What's in a German Name?

by Kenneth Aitken

Having already spent four years here in Germany, I have noticed that I get a totally different feeling when reading things to do with geology here. To begin with, forget the word rock (which means skirt), though if you are Scottish, you are not allowed to forget the word, because Germans will ask you if you wear a Schottenrock (kilt) and play a Dudelsack (bagpipes). Here the word Gestein is used instead, pronounced geshtyne. Sandstone becomes Sandstein (sandshtyne).

Many geological terms reflect the German no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point, blunt, nothing-airy-fairy temperament: Mergel (marl), Gips (gypsum), Kalk (limestone), Ton (clay), Schotter (gravel), Bruch (fault). A swathe of names also lose their English endings, although they sound familiar: Diorit, Granit, Trachyt, Quarzit, Quarzporphyr, Agglomerat, Trilobit, Ammonit.

Geological periods do not escape this process. The Permian becomes Perm, the Devonian, Devon, the Silurian, Silur, the Carboniferous, Karbon, the Jurassic, Jura, and the Cretaceous, Kreide (meaning, unsurprisingly, chalk). But we British have imported several German terms for epochs: Rotliegende, Zechstein, Buntsandstein (meaning coloured sandstone, which has become Bunter), Muschelkalk (meaning shellfish-limestone) and Keuper.

British geology has not escaped the Germanic influence. My geological dictionary is riddled with words such as: Graben, Tuff, Horst, Karst, Loess, Inselberg, Grauwacke (Greywacke), Kieselguhr, Klippe. So, without any knowledge of German, one can recognise terms in a German geology book. Moreover, just say these words in a string and you will even sound like a German! And one can appear knowledgeable, without knowing much of the language. In my first few months in Freiburg, I dumfounded my flat-mates by using the German word for silicate, Kieselsaure!

Chemical elements do a disappearing act here they often turn into some kind of Stoff (chemical substance). Hydrogen becomes Wasserstoff (water-substance), oxygen is transformed into Sauerstoff (acid-substance) and Nitrogen mutates into Stickstoff (stuffy substance). When I go into a chemist, I have to know that hydrogen peroxide is Wasserstoffperoxid. Other than what I have mentioned, German geologists have their own unrecognisable vocabulary: for example, Gletscher for glacier, Gang for dyke or sill, Glimmer for mica, Schiefer for slate, shale or schist, Ausbruch for eruption, Senke for syncline, Schwelle for anticline, Schicht for stratum, Marmor for marble, Becken for basin, Bank for bed and so on. They also can create long words, by stringing words together, for example, Schmelzwasserabflussrinnen (melt-water channels). But there are nonetheless a smattering of words from the bad weather island (as Germans sometimes call Great Britain). In a Scottish vein, there are the Assyntische (Assyntian) era and the Kaledonische (Caledonian) era, and Pentlandit rock. English names include Essexit, Oxford-Kalke and Oxford-Mergel.

The names of stratigraphic units and localities in my book, Geologie von Baden-Württemberg (which is the German state where Freiburg resides), naturally sound strange to our ears: Geiersberg-Formation, HeidelbergerGranit, FreiburgerBucht, Grauwackenschiefer-Serie, Kreuznach-Gruppe, Haardt-Odenwald-Senke, UntererGipshorizont, UttenweilerBecken, Volpriehausen-Folge, to name but a few. But there are also names which convey meaning, such as Vitriolschiefer, Stinkdolomit, Bonebed, Mann im Salz (man in salt a pillar-like anhydrite-clay deposit within a rock-salt stratum), Coffinit (perhaps for the Mann im Salz!).

But my favourite name comes from a town about an hour's drive from Freiburg, deep in the Black Forest: Rottweiler Bank!

Kenneth Aitken has been a member of the Society since 1994. When he lived in Edinburgh, he enjoyed the activities of the Society as a keen amateur. He moved to Germany in 1996 and in Spring 2000 moved to a new job in Freiburg. Last May, he married a local lady called Raufa, who says she is proud to be now a Scot! They live near the edge of the Black Forest, on the bank of the Dreisam, at: Kartaeuserstrasse 86, D-79102 Freiburg, Germany.Kenneth Aitken e-mailed me with the following article on geological and associated terminology. He is clearly taken with things Germanic though his tongue-in-cheek humour remains distinctly Scottish.