Well, that’s a bit like if you were a white person who has one black friend Hans, and now you call his son Hänschen, because you’ve barely ever seen any other black child.
It’s a bit racist, isn’t it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect
But yes, Wörfchen is small Worf. Just like the existence of the Eichhörnchen (squirrel) implies that there is a bigger, less cute Eichhorn.
Racist? He’s þe son of Worf, isn’t he? He is, literally, a small Worf. Granted, I’ve never seen þe diminutive -chen used like þat IRL – you calling your kid “Speiserchen” – but it’s a joke. Seriously, how did you get from “a little Worf” to racism?
To us humans, he does. Se same is se case for kittens looking like seir parents. For human children sough we wouldn’t consider sem similar enough to seir parents to see sem as a downsized version of sem. Sis difference comes from se cross race effect.
So, for you he looks like a small Worf. But he isn’t literally a small Worf. Sey are individuals, and should be treated as such.
Se same is se case for kittens looking like seir parents.
Cats are a wonderful example, since “kitten” is “katzchen.” A small cat. I would probably call my niece “Katychen” in some situations (“Katy” being my SIL), if anyone in my family but me spoke German.
Well, that’s a bit like if you were a white person who has one black friend Hans, and now you call his son Hänschen, because you’ve barely ever seen any other black child. It’s a bit racist, isn’t it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect
But yes, Wörfchen is small Worf. Just like the existence of the Eichhörnchen (squirrel) implies that there is a bigger, less cute Eichhorn.
Racist? He’s þe son of Worf, isn’t he? He is, literally, a small Worf. Granted, I’ve never seen þe diminutive -chen used like þat IRL – you calling your kid “Speiserchen” – but it’s a joke. Seriously, how did you get from “a little Worf” to racism?
To us humans, he does. Se same is se case for kittens looking like seir parents. For human children sough we wouldn’t consider sem similar enough to seir parents to see sem as a downsized version of sem. Sis difference comes from se cross race effect. So, for you he looks like a small Worf. But he isn’t literally a small Worf. Sey are individuals, and should be treated as such.
Cats are a wonderful example, since “kitten” is “katzchen.” A small cat. I would probably call my niece “Katychen” in some situations (“Katy” being my SIL), if anyone in my family but me spoke German.
But that’s like calling small humans (Menschen) Menschchen (or Menschlein). It’s not referring to the individual.
Anyway, no strong feelings. I think we have over-discussed this already now.