{"id":8573,"date":"2017-07-27T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=8573"},"modified":"2017-07-26T21:41:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T21:41:21","slug":"the-curiosity-of-the-german-word-hochzeit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-german-word-hochzeit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curiosity of the German Word &#8220;Hochzeit&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the series of curious German words, we look at words that for some reason don&#8217;t make sense. Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-german-word-weg\/\">Curious German Word Weg<\/a>, for example.\u00a0The word\u00a0<em>Hochzeit\u00a0<\/em>(wedding, literally &#8220;high time&#8221;) is pretty common. A wedding! Nothing special on face value. But pronounce it:\u00a0<em>Hochzeit<\/em>.\u00a0<em>Hoch\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Zeit<\/em> put together. Do you notice something?<a href=\"http:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/4TET084JWaA\" aria-label=\"Download\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter \"  width=\"1131\" height=\"754\" \/ alt=\"Download\" src=\"http:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/4TET084JWaA\/download\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Pronunciation<\/h2>\n<p>The pronunciation of\u00a0<em>Hochzeit\u00a0<\/em>makes no sense if you think about\u00a0<em>Hoch\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Zeit<\/em>:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-playlist wp-audio-playlist wp-playlist-light\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-current-item\"><\/div>\n\t\t<audio controls=\"controls\" preload=\"none\" width=\"640\"\n\t\t\t><\/audio>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-next\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-prev\"><\/div>\n\t<noscript>\n\t<ol>\n\t\t<li><a href='https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/Hochzeit-kurz.mp3'>Hochzeit (kurz)<\/a><\/li>\t<\/ol>\n\t<\/noscript>\n\t<script type=\"application\/json\" class=\"wp-playlist-script\">{\"type\":\"audio\",\"tracklist\":true,\"tracknumbers\":true,\"images\":true,\"artists\":true,\"tracks\":[{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/Hochzeit-kurz.mp3\",\"type\":\"audio\/mpeg\",\"title\":\"Hochzeit (kurz)\",\"caption\":\"\",\"description\":\"\\\"Hochzeit (kurz)\\\". Released: 2017.\",\"meta\":{\"year\":\"2017\",\"length_formatted\":\"0:01\"},\"image\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64},\"thumb\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64}}]}<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\t\n<p>In fact, there is a way to pronounce\u00a0<em>Hochzeit\u00a0<\/em>that\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">makes<\/span> sense, but it has a different meaning. This rather uncommonly used word means &#8220;heyday&#8221; or &#8220;golden age&#8221;, or &#8220;hausse&#8221;. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">That<\/span>\u00a0<em>Hochzeit<\/em>\u00a0is pronounced like this:<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-playlist wp-audio-playlist wp-playlist-light\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-current-item\"><\/div>\n\t\t<audio controls=\"controls\" preload=\"none\" width=\"640\"\n\t\t\t><\/audio>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-next\"><\/div>\n\t<div class=\"wp-playlist-prev\"><\/div>\n\t<noscript>\n\t<ol>\n\t\t<li><a href='https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/Hochzeit-lang.mp3'>Hochzeit (lang)<\/a><\/li>\t<\/ol>\n\t<\/noscript>\n\t<script type=\"application\/json\" class=\"wp-playlist-script\">{\"type\":\"audio\",\"tracklist\":true,\"tracknumbers\":true,\"images\":true,\"artists\":true,\"tracks\":[{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/Hochzeit-lang.mp3\",\"type\":\"audio\/mpeg\",\"title\":\"Hochzeit (lang)\",\"caption\":\"\",\"description\":\"\\\"Hochzeit (lang)\\\". Released: 2017.\",\"meta\":{\"year\":\"2017\",\"length_formatted\":\"0:01\"},\"image\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64},\"thumb\":{\"src\":\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/audio.svg\",\"width\":48,\"height\":64}}]}<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\t\n<p>As you can hear, the wedding has a short\u00a0<em>o<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>Hoch<\/em>, whereas the heyday has a long\u00a0<em>o\u00a0<\/em>in\u00a0<em>Hoch<\/em>. The latter makes sense, because\u00a0<em>Hoch\u00a0<\/em>by itself is also pronounced with a long\u00a0<em>o<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>So the question that comes up is:<\/p>\n<h2>But why, though?<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_8577\" style=\"width: 1030px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668.jpg\" aria-label=\"IMG 20170726 222833668 1024x768\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8577\" class=\" wp-image-8577\"  alt=\"\" width=\"1020\" height=\"765\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-1024x768.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-350x262.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Long vs short<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As in many cases, the reason (probably) lies in the historical development of the word\u00a0<em>Hochzeit<\/em>. Back in the day, the word referred to several important religious celebrations throughout the year, so it was an umbrella term. Marriage was only one of them. Somehow, however,\u00a0<em>Hochzeit\u00a0<\/em>also came to be known simply as the sub-term of a wedding. The theory goes that in order to keep a difference between these two. The second meaning, with the long\u00a0<em>o<\/em>, remained, because it is not directly related to the celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>However, what is the &#8220;correct&#8221; pronunciation? That is a legitimate question. Only because we are used to\u00a0<em>hoch\u00a0<\/em>being pronounced with a long\u00a0<em>o<\/em> doesn&#8217;t make it the correct way to pronounce it. Compare that with other words that end with two consonants, such as\u00a0<em>Hocker<\/em>, which also has a short\u00a0<em>o<\/em>. Also, there are many words with a short\u00a0<em>o<\/em>, such as\u00a0<em>Loch<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Koch<\/em>,\u00a0<em>doch<\/em>. Curious again is the long\u00a0<em>o\u00a0<\/em>in the place name\u00a0<em>Bochum<\/em>. Why is it long there? But so really,\u00a0<em>hoch<\/em> with a long\u00a0<em>o\u00a0<\/em>has quite a unique position. And still\u00a0<em>Hochzeit\u00a0<\/em>is the only word where\u00a0<em>hoch\u00a0<\/em>is pronounced with a short\u00a0<em>o<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The strange ways that language goes sometimes is hard to explain, and often follows no particular logic. And that makes it so interesting!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are there curious words you would like to have an explanation for? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"262\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-350x262.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-350x262.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/07\/IMG_20170726_222833668-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>In the series of curious German words, we look at words that for some reason don&#8217;t make sense. Check out Curious German Word Weg, for example.\u00a0The word\u00a0Hochzeit\u00a0(wedding, literally &#8220;high time&#8221;) is pretty common. A wedding! Nothing special on face value. But pronounce it:\u00a0Hochzeit.\u00a0Hoch\u00a0and\u00a0Zeit put together. Do you notice something? Pronunciation The pronunciation of\u00a0Hochzeit\u00a0makes no sense&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-german-word-hochzeit\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":8577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[503854,358371,12860],"class_list":["post-8573","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-curious-words","tag-hochzeit","tag-marriage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8573","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\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8573"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8578,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8573\/revisions\/8578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}