Someone – in the USA? – has scanned the pages of a German book explaining to children where babies come from. Judging from the comments on some blogs, it may be having an effect for good or bad on how the Germans are seen in the USA.

The earliest version I found was at planetdan on October 14 (click on the pages to turn over). Somewhat disingenuously it says ‘I’ve no idea where this came from … If anybody knows who originally scanned this…’ without saying where the blogger got it from.

Metafilter carried the story on October 23. I was informed by email by the anonymous editor of Blawg Review* (not to be confused with the blawg review), who linked to the version in Ann Althouse’s blog.
Points of concern include the hammer in the doctor’s hand at delivery and the use of some words. For instance, Schlitz (slit) is used as a word for small children, to introduce more adult vocabulary, but one commenter finds it typical that ‘Anglo-Saxon words’ are cruder than words derived from Latin. Here’s another comment:

bq. I don’t know what’s European, but I guess it’s very American to find it icky. Precisely because it’s so healthy. It goes with Birkenstocks and eating plenty of fiber.

All those in the pictures seem to have their eyes wide open all the time. One commenter thinks the baby looks like Kenny in South Park. I think this book is probably ten or twenty years old. There are a number of such books on amazon.de (search for Aufklärungsbuch in Google, for instance), but the cover illustrations are in different styles.

*Blawg Review started in April 2005. It has a weekly round-up by a guest law blogger. It has an address at www.blawgreview.com as well as the blogspot one, but that seems to be down at the moment.

I’ve mentioned hearing on the radio, ‘Es kommt Ihnen ein Fahrzeug entgegen’. I haven’t mentioned ‘Zwischen X und Y fahren Sie vorsichtig – es sind Gegenstände auf der Fahrbahn’.

Ladungsverlust.de tells you what those objects might be.

I’m pretty sure I hear ‘Es sind Personen auf der Fahrbahn’ as a different message.

bq. Folgende Gegenstände wurden seit März 2003 auf hessischen Autobahnen erfasst:
Kuriositäten:
Kühlschranktür, Kühlschrank, Koffer, Kardanwelle, Wanne, Sofa, Windschutzscheibe, Sessel, Sitzgarnitur, Matratze, Feuerlöscher, Fernseher, Teppichrolle, zwei Sofas, Motorhaube, Garagentor, Schubkarre, Motorsäge, Einkaufswagen, Mini-Gabelstapler, Kartoffelsack, Ofen, Tannenbaum, Jogger, Rasenmäher, Autositz, Propeller-Teil, Weihnachtsbäume, Kanu, Bananenkiste, Knallkörper, Person mit einem Hund, Satellitenschüssel, Waschmaschine, großes Plüschtier, Toilettenhäuschen

(Via Astrid Paprotta)

Here’s a site on Turkish law with an English discussion board.

And here’s another site on Turkish law, in the UK.

No, for those whose geographical knowledge is limited, this is not the Jura around Arbois in France, but the island of Jura off Scotland.

Small Isles Blog

Jura – apparently George Orwell wrote 1984 here.

Picture above from Ileach.

You may see Armin on Jura.

Languagehat has taken up the topic I mentioned earlier, and in his comments, Bertil gives a link to the Wikipedia page on Scheinanglizismen.

This is what I need. I am sure there are more around, and it would make sense to add them here. I had been thinking of beginning a collection myself, but it’s only a few I’m really interested in, that come up in my translations sometimes. I’m not interested in the argument about whether or not a cell phone or something similar was ever called a handy in English.

Body Bag is familiar, of course. It refers to one of those sort of half-rucksacks or lopsided handbag-like bags that are held close to the body by the construction of their straps. I suppose rucksack and backpack are the English terms (this site gives the necessary translation into English).

Bertil writes:

bq. I think the original objective of the dictionary is to find German words for English words that enter their language. To mix this with Scheinanglizismen is a bit confusing.

I think the truth is more surprising than that. The purpose of the Fruchtbringendes Wörterbuch is, in part, to invent words:

bq. Es soll zeigen, daß Sprachentwicklung auch ohne staatliche Reglementierung möglich ist. Das Projekt dient nicht nur dazu, bereits existierende Neuerungen zu dokumentieren, sondern ausdrücklich auch dazu, neue Wörter zu erfinden, und zwar unabhängig davon, ob für einen Gegenstand bereits ein Wort in einer anderen Sprache existiert oder nicht.

I think I’m too old for that, I mean not for inventing words, but for contributing to that collection.

This Friday morning at ten past ten I had a phone call from a local translation agency I don’t know.

bq. Die Stadt Nürnberg bringt ein Bildband über die Stadt heraus. Der zu übersetzende Text ist etwa zwölf Seiten lang in Word. Das Problem ist: die Stadt Nürnberg braucht die Übersetzung bis Montag.

This explains a few things about the quality of translations about the city of Nuremberg.