Is there a common alternative to "hinein" and "herein" that does not reference the speaker's location?

Question

I understand that both hinein and herein can be used to translate "into it", that hinein is used when referring to movement away from the speaker's location, and that herein is used when referring to movement toward the speaker's location. Is all of that correct? If all of that is correct, then what is commonly used when the speaker is a third-party that observes something moving into something else and does not want to reference her own location? Can hinein be used in this case?

For example, a person jumps into a river. She wants to say in mid-air, "I jump into it." One possibility is: "Ich springe hinein." Then a dog jumps into a river and the person (who is already in the river) wants to say "It jumps into it." One possibility is: "Er springt herein."

Suppose now that a person is flying high in a helicopter and looks down. She sees a dog jumping into a river and wants to say, "It jumps into it". Can she say "Er springt hinein"? What is the common way to say this?

Answer 1

While your translation is correct, it is possiby more exact, than the average speaker may be aware of. The solution of not revealing the own position is simple: Use other words. Examples are:

• Der Arzt betrat das Haus/ ging in das Haus des Patienten.
• Der Fahrgast verließ das Taxi.

In fact I don't see a problem of revealing ones own position; typically it is known from the context before.

Mehr geht in die Tasse nicht hinein

Obviously here the narrator is not already sitting in the cup.

Die Halbinsel ragt ins Meer hinein

Same here, narrator is unlikely to swim in the sea, watching the peninsula.

Note, that there are many fixed phrases, which require hinein, without a clear border between inside and outside:

• Ins Blaue hinein
• In den Tag hinein
• In die Welt hinein (hinaus would be an alternative here)

Answer 2

In Austrian German, (because "common" is relative to something e.g. geographical area, group of people)

• "einhin" and
• "einher"

are used, but usually pronounced

• "eini" and (e.g. Er springt eini.)
• "eina" (e.g. Er springt eina.)

respectively, (unless you're in the Tyrolerean Uplands where the "h" is emphasized as a fricative: "eihi" and "eiha", respectively.)

This might seem very foreign someone unfamiliar with this, but it is not. Consider the ubiquitous “vorhin” and “vorher”. Whether prefixed or suffixed, it is merely a convention. Some dialects use one of the forms to express both directions, therefore not referencing the speakers location. However, in German, even in most dialects, the direction relative to the person is important.

Answer 3

Concerning your example with the helicopter hinein is still the right word.

Since the helicopter is outside of the water, from their position the dog jumps hinein ie away from them. (From their environment "air" to the girls enivronment "water"). This is what I meant in my comment, a position is nearly always implicit by the position of the narrator. Imagine in a book the narrator explains how a perosn walks into the house. If he explains how the person met a friend on the street but then leaves to go into the house, it would be hinein. If the story goes how the friends are inthe house and suddenly the first person goes into the house it would be herein.

It is actually the same in English I think. If the person goes inside it's from the outside, if they come inside it's from the inside.