Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask when dachshunds became 'dash hounds'?

96 replies

FlutterShite · 27/12/2023 22:06

I've always known their name to be pronounced 'dahks-hunts' or 'daks-hunds' - given it's a German word and all that. Suddenly though, I hear people with sausage dogs calling them 'dash-unds' or even 'dash-hounds'. When did this happen? Is there a reason for it, like when German shepherd dogs were temporarily rebranded as Alsatians?

OP posts:
Zanatdy · 27/12/2023 22:07

English people often pronounce it incorrectly. My parents always called them dash hounds, now they know the correct pronunciation

cynan · 27/12/2023 22:10

I call them sausage dogs and they have the ugliest backsides. Why on earth is the fur on the rear end two tone with the paler fur drawing the eye to the bum hole? Also paws that are quite demon like fur their size.

Hoglet70 · 27/12/2023 22:11

People just can't say it properly and the mispronunciation caught on I think. My vet calls them Dacksies (sort of phonetic spelling there).

Original poster
FlutterShite · 27/12/2023 22:12

cynan · 27/12/2023 22:10

I call them sausage dogs and they have the ugliest backsides. Why on earth is the fur on the rear end two tone with the paler fur drawing the eye to the bum hole? Also paws that are quite demon like fur their size.

Maybe this is the real question I should be asking.

OP posts:
Dotcheck · 27/12/2023 22:13

Well, I suppose because it’s a German word, and not everyone understands the pronunciation.
🤷‍♀️

savethatkitty · 27/12/2023 22:14

I laugh on the inside. People are foolish

VeganNugsNotDrugs · 27/12/2023 22:14

cynan · 27/12/2023 22:10

I call them sausage dogs and they have the ugliest backsides. Why on earth is the fur on the rear end two tone with the paler fur drawing the eye to the bum hole? Also paws that are quite demon like fur their size.

Dachshunds are originally a German breed. Dachs Hund - badger dog - used to hunt badgers. Their massive (in relation to their size!) paws are for digging.

Can't comment on their arseholes though 😂

Mountainpika · 27/12/2023 22:14

Always known as dash-hounds when I was young. Born 1947.

WiddlinDiddlin · 27/12/2023 22:15

For the same reasons many 'forrin' words are mispronounced and many people cannot correctly name or spell the name of the breed they have.

For example:

German Shepards
Golden Labradors
Vee-ermararners
Lasapso

Those are just the ones I heard today (at work and these are all puppies people have recently bought!).

ElFupacabra · 27/12/2023 22:15

I remember people calling them this in the 90s. I don’t agree with the shift, in fact the opposite, more people pronounce it correctly or as close to correctly as possible rather than dashound

SlashBeef · 27/12/2023 22:16

My odd aunt had loads of them and always called them "the Dashies" so I pronounced it Dash-hound until I found out the proper pronunciation. Funny little things.

GrumpyPanda · 27/12/2023 22:16

Hoglet70 · 27/12/2023 22:11

People just can't say it properly and the mispronunciation caught on I think. My vet calls them Dacksies (sort of phonetic spelling there).

But rather close to rhe actual German tradition for them - dackel.

Original poster
FlutterShite · 27/12/2023 22:16

Mountainpika · 27/12/2023 22:14

Always known as dash-hounds when I was young. Born 1947.

Interesting. Perhaps it was an 'avoiding German-sounding words' thing then, like the Alsatians. I was wondering if it was a recent thing, but clearly not!

OP posts:
Lucanus · 27/12/2023 22:17

It's normal for pronounciation (and spelling) to shift when foreign words enter the English language, or vice versa. What sounds 'wrong' today might be standard in 50 or 100 years time.

pinkhousesarebest · 27/12/2023 22:19

Same way people don’t pronounce Paris properly, or chorizo or whatever. Why an impasse is ( hilariously) known as a cul de sac.

DahliaMacNamara · 27/12/2023 22:19

I remember my mum's friend having one in the 70s when I was a child, and she always said dash-hound. I knew it wasn't right, but she wasn't alone in that pronunciation.
Thinking about the dog in question, I'd have said he was more Basset than Dachs.

missmollygreen · 27/12/2023 22:19

savethatkitty · 27/12/2023 22:14

I laugh on the inside. People are foolish

Very foolish! They should really know how pronounce every foreign word. The plebs!

cynan · 27/12/2023 22:20

Dachshunds are originally a German breed. Dachs Hund - badger dog - used to hunt badgers. Their massive (in relation to their size!) paws are for digging

Thank you for that explanation, makes sense! Their bums remain a mystery!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 27/12/2023 22:23

FlutterShite · 27/12/2023 22:16

Interesting. Perhaps it was an 'avoiding German-sounding words' thing then, like the Alsatians. I was wondering if it was a recent thing, but clearly not!

Show quote history

People were believed to not be able to cope with foreign words of any type - Nestle was still being called Nessles in the 70s, for example.

Hardbackwriter · 27/12/2023 22:24

They're much more common now and so the word has become increasingly anglicised. In the same way as English people generally attempt to do a bit of an accent while saying, for instance, Montpellier or pico de gallo, but don't attempt to say Paris or guacamole in anything like an 'authentic' way. The more often it's encountered the quicker it gets 'localised'.

BathTangle · 27/12/2023 22:24

@GrumpyPanda yes, Dackel or Teckel. I have always called them dachs-hund, but then many of my family speak German.

Original poster
FlutterShite · 27/12/2023 22:24

By the way, I wasn't trying to be sneery about an assumed inability to pronounce foreign words. It seemed like a proper renaming trend and I'm curious about that. It's possible I just hadn't noticed before, of course - or I just never before knew soooo many people with sausage dogs.

OP posts:
AllProperTeaIsTheft · 27/12/2023 22:25

Tbh I don't find it very surprising that most Brits, who also almost certainly aren't aware of the origin or exact meaning of the name, find it hard to pronounce a word containing the sequence of letters 'chsh' Grin... and I'm a German teacher!

brooksghost · 27/12/2023 22:25

I have 2 Dachshunds.
Large paws for burrowing, looser skin to help if they are caught on brambles whilst burrowing, strong tail so they can be rescued when they've burrowed and got stuck...and also visible in long grass, big chests for stamina, low to the ground for scent hunting, amazing stamina (mine need about 2 hours walking a day), bred for companionship...very very stubborn.
People always stop us to talk about them; the amount of exercise they need surprises most people.

LightDrizzle · 27/12/2023 22:25

cynan · 27/12/2023 22:10

I call them sausage dogs and they have the ugliest backsides. Why on earth is the fur on the rear end two tone with the paler fur drawing the eye to the bum hole? Also paws that are quite demon like fur their size.

😂😂😂

Why not just say what you really think? 🙌🏻