buying snus on the street, in Stockholm

[chainsnuser]

Germans call a tin (UK) or a can (US) Dose/Dosen (pl.)

Correct, just like the Swedes call it: Dåse.

About phonetics:
The modern German, as I see it, is more like an artificial language, so to say 'invented' by Martin Luther with his bible-translation. So, overall, I don't think, the phonetics science has much meaning, when it comes to modern spoken German. It is more useful to describe the differences between some dialects. In fact, we speak k's as well as ch's. My great-grandpa also came from The Netherlands and even introduced some kind of an 'hard ch', which is still spoken by some of my relatives.

Cheers!

[Zero]

^ I think it's probably only Hochdeutch in the south, which is what foreigners would always learn, that has the soft 'ch'. I think all the dialects which still keep the 'kh' sound are Niederdeutch variants and, generally, are found in the north....would you say?

[Craig de Tering]

That really hard and raspy, throat clearing, phlegm spitting /KH/ is what most parts of Holland have except in the south where it's almost an inaudible /h/ (exhaling).
This hard /KH/ is also found in certain parts of german speaking Switzerland.
I once saw a video clip from a popular Swiss rock band on YouTube and as a dutch speaker you could've sworn you were listening to dutch being sung but without understanding a word they sang.
Freaky.

[chainsnuser]

^ I think it's probably only Hochdeutch in the south, which is what foreigners would always learn, that has the soft 'ch'. I think all the dialects which still keep the 'kh' sound are Niederdeutch variants and, generally, are found in the north....would you say?

The shift towards the 'ch' (machen instead of maken - make) is originally a southern german phenomenon. But the k is normally spoken in german just as in english. What you mean with the Kh is maybe more like the KH, Craig speaks about and that is only spoken in the deepest south of Germany, near the Swiss border.

BTW, I wouldn't call the southern german dialects 'Hochdeutsch' (in the meaning of standard german), but this should better discussed, if e.g., a bavarian fellow joins the forum. :lol:

[Coffey]

My first german professor was from south germany, he spoke hochdeutsch. When he would say a word like durch, it sounded like doych. Kind of hard to explain exactly what it sounds like, but it is very different. Also on the point of phonetics that chainsnuser brought up, my professor said he has relatives in Berlin, and he can hardly understand them. Something about changing the G sound to something like the J (the German J, not American)sound. I don't know if I have that right or not, maybe someone from Germany knows more about it than I.

[Zero]

BTW, I wouldn't call the southern german dialects 'Hochdeutsch' (in the meaning of standard german), but this should better discussed, if e.g., a bavarian fellow joins the forum. :lol:

The guy who sits next to me at work is bavarian...maybe I'll ask him one day. I made the mistake of bringing up the Rechtschreibreform one day with him, though, and he just got pissed off and ranted, then rolled his eyes and suggested we go have some coffee, lol

[chainsnuser]

My first german professor was from south germany, he spoke hochdeutsch. When he would say a word like durch, it sounded like doych. Kind of hard to explain exactly what it sounds like, but it is very different. Also on the point of phonetics that chainsnuser brought up, my professor said he has relatives in Berlin, and he can hardly understand them. Something about changing the G sound to something like the J (the German J, not American)sound. I don't know if I have that right or not, maybe someone from Germany knows more about it than I.

Yes, 90% of the Germans speak a 'g', if it follows a vocal and stands at the end of a word, like a 'j'. 10% (including your former professor) speak it more like a 'k'.
A funny thing is, that the 90% absolutely don't mind, if others speak a 'k' (since it is still clearly understandable), but the 10%, mostly living in southern Germany, always want all the others to speak like they do and even claim, their pronunciation is the only right one.
Maybe this attitude is one of the reasons, why we never had a bavarian chancellor (which is our equivalent for a president or prime-minister) in the Bundesrepublik - and hopefully will never have - Hahaha.

The guy who sits next to me at work is bavarian...maybe I'll ask him one day. I made the mistake of bringing up the Rechtschreibreform one day with him, though, and he just got pissed off and ranted, then rolled his eyes and suggested we go have some coffee, lol

Your colleague (though a bavarian) is maybe right, when it comes to the Rechtschreibreform. I wouldn't call myself a conservative person, but I still write according to the old rules. The Rechtschreibreform - in my view - does nothing else, than to replace difficult spelling rules with ones, that are even more difficult and often clearly differ from the spoken words.

Overall, I think, there may be many similarities between different german accents and different english accents - it is nothing that counts too much, but people, who speak different accents often love to make jokes with each other.

[Zero]

I think that's a constant everywhere...we do it in canada at least. The poor newfoundlanders get the worst of it, though, I think :lol:

[littlesilverboxfromwales]

OK OK enough of the accent lessons.
Can someone tell me of a Snus as sweet as probe whiskey, without the whiskey.
Loose too?
How do you get that umlaught symbol, you know that two dots above the O like in Motorhead?

[Craig de Tering]

Sweet? I just noticed Offroad Original is very sweet but be warned it's not a pure tobacco taste like the word "original" might suggest. It reminds me more of an extreme Göteborgs Rapé. A very flowery, fresh pine tree/eucalyptussy type aroma and ditto taste.
I like it a lot but I can imagine some might get turned off by it. TRY ONE CAN FIRST to see if you like it too because you might also compare it to Pine-Sol and dislike it.
Oh and remember Offroad snuses are coarser than most so you better have trained fingers or a Prismaster/Icetool handy.

To get the umlaut you need to go to your Windows' Control Panel --> Languages/Regional Settings (I think) and add the keyboard layout for English International. Then you should have 2 listed in a side panel; English standard and English International. You should add a hotkey to switch between the two instantly, usually it's left ALT+left SHIFT. You'll see a small blue square has appeared in the lower right on your taskbar with the letters "EN" in it. To add the umlaut press SHIFT+" and then the letter you want. E.g. SHIFT+" [release all] and o = ö
SHIFT+" [release " only] and o = Ö
Other combos are '+c=ç and ^+e=ê `+a=à '+a=á SHIFT+"+a=ä
Also the RIGHT ALT unlocks a shitload of other characters while you hold it down. Like ø¶´öóúþéåäáß𑼀³²¡

I'm not sure about about the English International setting 'cause my explorer.exe just crashed and I can't get to my menu right now, have to reboot. I have English standard and Dutch. The Dutch setting does for me what I described above.

[Craig de Tering]

OK I took a peek at my settings. The thing's called "Regional and Laguage Settings in your Control panel. In the second tab (Languages) click "Details" and you see in the list called "Installed Services" which language is paired with what keyboard setting.
So I have (1) English (US) with the standard US keyboard setting and (2) Dutch (Netherlands) paired with US-International keyboard settings.
Works for me.
You can add as many languages as you want and each language can be paired with whichever kayboard layout you want.
So you could even choose Russian language with a Chinese keyboard if you want :lol:
Don't forget to set the default setting (which is BOLD) and the switching hotkey under "Key Settings" (otherwise you have to keep going through the whole friggin' menu to switch every time).

[Coffey]

Kronan is kind of sweet and fruit flavored. Roda Lacket is also pretty sweet IMHO.

[chainsnuser]

Can someone tell me of a Snus as sweet as probe whiskey, without the whiskey.

I would also say, Röda Lacket, though the loose variant does not really have a sweet taste. The Röda Lacket Portions taste totally different, very sweet and fruity. Both are surely worth a try.

[TBonehawk]

I think Gustavus loose is rather sweet. It's got a sort of orangey, citrus taste. It's a favorite of mine lately.

[Craig de Tering]

I think Gustavus loose is rather sweet. It's got a sort of orangey, citrus taste. It's a favorite of mine lately.

How peculiar. Goes to show how tastes can differ wildly. I threw my can of (dis)Gustavus away after 4 prillas.
:lol: