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There may be some tweaking you could do to the English (natural topper stuffed/filled with hair etc.), but I think this might be the general idea!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 22 hrs (2019-11-16 16:47:13 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I've been thinking about this all afternoon, and my sense is that we'd likely specify the exact type of hair, too ("natural horsehair toppers", "natural wool toppers" etc.) - on a second reading, "hair" alone conjures up images of human (!) hair. Still, I definitely stand by my corner in the "hair" vs "fibres" debate!
I said I think it is OK to post that link because it's not the newspaper article in which Jonathan's sentence can be found and it doesn't mention the company selling these mattresses but only its supplier.
Spicing up a post with a complaint about ethical transgressions even though it is clear that there are none, plus labelling that complaint as "important," is not only ridiculous but frankly an underhanded way of distracting from the lack of arguments in favor of fibers.
We're here to debate questions on linguistic grounds. I'll leave the mudslinging to others on this forum.
Still, we can discuss the Auflagen bit (in a respectful tone). Similar to what Phil said, I'd rather use padding then. The padding can be found between the mattress and cover, though "versteppt" (as I think this mattress is) means the Auflage is an integral part of the cover. And yet, I'd still be hesitant to use organic wool cover, since the wool is at the top and bottom only. Also, it's wool.
A couple of important points: 1. "I think is OK". In my personal opinion due to privacy and obviuos ethical reasons is NOT OK at all to post the text link on behalf of the asker/colleague. Permission was not asked. It will be his choice to explain the context and eventually to post the link. 2. In addition, this is NOT the article I was referring to. Infact, the producer is another company. Therefore, I leave it to the asker, who knows for sure better than us what we are talking about. Greet you all.
Incidentally, your comment "toppers and covers" seems to suggest that they're the same thing - in English, they're very different, with a "topper" being a squishy thin mattress that you put on top of the mattress for extra padding, and a "cover" being almost like a thin sheet (whether waterproof, bed-bug-proof, or whatever).
I can imagine that this is something with some regional variation too, though, and I'm not sure where you're based in the English-speaking world geographically (I know from my own experience that American bedding is very different from that in the UK, both re. terminology and the actual items of bedding)!
I'm aware there's a risk of going round in circles here, so I'm signing off for the day - a lovely Sunday to all!
Thanks for all the links, Björn - that supports my feeling that "Haar" here refers to something of animal, not plant, origin (although I do recall a "Haargras" from a botany translation once, that's unlikely to be the substance at play here!) - and, most importantly, that the distinction between the two can't really be elided.
@Francesca
I don't doubt the veracity of the definition of natural fibres - what I'm saying is that here, as with so many terms, the definition of the term (fibres from any natural source) and how it's used in practice (generally, fibres from a plant source) don't fully align, at least in my experience.
An example that popped into my mind when dishing up breakfast this morning is the word "juice" - almost any dictionary will tell you that this is liquid squeezed from fruit. In the area that I grew up (North Yorkshire), and much of the North of England, though, "juice" is what the rest of the UK calls "squash" or "cordial" (a syrup to dilute). This is obviously a question of dialect, so it's a rather different kettle of fish, but it does illustrate the slight danger of relying overly on definitions instead of familiarity with current usage in practice.
What you're trying to translate: "Ohne zusätzliche chemikalische Ausrüstungen sorgen Naturfasern wie Baumwolle und Schurwolle durch ihren natürlichen Feuchtigkeitshaushalt für spannungsfreies Schlafen."
What we actually need a translation for can be found on the same page: "Baumwolle, Naturlatex und Leinen werden pflanzlich, Schurwolle und Naturhaaretierisch gewonnen, ohne Boden oder Tiere zu schädigen."
You may get away with using Haare in reference to cotton, but it doesn't work with several other types of Pflanzenfasern (and GNS would simply say Bio-Baumwolle or the like).
Fibres/fibers just isn't an answer to the Q; animal fibers could work, but then again, it's pretty clear that we're only talking about wool, especially swisswool. They have a whole marketing campaign centered around this, I'd say: https://swisswool.ch/schweizer-wolle-in-matratze-sorgt-bei-b...
As said, how to translate Auflage may be the bigger problem.
"I (found and) read the article of the company producing the mentioned toppers and there was NO reference whatsoever to any animal."
The author of that article (saw it, too) mentions the company name. Not that difficult to find (and I think OK to post): https://bico.ch/matratzen/
There's a Topper Master (Naturlatex), a Topper Clima (Schweizer Schafschurwolle), and a Topper Vita (some combination of wool and artificially produced materials).
The author even says which line of products this is. The mattress itself is made of Lyocell and polyester(!); only the Auflage is Schafschurwolle.
The bigger problem may be that this Auflage seems to be integrated [edited b/c I accidentally wrote "doesn't seem"] with the mattress. Still, it's not a cover in the traditional sense (i.e., to protect the mattress from dirt or such).
Jennifer I agree with you, it seems that the most wide terms are toppers and covers. Natural fibres: As I tried, apparently not successfully, to get it through in the previous entry, in English natural fibers include plants, animals and minerals. I deliberatly kept the umbrella term because I (found and) read the article of the company producing the mentioned toppers and there was NO reference whatsoever to any animal. From a marketing POV I do believe it is also better to keep 'natural fibers'. In addition, fibers like: wool, silk, angora, and mohair are from animals! See link/article below, section "Examples of Natural Fibers - Natural fibers come from many sources. These sources can include plants, animals, and minerals.
We are probably most familiar with plant and animal fibers from a consumer standpoint. Common natural fibers sourced from the plant kingdom include cotton, flax, hemp, bamboo, sisal, and jute. Their main component is cellulose. From animals, we get popular fibers like wool, silk, angora, and mohair." https://www.barnhardtcotton.net/blog/what-is-a-natural-fiber...
In short, there is nothing wrong with wool. You could even use it for camel hair: "The fine, shorter fibre of the insulating undercoat, 1.5–5 inches (4–13 cm) long, is the product generally called camel hair, or camel hair wool." https://www.britannica.com/topic/camel-hair
Now, what you'e trying to do is turn Naturhaar into Naturfaser, which means you go one category higher. It's like saying you're selling animal-based products instead of ivory (whether you should sell this at all is not the point). That's neither wanted nor needed.
In fact, the link you posted reads: "Produkt: deutsches Qualitätsprodukt aus eigener Herstellung 100% Schurwolle kuschelig warm..."
Please keep in mind that this is about selling to consumers. Wool is simply the more appropriate answer, in my opinion. Hope that meets with Phil's approval =)
@Jennifer Thanks, same to you! Let's hope so; the questions posted in the last few days are knotty enough =)
@Francesca Not sure what you're trying to get at.
Yes, it could be a Tierfaser, or even Schaf(s)faser. But as Jennifer so aptly explained, if you use Naturfaser, you usually do so to stress that they're not synthetic. That's also true in German: "Als Naturfasern werden alle Fasern natürlichen Ursprungs bezeichnet, die – in Abgrenzung zu Chemiefasern – ohne synthetische Prozesse direkt weiter verarbeitet werden können." https://www.hessnatur.com/magazin/textillexikon/naturfasern
Moreover, the Q was not about Faser but about Naturhaar: "Wolle, das sind genau genommen, alle spinnfähigen Haare von Säugetieren wie zum Beispiel Kamelhaar, Ziegenhaar oder Schafshaar. Die in unseren Breitengraden am häufigsten verarbeitete Wolle stammt vom Schaf. Das Haarkleid der Schafe teilt sich in das gröbere Deckhaar und das feinere Unter- oder Flaumhaar." https://www.mona.de/magazin/mode/lieblingsmaterial-wolle
Thanks for the link to an example mattress topper - that's exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of (although the type that sprang to mind immediately was with horsehair filling, not wool topping, although either are perfectly possible!)
Re natural fibres etc - you're absolutely right with your definition that animal wool/hair is technically a natural fibre. However, in my view, the term "natural fibres" is, in practice, most commonly used to refer to plant-derived fibres - or at least, that's how it's used in my corner of the UK :)
Glad you agree, Björn - I'd never really thought about the innards of mattresses and the like before, but the manufacturers clearly put all kinds of things in there! (And I completely agree re. the plant/animal fibres distinction)
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday (hopefully there'll be fewer knotty KudoZ questions coming in for the rest of the day!) :)
However, I also think it's too general. Moreover, "Haar" is usually not a word you'd use for plant fibres (Fasern) in German, making a backtranslation unnecessarily difficult.
@Björn kindly invited me to pop back over on this fibres/hair etc. discussion, so here's my two pennies' (or, for our US friends, cents') worth.
As the toppers are truly stuffed with "Haar" (whether "Schaafshair" [wool] or, as in my link, "Pfedehaar" [horse hair]), I think the sense of hair/wool, depending on the specific topper in question, really needs to be included.
Incidentally, to me, "natural fibres" means something quite specific, in a textile context. To my ear, "natural fibres" (cotton, linen etc.) are the opposite of "synthetic fibres" (polyester etc.), generally in terms of materials/fabrics rather than stuffing/filling.
While hair/wool is a natural fibre, simply erasing the difference between the two seems to be an excessive (and not wholly permissible) generalisation to me.
Can also be used to refer to some kind of modular system, which means part of the mattress can be replaced without having to throw away the entire mattress: https://das-nachtlager.de/matratzen/vorteile.html
Maybe some people use it for a simple mattress, though they shouldn't.
I looked up this "system" to find out what it was, and it appears simply to be a fancy word for mattress. Since the "Auflagen" are washable, they must be detachable, which implies that they may be mattress covers or pads. But I'm not sure why they're made of "Naturhaar".
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all-natural/organic fiber covers/protectors
Explanation: usually are 'zippered allergy free cover and/or protector'
Explanation: I first wondered about "layers about natural hair", but, on reflection and in common with Franscesca, opted for a less directly descriptive solution - "natural hair" just doesn't seem to have a great ring to it in this context.
Sabrina Stolfa United Kingdom Local time: 21:52 Works in field Native speaker of: English
There may be some tweaking you could do to the English (natural topper stuffed/filled with hair etc.), but I think this might be the general idea!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 22 hrs (2019-11-16 16:47:13 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I've been thinking about this all afternoon, and my sense is that we'd likely specify the exact type of hair, too ("natural horsehair toppers", "natural wool toppers" etc.) - on a second reading, "hair" alone conjures up images of human (!) hair. Still, I definitely stand by my corner in the "hair" vs "fibres" debate!
Jennifer Caisley United Kingdom Local time: 21:52 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 8
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