h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'keller' is indeed the german word for cellar

'kælder' is the danish word for the same (and pronounced almost (yet not entirely) like the german 'keller')

and i would of course be very *very* surprised if the word 'cellar' was not brought to the british isles by the anglosaxons



oh, and the 'cel' in celtic sounds very much like my first name

But here in Boston, we have a basketball team that pronounces the "c" in "Celtic" like the "c" in "cellophane."

oh dear, how very un-celtic

Apart from the football club, using the S pronunciation in Celtic seems to be a foreign thing.

It's almost as strange to the ear as hearing scottish lochs spoken of as locks. The ch should be a throat sound. Like a hhh sound but with the back of your tongue pushed up towards the back of your throat or stiffened.

Does Danish have a lot of silent Ds? Should we call you 'aynish?

we do. for instance i told you about 'kælder' (danish) and 'keller' (german), didn't i?

the 'd' in 'kælder' is silent, the word is almost pronounced like the german word - or your english 'cellar' - but with a k-sound instead of a s-sound

we don't have the scottish 'ch' in danish, but he have something similar in german

i grew up with both german and danish so i have no problem, but most danes do

funny thing is both germans and danes have problems with your 'th' - in spite of the danes using it in the middle of words like 'gade' (ga-the = street). starting a word with 'th' is difficult, probably more so for the germans who don't use 'th' at all

and this concludes todays lesson

I don't understand much German, but I've sung a lot of music that was set to German texts. I have had no contact at all with Danish.
Was Kjerkegaard Danish? I figured out that the "j" would be silent in that name.

Well, according to our captain's name (which may not be a good general rule I dont know) the j would be pretty much silent, so it would be pronounced: Kerkeh-gar?

I hope you're not charging us for our lessons here cap!

He will probably deduct it from our share of the plunder on our next raid.

I cant believe you actually get a share.

relax, robyn, you don't

kierkegaard is pronounced keer-ke-gorr

the word literally means churchyard, by the way. since it is a family name its spelling has not been changed. if not we would now spell it kirkegård.

oh and yes, kierkegaard was danish, paulh

A very important figure in philosophy.

that he was, but his personal life was a bit of a mess, i believe

That's true of *many* great people.

I dont know *anyone* like that.

I know plenty, but the captain isn't one of them.

Though I didn't mean to imply that captain wasn't great.

In the dark of the new moon the ghost glows eerily and sets up a low moan. Ohhhhhhhhhhh.////aaeh, He rattles his chains and flys about.
he thinks of all the Pirates living and dead that he has associated with.

thank you paulh

i'm not implying that i am great

furthermore i'm not implying that my personal life isn't a mess

it may seem so to some

i have no complaints though