GERMANGLISH

Germanglish: The overuse of & precarious grasp of German to add German flavor to things.

When I was a little kid in the early 80s my dad went to Japan on tour (he's a Musician). He would return with awesome toys, the likes of which I’d never seen before. This was before Japanese robots became relatively common on toy shelves.

 As my excitement over the toys settled I started to hear the numerous reports of the insane Japanese misuse of English. In 1993 Dave Barry Does Japan came out & cemented the use of English in this way for me. 

By this time I had been collecting all sorts of Japanese things & had become very used to how Japan used Western things. I loved the unexpected twist that using English in this way created. So, I decided to use German in the same way!

My initial use of German was directly inspired by an issue of White Dwarf with a Chaos Warrior miniature with A "Blut Fer Den Blut Gott" banner (maybe issue 104). Something about giving the Chaos Warrior a German banner added so much to me that it was permanently etched in my mind. 

I was probably 12 when I saw this, & my knowledge of the language grew a little bit from listening to Kraftwerk & Laibach, but I was still largely ignorant. It was with this enthusiasm & energy that I decided to make German a pillar of DUNGEON DEGENERATES. It's why the Die is pronounced "dye" instead of "dee" in Die Wurst. I know it's wrong but art is more than being right!

My last name, Äaberg, comes from the Norwegian part of my family. The language branched off from the Indo European language core, then old German. I use a Heavy Metal umlaut in the name even though the pre-Americanized version would be Åberg not Äaberg. 

The Heavy Metal umlaut is just an easier way to explain the fact that I actually got the Ä from Nausicaä by Hayao Miyazaki (a key influence on DUNGEON DEGENERATES). Ultimately, I'm an American & I use language how I want.

I've become less ignorant of the German Language over time as I've been studying it for the last few years, but I still hold that you can find innovation & a new twist in doing things wrong or at least without concern for being “right”.