Some organizations look for the English word of the year.

In Germany, the search is for the Unwort (non-word) of the year. Bremer Sprachblog points out that people often suggest words that refer to phenomena they don’t like, for instance Kopftuchverbot (headscarf ban). The word itself is unexceptionable.

Last year’s expression (Wort can mean a single word or a phrase) was freiwillige Ausreise. If kraut means a German, then we foreigners must be Unkraut.

Looking at the list of words since 1991, it’s interesting that more than one of them has to do with foreigners.

The Bremer Sprachblog entry points out that Kopftuchverbot is recommended by Muslim organizations, but is rejected because it is a correct word referring to an Unding. But last year’s freiwillige Ausreise was exactly the same, except that it was not recommended by Muslims.

Dabei kommt mir eine Unidee. Die „Sprachkritische Aktion“ schränkt in ihrer Pressemeldung den Teilnehmerkreis stilsicher ein:

Vorschläge können von allen Deutschsprachigen im In- und Ausland gemacht werden.

Warum schließt man Muslime nicht einfach mit der Begründung aus, dass sie per Definition keine „Deutschsprachigen“ sind?

Döner365.de is beginning to build up a database where people can record and give stars to their local döner sellers.

What I want is one that tells me if I can get döner with lamb in Franconia. At least I can get beef, but most of them have gone over to turkey (do they think it sounds like home?)

(via RA J. Melchior)

Die FTD berichtet, dass in Deutschland (Berlin ist eine Ausnahme) Fernbusse mit der Bahn nicht konkurrieren dürfen (§ 13 Personenbeförderungsgesetz)

Wenn die Lokführer der Bahn den Fernverkehr lahm legen, bieten Busse keine Ausweichmöglichkeiten. Ein uraltes Gesetz verhindert, dass Busunternehmer der Deutschen Bahn im Fernverkehr Konkurrenz machen.

The Financial Times Deutschland reports that an old statute prevents coaches competing with the railway on long-distance stretches. Berlin is the exception that proves the rule.

The provision dates from 1931, when income from the railways was needed to finance WWI reparations – so perhaps it’s all down to Versailles.

This explains the lack of a coach service from Erlangen to Fürth. This would be very welcome in the evening, when the trains are far apart. There comes a time when having another drink is a question of whether one wants to stay for an hour.

(Via Vorspeisenplatte)

I need one of these.

(Via Shiny Shiny)
Link removed at seller’s request in July 2013.

Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing.

The Child Benefit data on them include name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25m people.

(BBC news)

There is a video of the announcement in the House of Commons. Laughter when it was suggested that people should be careful about giving out their bank details when unexpectedly asked to do so on the phone or by email, and indignation when it was stated that the Data Protection Act had been breached.

Who needs Schäuble when you can get a government like this?

An article in the FAZ, Anderungsanträge per stiller Post (I would have expected per stille Post in the accusative – stille Post is Chinese whispers) by Philip Eppelsheim is about translation in the EU parliament. (It can be found in the online archives and bought for 1 euro – I got the paper)

Angela Wicharz-Lindner studied translation – Italian and French – at Heidelberg
joined the translation service in 1985
at first did (at least) one page an hour, eight pages a day, dictating, all kinds of topics
later did her own typing

The number of pages translated internally increased: it’s not clear whether each translator’s page output increased. Stille Post refers to the practice since the EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007 of translating everything first into English, French or German.

All documents are translated before the deadline, or at most one day later. Some deadlines are extended in advance. The external private translators produce more and are about one-third cheaper. The internal translators, however, review translations too and also do further training: Wicharz-Lindner has attended English classes and also learnt Spanish and Dutch. She refers to the time spent researching, originally in books or on the telephone, now on the Internet.

She agrees with the principle of language equality, but finds that in EU institutions there is an increasing inclination to use (sometimes bad) English, which started when Scandinavians joined the EU.

55 Prozent aller Ausgangstexte, die die Übersetzer erhalten, sind mittlerweile auf Englisch abgefasst. Abgeordnete riskierten schlechtes englisch, vermutet Wicharz-Lindner, um sich mit Weltgewandtheit zu profilieren. Die Ergebnisse lassen die Übersetzer dann oft verzweifeln. „Manchmal ist das ein reines Rätselraten“, sagt Wicharz-Lindner. Ihr wäre es lieber, ein Spanier würde sich seiner Muttersprache – dann aber korrekt – bedienen.

But now Frau Wicharz-Lindner has taken early retirement and is moving to Bonn.

Jetzt will sie mehr wirkliche Literatur übersetzen.

It appears from Google and amazon.de that she has already translated some ‚real literature’.