I don’t think English speakers have developed the necessary throat muscles to pronounce either of these words correctly, although I think I came close once when I almost choked on a cashew. I just thought it was funny that one letter made the difference for two words that seemed to have nothing to do with each other. I lived in the Netherlands for a few months and the only words I remember (besides the numbers 1 through 5 and thank you) are Slagboom (toll gate) and Slagroom (whipped cream). As guttural as German sounds, it has nothing on Dutch, which some Germans say is not actually a language but a throat disease.The German word for exit is Ausfahrt, which is funny for obvious reasons.Nothing says luxury like a name that sounds like it’s the skin disease capital of the world. The economy model was called the Trabant, which doesn’t sound that funny but the upscale model was called the Wartburg. In the old East Germany they made two models of cars.And it’s just funny because, as my daughter says, “it’s exactly how you would imagine the Germans would say rainbow.” The word they use to describe one of nature’s prettiest sights sounds like someone clearing their throat. But, there’s billions more people in the world speaking other languages. So, that means most of use the words cat, kitten, and meow, when it comes to our kitties. Regenbogen is the German word for rainbow. When including both native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language in the world.The State Department spokesman released a statement calling the launch “a troubling and provocative escalation that the United States takes seriously.” Or at least we would take seriously if the missiles weren’t called No-dong. Just a few days ago those crazy North Koreans launched a couple of missiles into the waters off the Korean peninsula. Everybody admits that the names of the Korean missiles are hysterical. It’s just that some foreign words are funny. Of course this doesn’t mean that English is a superior language and it doesn’t reflect negatively on the speakers of other languages (no matter how silly their little languages may sound). If you are a native English speaker like myself you will notice that there are some words in other languages that just sound funny.
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