What is a Sprachbeo?

The Sprachbeo is a column that deals and plays with (and within) the German language in ways predominantly untranslatable.

“Beo” is an abbreviation of Beobachtung, which means observation in German. Beo is also the German term for Common Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa), sometimes spelled mynah, a bird from the family of starlings (Sturnidae). The Beo likes to say a word or two, even though he is not a parrot. Sprache simply means language.