{"id":9808,"date":"2018-04-19T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=9808"},"modified":"2018-04-14T16:15:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T16:15:49","slug":"the-curiosity-of-the-word-handy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-curiosity-of-the-word-handy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curiosity of the Word “Handy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend, we looked at the word\u00a0USB-Stick<\/em>, a so-called\u00a0Scheinanglizismus\u00a0<\/em>(pseudo-anglicism), an English-looking word, that actually has no, or not the same, meaning in the English language. I thought it would be fun to dive a little deeper into these\u00a0Scheinanglizismen<\/em>. Today, we look at the German word\u00a0Handy<\/em>. Handy? Yes. Handy.<\/p>\n

Previous installments of Curious Words<\/b><\/p>\n

The Curiosity of the Word “Cousin”<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Curiosity of the Word “Hochzeit”<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Curiosity of the Word “USB-Stick”<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Where does it come from?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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A Handie-Talkie (LuckyLouie at Commons.wikimedia.org, public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

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A Walkie-Talkie (LuckyLouie at Commons.wikimedia.org, public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

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*This article<\/a> (though in German), gives an even more extensive explanation! I got much of the information from there.*<\/p>\n

The word\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>has some English origin. In the 1940s, US soldiers used to communicate in military operations with “Walkie-Talkies”\u00a0<\/em>– literally somebody with a backpack (who walks) and another person that uses the device (who talks). An innovation of this was a handheld device that no longer required a backpack. This was very handy, indeed, as one person could do the talking without requiring another person to have this bulky backpack strapped on. And because it was handheld, the\u00a0“Handie-Talkie” became a thing.<\/p>\n

Somehow, walkie-talkie remained the term for the handheld devices too, however.<\/p>\n

When walkie-talkies and other such radio transceivers (Funkger\u00e4te<\/em>) became more commonplace in the 1970s and 1980s, the word\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>popped up more as well. The\u00a0Handycam\u00a0<\/em>was introduced,\u00a0Funkger\u00e4te\u00a0<\/em>got names containing\u00a0Handy<\/em>… But mobile phones did not exist yet. Phones only existed with a fixed line. Or car phones. Even though in English,\u00a0“handy” is an adjective, during this time it became widely known in Germany as a substantive noun –\u00a0das Handy\u00a0<\/em>was born.<\/p>\n

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The Nokia 3310 with German layout, a classic Handy that came out at the turn of the century (Image by Discostu at Commons.wikimedia.org, public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

So when mobile phones became a thing, the English had either “cellular phone” or “mobile phone” on offer.<\/p>\n

“Cellular phone”, which you could translate as\u00a0Zellulartelefon\u00a0<\/em>reminds too much of\u00a0Telefonzelle\u00a0<\/em>(phone booth).<\/p>\n

“Mobile phone”, or\u00a0Mobiltelefon\u00a0<\/em>was widely associated with a car phone, as that was the only way a phone could be mobile at the time. “Mobil” was associated with mobility (Mobilit\u00e4t<\/em>) and\u00a0Automobil\u00a0<\/em>(Automobile), so associating a new product with that would be confusing.<\/p>\n

Many other terms were proposed (such as\u00a0Mobi, Mini, Foni<\/em>).\u00a0Mobiltelefon\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Funktelefon\u00a0<\/em>are too large words for the small devices that they are, so\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>stuck around. In 1996, the Duden first incorporated it in its dictionary.<\/p>\n

Also, what happens in plural? Simple:<\/p>\n

Das Handy; die Handys<\/em><\/p>\n

And so even though\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>has no English equivalent, Germans use this very English-sounding word for cell phone! A real\u00a0Scheinanglizismus<\/em>!<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Are there other German words for it?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Other words for\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>are\u00a0das Mobiltelefon\u00a0<\/em>(mobile phone).\u00a0Das Smartphone\u00a0<\/em>(smart phone) has also become a lot more common in recent years, due to the ascent of the\u00a0smart phone being a new concept with new possibilities, a larger form factor (e.g. larger screens) than traditionally a\u00a0Handy<\/em>.\u00a0However, for its brevity,\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>is still the preferred form in German.<\/p>\n

What do you call a\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>in your language? Is\u00a0Handy\u00a0<\/em>a term used in your language as well? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Last weekend, we looked at the word\u00a0USB-Stick, a so-called\u00a0Scheinanglizismus\u00a0(pseudo-anglicism), an English-looking word, that actually has no, or not the same, meaning in the English language. I thought it would be fun to dive a little deeper into these\u00a0Scheinanglizismen. Today, we look at the German word\u00a0Handy. Handy? Yes. Handy. Previous installments of Curious Words The Curiosity…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":9811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[503854,1856,337679,257573],"class_list":["post-9808","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-curious-words","tag-technology","tag-untranslatable-german","tag-untranslatable-words"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9808","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=9808"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9816,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9808\/revisions\/9816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}