Blogpause für etwa 2 Wochen.

I shall not be blogging for two weeks or so. I can’t absolutely promise, because I have some technical equipment at my disposal, but it may not work, and even if it does, I might not have anything to say.

eXil.co.uk ist eine Website für Deutsche in England, mit exzellenten Links.

A website in German for Germans in the UK, with excellent links.

Allergiker haben ein Recht auf eine katzenfreie Nachbarschaft, entscheiden Amtsgericht und Landgericht München. Kurzmeldung in der FAZ, nur Print oder kostenpflichtig online (nach dem Wort Allergiker suchen; Amtsgericht Az. 191 C 10647/03, Landgericht Az. 34 S 16167/03).

Somehow I can’t see this happening in England and Wales. The Munich Amtsgericht and Landgericht found in favour of a flat-dweller who wanted his neighbours to get rid of their cat. He submitted a doctor’s certificate showing that the cat hairs might lead to a life-threatening asthma attack, or at least that this possibility could not be excluded. The neighbours argued that the cat was not let out, and that it was important for the psychotherapeutic treatment of their twelve-year-old son, who had panic attacks and a speech disorder. The Amtsgericht, which deals with minor cases at first instance, held that it was clearly more important to avoid a serious asthma attack than for the cat to support psychotherapeutic treatment. On appeal, the decision was upheld.

One wonders if this person with the allergy stays at home all the time, because if he leaves the building he’s going to encounter cats all over the place. The paper is silent on this.

(Thanks to Anon of Frankfurt)

I am a great fan of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, by J.C.Wells, professor of phonetics at University College, London. It covers British and American pronunciation, sometimes has little statistical surveys, and of course contains all kinds of last names, place names and so on.

The website of the UCL Phonetics & Linguistics Department came up in one of my Jamie Oliver. It’s worth looking at, especially for the Resources and Tools. Here’s some information on Estuary English. Excellent links on estuary and Cockney, including an article in the Süddeutsche (in German). This is a nice warning:

bq. Do not be misled by the title of the work Shallow-Water Dictionary; A Grounding In Estuary English, by Stilgoe, John R., Paperback – 48 pages (August 1994) Princeton Architectural Press; ISBN: 1568980299. The blurb reads: “Stilgoe’s definitions are lyric explanations of the vernacular language of America’s nearly extinct shallow-water regions.” A blow for Rosewarne’s London-centred view of the universe.

As Paul Thomas pointed out in the comments to the Jamie Oliver entry, you can translate a website into Cockney (inter alia) online.

The Journal of Diplomatic Language is announced for September. It looks promising, but comes at a price:

bq. The JOURNAL OF DIPLOMATIC LANGUAGE, (ISSN 1550-607X) an academic journal appearing four times a year, addresses the power of language in international relations. JDL features peer-reviewed, theoretically grounded reports of research, and provides a forum for in-depth discussion of central issues in diplomatic language. Areas of interest include:
textual analysis of international instruments,
rhetoric, ambiguity, and metaphoric language,
text interpretation and translation,
documentation and archiving,
conceptual and relational analysis,
cultural, social, and historical analysis,
negotiations and travaux préparatoires,
current research methodologies, and
any other topic clearly relevant to the language of diplomacy.

Esther Karay hat ihr Haupt-Weblog, in dem es teilweise um türkische Thematik geht, umbenannt in karay.de; die Adresse labertasche.de wird jetzt für persönlichees benutzt.

Esther Karay berichtet auf Deutsch, mit Links, über das englische Urteil zu muslimischer Kleidung in einer Schule.

BBC Report: Schoolgirl loses Muslim gown case.

bq. Wie BBC news berichtet, hat ein Londoner Gericht die Klage einer 15-jährigen muslimische Schülerin auf Tragen des Jilbab (bis zum Boden reichendes Gewand, das nur Hände und Gesicht frei läßt) in der Schule abgelehnt.

bq. Die beklagte Denbigh High School in Luton läßt mit Rücksicht auf das religiöse Bekenntnis ihrer zu 80 % muslimischen SchülerInnen als Schuluniform auch den Salwar Kameez (Kombination aus Hose und Tunika) zu; das aber war der Klägerin nicht genug. Sie sah ihr Recht auf Glaubensfreiheit eingeschränkt und blieb, nachdem Inventionen ihres Bruders ohne Erfolg blieben, dem Untericht fern.

Sie gibt Links zu Bildern vom Jilbab
und Salwar Kameez.

Siehe auch Christian Säfken
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