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		Ask for help > vocabulary help needed     
			
		 vocabulary help needed 
		
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 mish.cz
 
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							| @ Silke, what scaaaary creatures in your first link! But what an interesting reading� @ Moravc, the more I think about it the more I agree with the water goblin term. Thank for giving me such a convincing proof. But still, this conversation is revealing that this figure of the fantasy world wouldn �t be an appropriate part of my new ws  �I could only cause a confusion in the children �s minds 
 |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 sulekra
 
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							| I agree with Moravc that water goblin sounds better than water sprite, especially as that �s how English people translate Dvorak �s Vodnik, and for me the image of a goblin is much closer to vodnik than sprite:) 
 In Australia we have the Bunyip, which people still occasionally claim to meet - though they most likely had more alcohol than they should have;D
 
 I hope no one is put off going swimming after this discussion hehe...
 
 |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 Lina Ladybird
 
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							| @Mish I �ve only just seen your question regarding the term "Hastrman(n). It could be of German origin, however, I �ve never heard or read it anywhere before, and I read a lot!! ;)   BUT we have the word "Wassermann" in the German language. Literally translated, it would be "waterman" in English...   I think that "Hastrmann" and "Wassermann" do sound similar, so sulekra might be right, but I �m not 100 % sure.   BTW, I can �t think of any other German expressions for a creature like the one you were describing in your initial post.   |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 mish.cz
 
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							| @ Sulekra "In Australia we have the Bunyip, which people still occasionally claim to meet - though they most likely had more alcohol than they should have;D"� Fed up with water here in the north of the Czech Republic . BTW: May I ask where you teach? |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 mish.cz
 
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							| @ Silke. We also you "unterwassermann" in Czech�   |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 Lina Ladybird
 
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							| I agree with Mish and sulekra that Jana �s (moravc �s) suggestion has been the best one so far!  It must be a water goblin... :)) |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 Lina Ladybird
 
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							| @Mish   REALLY?? Wow! Unterwassermann? And it �s really spelt like this? Like it would be spelt in German?? That �s absolutely astounding... To me personally anyway!    In English it would sound totally ridiculous though: the underwaterman lives under water. *LOL* |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 mish.cz
 
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							| @ Silke
 Yes, exactly that way :-) But you know, it is a real slang word with a very simple explanation. The word means "cheater" or "deceiver" and in Czech you say it "podvodn�k". Despite its ethymology (which is different of course) the beginning of the word "pod" corresponds with the Czech preposition meaning "under" and "vodn�k" (BTW the word I am looking for) is a a man living in water, or "waterman" ("voda" = "water" "wasser"). When you put it together you come to this simple conclusion!� You know what an influential language German has always been in my country:-) Hope you understand my crazy explanation.-) |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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 moravc
 
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							| Hastrman or Vodnik in Czech is the very same creature, however HASTRMAN comes from German word Wasserman = Waterman... Czechs and Germans are "neighbours" and we used to be a part of Austrian-Hungarian Empire with German as an official language... That �s why there are many words with German origin in our language...
 My great-great-grandmother was able to speak and write German perfectly, but her spoken Czech was funny and she couldn �t spell Czech at all... That was at the beginning of the 20th century... In 1918 the Czech republic was founded... but she didn�t learn Czech then, she was in her fourties... My great-grandmother could speak German, French and Czech... My grandma�s first language was Czech, she spoke German fluently and she learnt French at school...
 It seems to me that the biggest influence was German, now it is English of course...
 
 |  18 Aug 2010     
					
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