schauen wir mal

K

Kuenstler

New Member
English, USA
I have seen this expression, "Schaun mer mal", several times, once as, "Schaun'mer mal", yet I can not find the first two component words an any online dictionary (I have tried 4 already now). In context in web searches it appears to have some less-than-savory connotation, but I can not find its proper english equivalent, much less a german definition. Thanks! :)
 
    • It is dialectal for "schauen wir (ein)mal" and translates approximately as "We will see" or Standard German "wir lassen uns überraschen". In spoken language and certain genres of written language (forums, chatspeak) it is quite common to dropp the "e" of infinitive "-en", though disallowed in the standard. "mer" (or "mir", "mia", "ma") for "wir" indicates a southern dialect (Allemannic or Bavarian, i.e. from Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland or Baden-Wurttemberg).
     
    In the dialects I know better, they are acustically indistinguishable. It is either "mia" for both in the full form, and "ma" in the clitic form, or "mir"/"mr". But there may be dialects that have an audible difference between them. Do keep in mind that this is not just general "spoken German" but specific non-standard southern dialects! Most likely nobody will speak like this to a person they identify as a foreigner.

    I cannot think of a single example where that would create any real case of ambiguity, so I guess it's mostly always clear from syntactic context - verb forms for example, as "wir" is nominative and as such agrees with the verb. In fact, I came up with one: "Mir ha'm de Leut' g'glaubt" which can be either "Mir haben die Leute geglaubt" or (in dialects that have lost dative plural declensions) "Wir haben den Leuten geglaubt". Even these will be easily distinguishable from intonation and larger context. In my dialect, "de Leit'" would normally mean "den Leuten" only, while "die Leute" would be "d'Leit", so it is at least hard to even make them sound the same.
     
    beclija said:
    "mer" (or "mir", "mia", "ma") for "wir" indicates a southern dialect (Allemannic or Bavarian, i.e. from Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland or Baden-Wurttemberg).
    Click to expand...

    Not necessarily. I can't speak for the whole area I live in, but I personally often use "ma(r)" instead of "wir" (actually 'wa[r]'):

    Schaumar ma' - Schauen wir einmal. (I have to write the 'r' because 'ma' meaning 'wir' sounds different from 'ma' meaning 'mal')
    Hammar no' was übrich? - Haben wir noch etwas übrig?
    Wo(ll)mmar nich' bald ma' los? - Wollen wir nicht bald einmal los(gehen)?

    cj427 said:
    In spoken German, is there any difficulty distinguishing between mer/mir/mia and mir (as in Dativ)? Or is it usually clear due to context?
    Click to expand...

    I don't say "mir" for "wir," but I use it for the dative case of the subject "I". Nevertheless, it's hard to distinguish my "mar" (= mir) from "mar" (= wir). It can lead to confusion when you begin a sentence with the dative pronoun:

    Mar müss'n ma' in'n Gart'n. (Wir müssen einmal in den Garten [gehen])

    If you only hear "mar müss'n," you can also think of "mir müssen" as in "Mir müssen die gar nichts sagen." It's much clearer with "kommen:"

    Mar komm'n de nich' ins Haus! (Mir kommen die [Katzen, Leute, Flöhe] nicht ins Haus)

    If you only hear "mar komm'n," you can also think of "wir kommen." ;)
     
    beclija said:
    It is dialectal for "schauen wir (ein)mal" and translates approximately as "We will see" or Standard German "wir lassen uns überraschen".
    Click to expand...
    So in which context should this expression be used? I can appreciate a slight defiance connotation, I don't know if I am right, so could it be rather colloquial and even a bit rude? I'm sorry I don't fully get the connotations of 'We will see' or 'Wir lassen uns überraschen'.
    In my language we have a similar expression ('Ya veremos') but I don't know if they're equivalent.
    I've came across this expression in this text:
    'Mit dem Video-Phone sagen Sie ganz einfach zu Ihrem Kunden: "Ja, dann schauen wir mal!" '
     
    The closest English equivalent to schauen wir mal is let's take a look.

    First person plural inverted is equivalent to the let's construction in English, and the "this is a one-shot non-continuous activity" aspect of mal can be represented, in this case, by using take a look rather than the plain verb look.
     
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