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Voltswagen of America

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Re: Voltswagen of America

#551

Post by jessaustin »

sudosteph wrote: post #504
minxomat wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Double-You is just ridiculous in the first place. I cringe a bit every time I have to say "AWS", but that's just because it's much smoother in German.

Do you actually pronounce it like "double-you" (with 3 syllables) in that context? I'm a native speaker from the US South, and hadn't realized this until I read your comment. For me, the "W" always gets shortened to "dub-you" in AWS (or "dubya" if I'm not being picky about it). Standalone, I might pronounce "W" more like "dub-a-you if I'm emphasizing it, but not usually. Anyhow, thanks for pointing this out. I will a…

"AWS" ends up being more like "ay-dub-yes", doesn't it?

Re: Voltswagen of America

#552

Post by kgwgk »

bloak wrote: post #267
nmstoker wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been adopted to a degree. Just like you don't need to say Paris as "Pari" in an imitation of the French pronunciation (which would probably sound rather affected and twee in English if you did) Anyway, let's hope they make reliable electric vehicles (as their combustion engine cars have traditionally been) otherwise people may render it as Faultswagen

Typically the capital city has an English name, which is often not just pronounced differently but also spelt differently from the local name. But for almost every other town English speakers use the same spelling, or a transcription of it, and aim for something like the local pronunciation. So for France, there's "Paris" and "Strasbourg" and that's about it. For Germany, there's "Berlin" and "Munich" and that's abou…

Strasbourg?

Note as well that Turin and Milan are the names in the local (regional) language.

Edit: And Munich is almost identical to Munichen which is the old form of München. Cologne could have been a better example (but it also comes directly from French, like Rome, Florence or Naples).

Re: Voltswagen of America

#554

Post by reader_mode »

Apofis wrote: post #461
lmedinas wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the VW ID4 is a great family car, imo its worth the wait.

Not particularly striking, however.

I'd say the interior looks like someone stuck the cheapest sale parts at a surplus store but I haven't seen the car live.

Having tested latest VW ICE cars when buying a new car a while ago I would be shocked if it's anything but cheap plastics all over the place inside.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#555

Post by azernik »

KaiserPro wrote: post #484
kbenson wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More recently, he has been released on parole after roughly half his term served.[1] Interestingly, the article says: In Germany, inmates can be released after serving two thirds of their term. Parole after only half of the time is rare, but can be granted to first time offenders who demonstrated good behavior and are deemed unlikely to commit crimes in the future. I don't doubt he exhibited good behavior. I'm not su…

A close associate is an engine designer at a VW group company. VW is not some bottoms up startup. It has a clear micromanaged road map for virtually everything. Data is gathered, sheds are biked ad nausuem. this person was jailed because they were the last one holding the hot potatoe. There is no way (according to said associate) that upper management were not aware of what was going on. as any decision like that has…

The higher-up executives are also in hot water - Martin Winterkorn, then the CEO, is under indictment in both Germany and the US, and is likely to face prison time after his (more complicated, because his involvement worked through deniable cutouts) trial.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#556

Post by azernik »

greeneggs wrote: post #250
aidenn0 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad used to joke that if you wanted sneakers that were not made by child labor, your best bet was whichever manufacturer last got into trouble for it because of all the extra scrutiny. That this level of fatalism about immoral acts exists is a failure of society as a whole. I suspect that all of those who got rich either knowingly or being willfully ignorant about emissions cheating walked away completely unpunish…

Instead of posting uninformed speculation, you can just Google it… > In 2017, the U.S.-based VW executive Oliver Schmidt, who oversaw emissions issues, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $400,000, the maximum possible under a plea deal the German national made with prosecutors after admitting to charges of conspiring to mislead U.S regulators and violate clean-air laws. The US has charged nine people, a…

> The US has charged nine people, and Germany at least five, though they aren't moving quickly with the prosecutions.

Including the then CEO, who is under indictment in both countries.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#557

Post by tomjakubowski »

zwieback wrote: post #526
saberdancer wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Volt uses "W" sound instead of F, because Volt comes from the name of Italian physicist Allessandro Volta. Italian sound for V is W or english V. Are there proper German words that don't read V as F? I've been lead to believe German is strict with phonem/letter combination.

Excellent question, running through a few options in my mind "Version and Variation" come to mind. I'm not sure those qualify as a proper German words, probably not.

Is my understanding correct that loan words are usually pronounced according to the donor language? (e.g. "das Handy") I seem to remember V is special somehow too, for historical reasons.

If I am reading Duden right, Version is directly a French loanword:

https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Version

while Variation is "influenced" by French:

https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Variation

Re: Voltswagen of America

#559

Post by fastball »

Bud wrote: post #544
fastball wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're speaking English. The correct pronunciation of a "V" is in fact to make the english "V" sound.

Nope. Proper nouns are to be pronounced in whatever way is dictated by the country of origin. Also, no, English is not very reliable when it comes to spelling vs. pronunciation. (Former diction teacher, here.)

I'm going to avoid being snarky and point out this is merely the way you taught it. There is not hard and fast rule that says you have to do it this way.

Also, Vs are actually pretty consistent in English. Can't even think of a word with a V where the V doesn't sound like a V.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#560

Post by mikestew »

Tade0 wrote: post #464
mikestew wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure you meant Baby Boomers, not "younger generations": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REO_Speedwagon

I'm referring to a very different Speedwagon.

Guess who the Baby Boomer is who did not know there was a third option for "Speedwagon"?

(First two options are the rock band, and the proto-truck from the early 20th century which the band was named after.)

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