• Vittelius@feddit.org
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      20 days ago

      It’s the German version of me_irl. Stands for “Ich _ im echten Leben” and is a direct translation of the English

          • Zwiebel@feddit.org
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            20 days ago

            It is pretty close on the pronunciation, except ch is not sh. Unless you’re speaking certain regional dialects :)

            • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
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              20 days ago

              I’ve only ever met a few native Germans in person, and understand just enough to get to the bathroom, so I don’t know if I just misheard, or they’re one of the few people who do say it that way.

              I’ll take any native German’s word on their own language though! Lol or even anyone who’s studied.

              • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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                19 days ago

                I’m a German native who studied linguistics (ok, computational linguistics with a minor in phonetics and phonology), but I basically only speak my regional dialect well. I was visiting a friend in Berlin once and a stranger in a bar complimented me that I “speak good German for a foreigner”.

                  • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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                    19 days ago

                    I regarded it as a potential evidence for my unfounded and highly debateable hypothesis that the dialect we speak in the region is not in fact a dialect, but its own language.

    • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      20 days ago

      It started as a German version of me_irl (hence the name “ich im echten Leben”) and developed a culture on its own including bad translations from English and other insiders

    • Manja@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      I blocked that both on Reddit and here at the very beginning, without knowing what iel means, the posts were mostly unsympathetic and irritating.