The German publisher Kiepenheuer und Witsch has a competition for twisted German sayings:
Die Letten werden die Ersten sein. Eva Hasil
Oh nein, ich habe Hochhaus verloren. Daniela Möhrke
Das wird von den Medien ziemlich hochsterilisiert. Marcel Znamenak
Da wurde die Kuh von hinten aufgerollt. Evelyn Kessler
Möge dieser Elch an mir vorübergehen. Ragna Sieckmann
Google reveals a lot of English ‘twisted sayings’, but I haven’t found any really good ones.
It’s OK to be negative about Esther Rantzen, but the comments ought not to do an injustice to the German language:
Please stand for Parliament. Please. I cannot think of a better candidate to beat a worse one. In German, her name means “to talk to others in a patronising manner” as in the phrase “Ich rantze wie dieses herablassende Weibchen Esther Rantzen”.
Lt.-Cnl. Kojak Slaphead III | 05.20.09 – 6:20 am
A reference on a translators’ mailing list to Anglo-Saxon accounting conjured up visions of, at best, Fred Flintstone with an abacus. It reminded me of the blurb in Erlangen (in the early 1980s) saying I taught Anglo-Saxon law.
A Google for angelsächsisches does reveal sites relating to Old English, but also the term Angelsächsisches Modell, translated sometimes as ‘Anglo-Saxon’ model (i.e. in inverted commas), Continental or Anglo-Saxon, the British and American ‘Anglo-Saxon’ model, or the so-called Anglo-Saxon model, which shows that at least some journalists are aware it isn’t really English.
An Anglo-Saxon model in Ipswich Museum:
It was mooted that the term Anglo-Saxon was first used in French in the late 19th century, actually meaning Jewish (les financiers anglo-saxons). But that seems to be past.
I gather that the open source mapping community is using the new English word motorroad to mean a highway with motorway-type access restrictions.
I just hope this will not confuse the Germans, who think it’s a two-wheeled motor vehicle:
Ummeldung Motorroad im selben Kreis! Neues Kennzeichen möglich?
or:
man kann ja auch “langsam” fahren und muss net immer aufdrehen ..
also ich kenne mich , ich haize mit dem roller net so auf der straße weil ich respekt gegenüber der maschine habe …und bei dem motorroad wäre ich halt noch vorsichtiger !
ab und zu mal auf der autobahn stoff geben dagegen spricht ja mal nix …
(Hat tip to Trevor)
Having today already been confronted with ‘Sehr geehrte Kolleginnen und Kollegen’ addressed to persons outside Germany, I am wondering about ‘Mit kollegialen Grüßen’, but that’s easy: ‘Yours sincerely’ (at least in British English).
Michael Kadlicz in Wiener Neustadt – is that still Vienna? – received this from a fellow-lawyer:
Sehr geehrter Herr Kollege Mag. Kadlicz!
Aufgrund eines bedauerlichen Versehens habe ich bemerkt, dass in der letzten Nachricht in der Schlussformel das Wort “kollegiale” Grüße nicht aufgenommen war. Ich bitte dieses Versehen höflich zu entschuldigen, wie Sie mich ja bereits kennen, bringe ich Ihnen selbstverständlich die volle kollegiale Wertschätzung entgegen.
Ich zeichne mit
freundlichen kollegialen Grüßen
Not really translatable, I’m afraid.
If I were registered to comment at twoday.net, I would comment on the first sentence. Is it the regrettable oversight that the writer noticed his omission? Translators tend to correct this kind of thing.
I love the firm’s website – must have changed since I last saw it. Blog.
Max Mosley is suing the News of the World for breach of privacy. They clandestinely filmed him in a sado-masochistic party.
Mosley denies that it had a Nazi theme.
However, it has come out that he was speaking German, also referred to as ‘cod German’.
MOTOR racing chief Max Mosley told the High Court that he spoke German during a sado-masochistic session with five women because the “harsh-sounding” language suited his dominant role. … He said that the role-play “prison” scenario, which is at the centre of his breach of privacy action against the News of the World, involved him and woman B, a fellow German speaker, being dominant to submissive characters who could not understand them.
…
“German also somehow sounds appropriate for a bossy dominant character. It is a harsh-sounding – rather than a romantic – language.”
One wonders what his German sounded like:
He said that if he had asked for a Nazi theme, he would have been deeply disappointed to be greeted, as he was, with the phrase “Welcome to Chelsea” rather than “Brandenburg Tur”.
…
Asked about his speaking “cod German as though he was in a poor World War Two movie”, he said it had nothing to do with the war.
(via Schifo at www.flefo.org)
LATER NOTE: as indicated in the comments, Mosley spent 2 years from the age of 13 (his first regular schooling) at a school in Stein an der Traun (Wikipedia), so at least at the age of 15 he spoke fluent German.
According to the Independent of July 10:
The editor agreed with the suggestion of Mr Mosley’s QC that “in fairness it might have been instructive to have had [the video of the orgy] translated by a German speaker”, after the paper alleged the S&M session had a concentration camp theme.
…
The editor admitted that no one with knowledge of German watched the video before the paper went to press. This was despite the fact that one of the scenarios featured in the video – which the paper claimed was recreating a concentration camp scene – was conducted mostly in German.
LATER NOTE: Mosley won the case – see later entry.