We were talking about the verbs "wechseln" and "tauschen" (both more or less mean a variation of "to change/exchange/swap")
here in the comments on one of my "language ragbag" posts; that led to the amusing German word "Otterwechsel" – that's equivalent to "otters crossing" (as in, look out for otters, because this is a place where they're likely to be
changing sides of the road). But what's delightful about it is that it sounds like it
could mean a place for
exchanging otters – an otter swap!
Anyway, here's a picture:
(The same word-forming pattern applies to other animals, like "Wildwechsel" (deer crossing) or "Froschwechsel" (frogs crossing) – because, yes, Germany is a country so devoid of large wild animals that people actually take the time to worry about how, where and when frogs cross the road.)
Frog crossings are actually a good idea! Apparently lots of amphibians will often migrate en masse across roads on spring nights to get to their breeding pools, and lots of them get squished. There are volunteer organizations set up in some places to help them across safely. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/nyregion/new-jersey/05colnj.html
ReplyDeleteCool! Neat to read about it in the US as well. (I don't doubt at all that it's a helpful thing, I just find it cute how much Germany worries about small animals – like, to the extent of running squirrel sanctuaries, for example:-) )
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