Hi Marek,
well, your first name is a typical Western Slavonic (i.e. either Polish, Slovak, Czech, Upper or Lower Sorbian) version of Latin "Marcus". As for your surname, it looks and sounds Polish to me, since the ending "-iec" (which would be otherwise written -jetz in German to yield the same pronunciation) is a typical Polish one. Moreover, we do have similar ending in Czech and Slovak, even a very similar and common surname in Czechia and Slovakia. They're "-ec" (would be -etz in German) and "Jakubec" (
w.b. Jakubetz), so the difference is easy to understand:
Czech, Slovak and probably Upper Sorbian: Jakubec [Jakubetz]
Polish and perhaps Lower Sorbian: Jakubiec [Jakubjetz]
(from now on, I'm going to use square brackets for what would German write to get similar sounds, ok?)
I'm sure our Polish friends will correct me if I'm wrong.
So, let me answer your questions now (and correct a few mistakes you made, please, feel free to correct mine ;) ) :
>what are you think about mein Name?
>what are you think about mein Name?
Well, it's a genuine Polish name, I suppose. From the etymological point of view, I've mentioned the origin of the first name very briefly. As far as your surname's concerned, the crucial stem is "Jakub-", whereas the ending "-(i)ec" gives it a different quality (
e.g. in Czech, the surname would mean something like "Jacob-like", "big Jacob", or even "bad Jacob"). As you may know, "Jakub" or "Jacob" is of Jewish, Hebrew, Semitic origin.
Now, a little bit of correction:
"What DO you think about MY name?
1. Unlike in German, English nouns, substantiva, do not all begin in a capital letter, hence "name", not "Name".
2. There two basic (but by no means only) tense distinctions: "progressive" (or "continuous") versus "simple". You mixed them together, creating a funny chimera.
Usually, the verb "think" (as well as other verbs of "mental operations" as I call it) is bound to simple tenses. Here, it should have been the "present simple tense", which uses the auxilliary verb "do" (German "tun") to form QUESTIONS and NEGATIVES. As you seem to know, progressive tenses use the verb "be" ("sein") AND the ending "-ING" ("-ung") to form ALL types of sentences.
So, you could have written either "What are you thinkING..." (which would be wrong as it's the "mental-operation verb"), or "What DO you think..." (which would have been correct, ok?)
3. In German, all forms of the first person possessive is "mein" (pronounced [majn]). In English, on the other hand, we have two forms of this possessive: "my" (pronounced [maj]) and "mine" (pronounced [majn], just like in German, which might have confused you)
"my" is the attributive form, i.e. a noun or something that is owned by "me" has to follow.
"mine" is the objective form, i.e. nothing has to and can follow.
Example:
This is my cat. ("cat" follows "my")
This cat is mine. (nothing follows "mine")
Other possessives behave in a similar way:
Attr. vs. obj.
-----------------
my vs. mine
your vs. yours
his vs. his
her vs. hers
its vs. its
our vs. ours
their vs. theirs
If you look at the above table, you'll see it's easy. Except for "my" or pronouns that already end in "-s" in their attributive forms, all take the ending "-s" in their objective forms.
>"Jakubiec" it is slovakish or not?
As I've mentioned, not. Although, you might have some distant relatives in Slovakia or Czechia, don't forget that Austria, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland were parts of Austro-Hungarian Empire. And, of course, people tend to move - if your name's got that far,
i.e. Germany...
Corrections again:
a. "Jakubiec" - is it Slovak or not?
b. "Jakubiec", is it Slovak or not?
c. Is "Jakubiec" Slovak or not?
1.In questions, sentences need to begin with a verb:
2. Punctuation is a difficult problem for native speakers, not speaking of us, who are not native. You don't have to worry too much about it at the moment.
3. "Slovakish" is just an anglicized version of German "Slowakisch" :), beware! ;) German and English are related and similar, but not the same :). Never mind. As you may have noticed, the correct form of the adjective should have been "Slovak", ok?
>I live in Berlin. Say to me, do you know somebody from
>the Slovakei?
Yes, I do. Many friends and relatives come or live in Slovakia. The Czech and Slovak Republics had long formed a federation until a little over ten years ago when they split in agreement and peace (unlike the unfortunate Yugoslavia in Balkans). But even in the Middle Ages were our histories intertwined, beginning with the famous Samo's Empire and Great Moravia. Our languages are very similar and mutually intelligible. Look at the following sentences for instance:
English: "I was there on Friday."
German: "Ich war dort am Freitag."
Slovak: "Bol som tam v piatok." [bol ssom tam v pjatok]
Czech: "Byl jsem tam v pátek." [byl ssem tam v paatek]
Of course, there are lexical, vocabulary, diferrences, too, as well as orthographical and pronunciation ones. Compare:
Slovak vs. Czech:
-------------------------
bocian [botzjan] vs. čáp [tschaap] (E "stork", G "der Storch")
múr [muur] vs. zeď [setj] (E "wall", G "die Mauer")
raňajky [ranjajki] vs. snídaně [snjiidanje] (E "breakfast", G "das Frühstück")
pivnica [piwnitza] vs. sklep [sklep] (E "cellar", G "der Keller")
etc.
(In Polish, these words are bocian, mur, śniadanie, piwnica/winiarnia)
These differences also show how close all Western Slavonic languages are.
It is interesting that both Polish and Slovak use such words for "cellar" that do exist in Czech, but keep their original meanings:
Czech "pivnice" [Ger. w. b. "piwnitze"] = a pub, tavern, inn, where beer (pivo [piwo]) is drunk.
Czech "vinárna" [Ger. w. b. "winaarna"] = a pub, tavern, inn, where wine (víno [wiino]) is drunk.
In fact, in the past, both kinds of pub where in cellars, to keep the beer and wine fresh and cold. That must have been the motivation for the semantic shift. At least, I think so.
Corrections:
1. "say to me" is possible, yet very old fashioned and used on special occasions, only.
"tell me" is much more common.
2. In questions, we only use compounds of "some-", when we expect the answer to be "yes" rather than "no". Otherwise, we use the "any-" compounds.
3. We can say either "the Slovak Republic", or "Slovakia". Slowakei is German, again :).
The correct sentence should have been thus:
"Tell me, do you know anybody/somebody from Slovakia/the Slovak Republic?"
Ok. That's it :). Nice day!
Ok. That's it :). Nice day!
Best,
Pet'us
--- Petr Hrubis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hi Marek!
>
> I'm Petr. I from Fulnek, which is a little town on
> the border of
> Moravia and the Czech part of Silesia, hence I'm
> Czech. Where are you
> from?
>
> 2005/10/2, marek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb:
> >
> > > hello everyone, please contact me to improve
> both of us: ), i think
> > > onderful to have friends around the world, isn't
> it; )
> >
> > Hallo!
> > Who are You? Where are You?
> > Marek
> >
> >
>
>
> Hi Marek!
>
> I'm Petr. I from Fulnek, which is a little town on
> the border of
> Moravia and the Czech part of Silesia, hence I'm
> Czech. Where are you
> from?
>
> 2005/10/2, marek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb:
> >
> > > hello everyone, please contact me to improve
> both of us: ), i think
> > > onderful to have friends around the world, isn't
> it; )
> >
> > Hallo!
> > Who are You? Where are You?
> > Marek
> >
> >
>
