German Nitpicking

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

As a German speaker, the proper spelling and actually
proper word to use in German would be:

Der geschlossene Gu (umlaut over u)terwaggon or Gu
(umlaut over u)tterwagon.

Gu(umlaut over u)terwagen is the classic
boxcar/freight car. I do not see that the adjectives
of covered would be required. Unless you wanted to
specify that there were non-covered box cars as well.

There is no such word as Gueterwagon. Yes, even in the
3 dialects I speak. At least, last I spoke it, as it
were.......

Mark Combs

--- nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:

 > Sincerest apologies to Bill Sellers but, since I was
 > the one who asked the
 > question about the 40&8s, I feel compelled to
 > correct the record.
 >
 > The "Merci" cars are French, not British, and are,
 > therefore, decidedly not
 > "goods wagons" at all . One finds "goods wagons"
 > only in the UK and in some
 > of their former colonies (except here!,) but
 > certainly not on the continent.
 > In France, the 40&8s were/are "Wagon-Couvert" and in
 > Germany, for another
 > example, a "boxcar" is a "gedeckte (or) geshlossene
 > Gueterwagon."  Boxcars
 > are called different things in all the other myriad
 > European languages of
 > course. One must not presume British English is
 > "universally" used.
 >
 > Sorry, Bill, but being a foreign language teacher
 > and uncontrollable nit
 > picker myself, I could not resist the correction.
 >
 > Albert Burckard
 >
 > ---- Original Message -----
 > From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
 > To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
 > Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 9:44 PM
 > Subject: 40 & 8 box cars.
 >
 >
 > > Not to be nitpicking fellows, but in England and
 > on the continent there is
 > > no such thing as a boxcar.   They are universally
 > known as goods wagons.
 >    Bill Sellers
 > >
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Man who loves Whitby WV