Spiegel online has a quiz on abbreviations such as z.K. and a.a.O. I got them all except u.u.R!

(Thanks to Udo Vetter’s law blog)

Anklicken zum Vergrößern.

Here are some pictures from Fürth that I’ve been meaning to post for some weeks now. Click to enlarge.

This poster seems to be saying too much at once. It seems to come from attac, an anti-globalization organization. What is the message? Germany did badly in the Pisa tests and isn’t spending enough on education, and it’s all Gerhard Schröder’s fault. But the Bild newspaper seems to be involved too.

Here’s a religious one, using the somewhat archaic rufet instead of ruft (God is calling), but incorporating a capitalization error (Sonntags/Mittwochs for sonntags/mittwochs) and a hyphenization one (Baptisten Gemeinde).

Finally, this car sticker is directed against the extension of shop opening hours: Without Sunday there would only be weekdays (and vice versa, I imagine).

Robin Stocks pointed out an article in the Stars and Stripes on this topic, entitled ‘German lemon law sweetens car purchases’.

bq. In January 2002, under a European Union directive on consumer protection, Germany changed its laws on tangible property sales to better protect the consumer. All German dealerships must provide a 12-month warranty for every used car they sell.

bq. Ensuring that a dealership provides the warranty will save the buyer a lot of heartache and legal hassles if a dream BMW or Mercedes turns out to be a lemon, said German lawyer Roland Schwengebecher, who is representing Pullum in his dispute with the car dealer.

(The client referred to is Lewis Pullum, presumably no relation to Geoffrey K. Pullum of Language Log).

bq. The German lemon law, Bürgeliches gesetz buch, para. 434ss, states that if a used car bought from a dealership is defective, the dealer must take the car back or pay for repairs. The law does not apply to private sellers.

It’s odd to see a section/paragraph of the Civil Code being referred to as ‘Germany’s lemon law’, even though it doesn’t deal specifically with cars. I also think the ss. should be ff. (or et seq.). Probably the reference should be to § 437 in conjunction with §§ 280 ff.

Nicht mal in England kann man ein Tier zum Alleinerben machen, trotz deutschsprachiger Presseberichte. Salzburger Nachrichten:

bq. london (SN, dpa). Eine im Alter von 89 Jahren verstorbene Engländerin hat ihren beiden Hunden ein Millionenerbe hinterlassen. Laut “Daily Mail” vermachte Nora Hardwell den Collie-Mischlingen Tina und Kate ihr Vermögen in Höhe von 675.000 Euro. Außerdem haben sie alleiniges Wohnrecht in ihrem Haus mit weitläufigem Garten.

The Salzburger Nachrichten and other reported last week that an Englishwoman left her estate to two dogs.

They quoted the Daily Mail, but the report is not available online, at least no longer.

The Bath Chronicle has a slightly more detailed report:

bq. A Recluse has left a staggering £450,000 in her will to her two beloved dogs. Spinster Nora Hardwell earmarked more than half of her £800,000 estate to ensuring that rescue dogs Tina and Kate would be well cared for after her death.
Neighbours say she lived for the Collie Cross dogs, who now have the run of her house in a village near Bath.

Although the first sentence says she left the money to the dogs, the article makes it clear that £450,000 was set aside to pay for care for the dogs for as long as they live, including keeping her house run for them.

bq. Miss Hardwell’s last will and testament reads: “I give the sum of £450,000 to my executors on trust to invest it and to apply the income from it for the maintenance of any dog or dogs which I may own at my death for the period of 21 years from the date of my death or until the death of my last dog.”

bq. She said a home had to be kept and maintained for her dogs and carers employed to look after them.

bq. The residue of her estate – and any cash left at the end of the 21-year period – will go to the Cinnamon Trust, a national charity for the elderly and their pets; the Animal Health Trust, the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the Cancer Research Campaign.

Originally the testatrix had four dogs, but two died shortly after she did.

(Via Juristisches und Sonstiges)

Die Süddeutsche berichtet über die neue Sprache, KOD, von Johannes Vielberth (72) aus Regensburg.

A German report on the new artificial language KOD includes a sound clip. The website of the inventor also has English pages (the Spanish and French pages are not ready, which may explain why KOD is needed). Just for fun, it looks as if the language even has a new alphabet.

The language has no grammar of its own, however. That is, the speaker uses the grammar of his or her own language.

It seems the name Kod has a D sound at the end, which the Germans are bad at, leading to the Kot sound (= excrement). The name Eufo-Institut also uncomfortably recalls UFO, a word used in German as well as English.

According to the Süddeutsche, Kod is not a new language, but the sum of the most fundamental common features of fifteen languages spoken by 4,8 billion of the total of 6.3 billion people on earth.

(Via Persistent Illusions, which I now quote again. There is a reference there to Sommerloch, literally summer hole, the silly season). PI also gives excellent links to Wikipedia in Esperanto and in Interlingua.