Erlangen 91052 (11)—Everyday Words: Genau

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[a] Opening Vistas RF

So I was getting a haircut last week, and the stylist (this is a term that really doesn't fit my paltry thatch of hair) started discussing haircut vocabulary with me. She pointed to "the part" in my hair, and asked me how we say that in English. Same for sideburns, eyebrows, and even "white sidewalls." We even talked about the grass being greener on the other side (Das Gras ist grüner auf der anderen Seite). Through it all, she kept uttering a word that I have grown to expect in almost every conversation I have in Germany. So prepare yourself. If you thought this was going to be a post about German hair vocabulary, you would be mistaken (for now). 

Instead, we shall be discussing ubiquity amidst swirling commensality.

[b] Alone in thought RF

Our word is genau, and it is a positive little bundle of phonemes. It is a means of assent (a brief "climbing" joke there), as well as a nice, verbal punctuation to indicate conversational communitas. People tend to be happy (or neutral) when they say it. You are not likely to hear genau in the midst of heated disagreement over, say, Bundesliga action between Bayern Munich and Dortmund.

No, it's one of those words that has more to do with preaching to the choir than fevered disputation. You are far more likely to encounter it in the midst of a friendly workplace, during a nice conversation at the bar (perhaps over Wein oder Bier), or...while chatting with the stylist who is cutting your hair.

"Exactly."

"Precisely."

"Yup, I know—and our agreement binds us together in this moment of intellectual union."

[c] Isolated RF

Genau....ja genau.

***  ***

Not everyone is happy about this. 

Let me explain. I ran across a little website the other day filled with, for the most part, little expatriate frustrations over life in Germany (I was searching "genau," not venting frustrations over my happy little home these six months). Perhaps it takes an outsider to recognize the dominance of this word in everyday conversation, though. Here is one of the posts (I have modified it very slightly for readability):

          Am temping at the moment...blah blah data entry. Listening to my colleagues 
          (all under 30) training the new staff member, explaining what needs to be 
          done. this has been going on for about a week now. i'm noticing a pattern:
                     Coworker A: Explanation
                     New co worker B: Uh-huh, comment
                     A: genau
                     B: Repeats or adds to explanation
                     A: genau
           Or coworkers on the phone... every second word: genau

[d] Social RF

A slightly more culturally astute observer a few comments down the page asked if s/he actually knew what they were saying. If so, it is likely that the word genau would seem quite appropriate. That critic might have a point. Think of times you have been in conversation with a more—or less—experienced coworker? How do you signal that you are in the game, so to speak, and that you are doing your own light lifting in the conversational arena? In English, it might mean uttering "yes," or "mmm-hmm," or even groovy!

And how do "we" do this in other languages? It's another of those beauties at the intersection of life and language—a word that shows your engagement, but without butting into the middle of the conversational flow. 是的 functions a bit like this in Mandarin. In German, it is (at present) genau. Never forget that these matters are continually changing, and a 1970s dictionary that explains how to use groovy will not serve you well today.

***  *** 

For now, though, I want to look at genau from a different angle. While I am certainly intrigued by the word for its pervasiveness, there is more. For me, there is something else going on, and I sort of like it. It's really the most social of words. Indeed, it is a teeming swirl of integrative social-linguistic cohesion—the kind of vocabulary that binds people together like old chewing gum on the bus seat.

[e] Happy mouth RF

Genau isn't a word that you use when you talk to yourself.

Oh, and don't tell me that you don't do that. Of course you do. My own most common verbalization when alone is usually damnit (no, and I don't mean damit). This often happens when I'm late for something, a website is slow to load, or Kaufland is sold out of avocados. There are probably other words that go beyond just generalized thoughts when you are alone. Think about it. I find this to be an untapped (but hardly unstudied) corner of social and cultural theory, and focus on it every autumn when I teach the course.

But genau is(t) different. It takes two...or more.

While I concede the possibility that a complex, individual mental plan could end in a voiced genau! before a person heads off to implement it, the vast bulk of uses are in relatively happy and mostly unstressful situations. Here, too, we could quibble, but I wish to move on. The way I see it, genau is precisely, even exactly, the interjection that ties the knots of collegiality and friendship tighter. It is positively Durkheimian in its social fervor, always "seeking" to take the discursive strands of individual bloviation and bring the paired reality of integrative conversation back into focus. 

[f] Gendered commenslity RF

It's turns soliloquy back into dialogue.

Think about that. How many words do that kind of work in other languages? Well, just a few—but every language has them, since language is social from its tip-top tête down to its tiny little alliterative toes. I have always loved the friendly inclusiveness of y'all, which always implies that something bigger than jus' talkin' is going on between our polished boots, shining belt buckles, and ten-gallon hats. Y'all is inclusive. 

Following I-35 north, and into another Red River Valley, we eventually arrive in western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. It's the land of that dialect most of the world has come to know as "Fargo." Ja plays a role in the social dynamic there, to be sure, but most of the heavy lifting of inclusiveness flows from the phrase that usually follows ja (ya). When you hear Grandpa Orvik nod and say "you betcha" as you discuss Tony Oliva's game-winning double that won the game for your Minnesota Twins last night, you know that you and grandpa share something more than mere knowledge of an historical event.

You have agreement, like a social version of subject and verb...or a perfectly rhymed Tang poem.

And let's just get this straight—hand-holding, Coca Cola drinking, globalized, commodified, intersubjective agreement is what genau is all about. 

Oh, you see the point? Then just say "genau." A few Anglophone expatriates will be annoyed with you, but they haven't read L'Année Sociologique.  

Oui have...

NEXT

Saturday, 1 March 2014 
Erlangen 91052—Everyday Words: Tschuß!

See you Saturday; we'll talk about bye-bye!

[g] Sozial problematik (genau) RF