Board Thread:General Grimm Discussion/@comment-25986915-20150113194129/@comment-25986915-20150116150230

I think you find "Säugling" only in a formal context, in juristic texts for example. They are allways a bit oldfashioned.

That's true. Monroe uses the german, he learnt from his grandparents. so it is quite correct to let him speak such an "ancient" German as in "Gebt den Säugling her". If you have a look at descendants of German mirgrants you can see the speak some "old" Germnan too ... for example the Pennsylvania Dutch or German "Spätaussiedler" from Russia.

But funny is also the word "Hochdeutsch", that Monroe uses in one episode, He finds a German text in one of Nicks book and says: "Oh .. that's Hochdeutsch. My Grandfather spoke it" (when he was drunk, I think, not quite sure) The use of the word "Hochdeutsch" is a bit strange here. Maybe they mean "Mittelhochdeutsch", the kind of German, which was spoken between 1050 and 1350 in the middle and the south  of Germany (in the north it would be Mittelniederdeutsch), But the text Monroe reads out is just the normal "Standarddeutsch" ... so nothing to point it out as something special. But the real meaning of "Hochdeutsch" is something, that many Germans du not know neither. "Hochdeutsch" means all dialects, which are spoken in the south an in the middle of Germany. The dialects of the north are "Niederdeutsch"  Hochdeutsch in the meaning of Standarddeutsch is just a colloquial usage ........... yes, I am a nerd ;-)