{"id":6535,"date":"2015-09-03T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T09:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=6535"},"modified":"2017-11-21T15:08:54","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T15:08:54","slug":"untranslatable-german-words-rabeneltern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/untranslatable-german-words-rabeneltern\/","title":{"rendered":"Untranslatable German Words: Rabeneltern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Welcome to another edition of German untranslatable words, dedicated to teaching you quirky German words, their meanings, and how to use them!<\/p>\n

Today the word is die Rabeneltern.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Ravens'<\/a>

Photo: ronald-mead on flickr.com under CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

What does Rabeneltern literally translate to?<\/strong>
\nThe German compound noun Rabeneltern is made up of the words der Rabe<\/em> (raven) + die Eltern<\/em> (parents).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What does Rabeneltern mean?
\n<\/strong>Rabeneltern describes bad or neglectful parents. You can also use it to describe a specific parent:<\/p>\n

Die Rabenmutter<\/strong> \u2013 bad or \u2018raven\u2019 mother
\nDer Rabenvater<\/strong> \u2013 bad or \u2018raven\u2019 father<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But why ravens?
\n<\/strong>The association with the Rabe could be because since ancient times, ravens have had a bad rep as parents, as they have been known to neglect their young. Furthermore, in western culture ravens have long been symbols of bad luck and death. These are all possible reasons for the reference to ravens in Rabeneltern!<\/p>\n

On a side note, many of you will be familiar with Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s The Raven<\/em><\/strong>. Here is a verse from it in English, followed by German:<\/p>\n

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
\nBy the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
\n“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
\nGhastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore –
\nTell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
\nQuoth the raven “Nevermore.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Doch das schwarze Tier verf\u00fchrte, weil es sich so eitel zierte, Meine K\u00fcmmernis zum L\u00e4cheln, und ich sagte ungef\u00e4hr: “Ist dein Helmbusch auch geschoren, scheinst du doch als Held geboren, Von der D\u00fcsternis erkoren, flogst Du weit vom Nachtland her, Sag, welch ist dein edler Name von des Pluto Nachtland her?”
\nSprach der Rabe: “Nimmermehr.”<\/em><\/p>\n

(German translation by Manfred Uhlig and Ole T\u00f6rner)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019d like to read the whole poem in German then click here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

How would you use Rabeneltern in a sentence?<\/strong>
\nSogar Rabeneltern w\u00fcrden so was nicht tun!<\/em>
\nEven raven parents wouldn\u2019t do something like that!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the nearest English equivalent to Rabeneltern?
\n<\/strong>There isn\u2019t a word as cool as Rabeneltern in English to describe bad parents, so I\u2019m not even going to try! But if you do know of one (in any language), do let us all know in the comments!<\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting article<\/a> about the use of the term Rabenmutter in Germany, and how it is used in a derogatory way in the workplace to describe career-minded women who are \u2018abandoning\u2019 their duties as a mother.<\/p>\n

What do you think of this word?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! Welcome to another edition of German untranslatable words, dedicated to teaching you quirky German words, their meanings, and how to use them! Today the word is die Rabeneltern. What does Rabeneltern literally translate to? The German compound noun Rabeneltern is made up of the words der Rabe (raven) + die Eltern (parents)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95131,376023,337679],"class_list":["post-6535","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-german-language","tag-language","tag-untranslatable-german"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6535"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9273,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions\/9273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}