by Claire Webster

Eierpampe – mixture of sand or mud with water that kids make when they’re playing (lit. “egg goop”)

E also stands for:

eenmal (einmal) – once.
Einjemachte, das – money in reserves, from Eingemachte meaning preserves or conserves.
einfeif’n – to eat, short for hinein pfeifen, colloquial for “sucking in” (food – or even drugs).
etepetete – prim and proper.

The Illustrated A-Z of Berlinerisch is a guide to the particular brand of German spoken in the country’s capital. One of our native Berliner helper elves describes the dialect as

a direct language with Herz und Schnauze (heart and snout). A Berliner always can make fun of others and him/herself, says everything as if he or she is a little drunk, and shortens words – because time is money, and after a hard working day you don’t want to spend a lot of energy speaking “properly”.

If you want to learn more about the German spoken by the rest of the country, check out our illustrated Daily Deutsch Doodles and follow the hashtag #dailydeutsch on Twitter. 

Berliners! Have we got anything wrong, or missed out anything important? Let us know in the comments below, or tweet your suggestions to @uberlinblog. Many thanks to everyone who’s helped us so far, especially @iForia, @strollogy, @Inzuam, @MarcoHafke, @RobZan11, Yoram Roth, @WeAreBerliners, @Da3X and @arne_mertz.

Illustrators! Want to help us prettify the A-Z of Berlinerisch? Drop us a note at email (at) uberlin (dot) eu, and we’ll let you know how you can get involved!