The last is the major difference IMO. What’s used as the ‘starter pistol’ signal at a convival meal, then?
What I am used to in German social occasions e.g. family gatherings, dinner invitations: the meal is on the table but it would be crass and greedy to begin eating individually. So, a small silence and then the host/hostess/boss/highest-status person says Guten Appetit or something to that effect e.g. Laßt es Euch schmecken and everybody tucks in.
I have heard Guten Appetit or something to that effect even used on occasion where a person said Grace before the meal (normally when saying Grace is finished that would be a sufficient starter pistol signal)
There are also occasions where in a restaurant, when the last person’s meal hasn’t been served yet, that person can say Guten Appetit by way of giving permission to the others not to wait for him. Or, when a subset has ordered a starter, the others can say that, also meaning “Do start to eat, we don’t mind”.
Are there really no set phrases for that function in English usage?
Since most English speakers will understand it, I just say, “Bon appétit.” English doesn’t feel the need to translate all phrases before using them.
Though, to be honest, I’m not often formal enough to say anything. Sometimes, I wish I remembered the Klingon phrase, which I believe translates as, “Eat this or I’ll stuff it down the gullet of your corpse.”
(The trouble with “phonetic” spelling: it’s so difficult to know what one means by it. I assume by “grahc”, you mean something ending in an “ess” sound, close to rhyming with “cross”?)
Anyway, alternatives are that one could say “arm-mwar” or “ku-day-grah”. gigi is saying that “arm-mwar” and “ku-day-grahc” (ending in an “ess” sound) are faithful to the original French, while “arm-mwah” and “ku-day-grah” are not.
But that’s not a difference in language at all – just a difference in the customs of two different cultures.
There certainly are plenty of English phrases that could be used to indicate “start eating now”. “Dig in!”, “Enjoy!”, “Dinner is served!”, “Don’t let it get cold!”, etc., etc. But customarily you don’t need an invitation to start eating. In different circles you start eating when the food is placed in front of you, or after food is placed in front of everyone at the table, or after saying grace, or whatever.
In short: The language has plenty of ways to say “start eating”. The culture just doesn’t require you to always use one, and thus no one such phrase has become the standard.
Yes, thank you. People take the “The French drop all ending consonants” too far and drop them when they shouldn’t. Coo-duh-grah would be hitting someone with fat, non?
In a lot of settings, the only “signal” to begin eating is for someone to say grace, then everyone to say “amen” and start eating. I personally like to say “grab it and growl”, but YMMV.
The French court/elite language theory doesn’t work in Polish, though, where the word for bon appetit is smacznego, which is derived from smaczny, meaning “tasty.”
Exactly. I grew up with a German mother and I “get” this in a way I think most Americans don’t. American households (nor British, as far as I can tell) don’t have this custom, so there isn’t a phrase that is used.
Oh, I don’t know. I often pause at dinner before eating, just because enough people say grace that I never feel safe assuming we can just dig in. I grew up in a British-derived household and we always paused before eating.
Holy crap did I mess that up…
Thanks for the correction. I haven’t had a chance to use Hungarian for the last couple of years, so it kind of got jumbled around in my head(I’m not a native speaker.)
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