Berliner Schnauzers.
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She says: ‘You know how sometimes you make a slightly offensive comment about a stranger? But in Schnauze, instead of mumbling, you say it loud enough that the person you’re commenting about hears it. And all this happens deliberately.
However, not everyone’s Berliner Schnauzer story is a story of rude comments. Rosenberg, for example, has fond memories of Berliner Schnauzers, including a time when she was on the company’s soccer team.
Most of his teammates were manual laborers, and Rosenberg was the only academic on the team. His peers would often ask him what he did academically and end the conversation with the question, ‘Do you have to go there again tomorrow?’
Rosenberg explained that this formulation of the question was a Berliner Schnauzer way of saying ‘what you’re doing is completely superficial (small or insignificant).
“It was a well-packaged phrase,” Rosenberg says with a smile. No one said, ‘Nobody needs linguists’ or ‘Intellectuals are weird people’. He just asked nicely, ‘Do you have to go back there again tomorrow?’ and that’s his normal way of speaking.”
Despite the popularity (or notoriety) of the Berliner Schnauzer, Rosenberg says its use has declined slightly. This reflects the general trend of decline in dialects and regional languages. However, its decline has been accelerated not only by the intermingling of international cultures in Berlin but also by Germans moving to the capital from across the country.
Toshi has also noticed this trend. She says she rarely hears Berliner Schnauzers now. If they hear it somewhere, it’s usually from a bus driver, a craftsman, or a bakery worker. Like Rosenberg, he believes that the decline is due to an increase in residents from outside Berlin.
He said that it is due to language mixing. And the same thing happened to him, but it is not over.
What is happening is that Berliners are using a more understandable language. That is, they are using High German with a regional accent. However, people who grew up in Berlin like Morris say that if addressed in this dialect, it occasionally turns into Berliner Schnauzer on their tongues.
She said: ‘I know Berliner Schnauzers can be very rude, but I appreciate the honesty that comes with it. It describes a large part of Berlin’s character as a city, and I find the style cute most of the time.’
Sentiments like Morris may be keeping the dialect alive.
“You can’t lose it (because) it’s tied to your language identity,” he says.
