Deutsche Telekom is using a video of Paul Potts as a TV advertisement, with the slogan Erleben, was verbindet (literally, Experience what links (people)). The clip is of him
Funny – I didn’t know Deutsche Telekom had anything to do with his win. And it seems weird to use such a well-known event. But I suppose not that many Germans had seen the clip. Still, how can a company base its advertising on something that’s been on YouTube for months?
The Nürnberger Nachrichten reports today (with illustration) that the term Seniorenspielplatz is banned and replaced by Bewegungspark für alle Generationen. Thus the press office of the City of Nuremberg (could these be the people who coined Knut war gestern?)
The term seems still to exist on this site, which lists such places throughout Germany.
I was a jelly donut
This topic has frequently been mentioned here – for instance in this 2005 entry. But it refuses to die the death. It is really entrenched in the USA.
paperpools took it up recently, linking to the NYT book blog, and fortunately this led to a useful entry in the Bremer Sprachblog.
Paper Cuts talked to Michael Jennings, the chairman of the German department at Princeton University.
After you wrote to me, I did a bit of informal research myself — talking to lots of friends in Berlin. And their responses were all over the map. Certainly the most common and accepted way to say “I’m a resident of Berlin” is “Ich bin Berliner,” i.e. without the indefinite article. But, for many speakers, it is by no means incorrect or ungrammatical to say “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Some of my respondents in fact applauded Kennedy on his nuanced use of German, since for them the sentence without the indefinite article implies that the speaker is a native Berliner, while the sentence with “ein” suggests either more recent residence in Berlin or even solidarity with its inhabitants (which was clearly Kennedy / Sorenson’s intention).
Some topics I mentioned earlier have been taken up elsewhere recently.
Uppercase ß: earlier entry
I was a bit early on this. The way for capital ß has now been opened (Tagesspiegel)
Düsseldorf/ Berlin – Die letzte Lücke im deutschen Alphabet ist geschlossen – zumindest technisch. Das ß gibt es nun auch als Großbuchstaben erstmals verankert in den internationalen Zeichensätzen ISO-10646 und Unicode 5.1. Es hat dort den Platz mit der Bezeichnung 1E9E. Das bestätigten das Deutsche Institut für Normung (DIN) und die Internationale Organisation für Normung (ISO). Die Änderung werde in Kürze veröffentlicht, sagte ein ISO-Sprecher. Damit hatte ein Antrag der DIN-Leute, eine Norm für das große ß zu schaffen, teilweise Erfolg.
As Cherry point out, it’s not so easy on the keyboard.
See also Bremer Sprachblog
LATER NOTE: see this justification for uppercase ß (quoted in comments; English)
Madame Tussauds opened in Berlin yesterday.
Scarcely had it opened when a 41-year-old visitor pulled off Hitler’s head.
Hitler returns to Berlin, from The Guardian
I seem to have missed the Kantinenblogger, who posts photos of his canteen meals every day, mainly from Fürth, but also from Nuremberg, Munich and Auburn Hills (I assume the large proportion of sweetcorn kernels is a matter of choice).
(Discovered from print edition of Fürther Nachrichten)
Another site that has started is about the natural surroundings: www.natuerlich-fuerth.de
In the Stadtzeitung, the Oberbürgermeister reports on how many birds have been seen along the railway line: the black stork (Schwarzstorch), nightingale (Nachtigall), green-footed moorhens (Grünfüßige Teichhühner), the golden oriole (Pirol) and the curlew (Großer Brachvogel).
I wasn’t hopeful of seeing nightingales, a search for the black stork has failed so far – have seen a kingfisher though – I doubt the curlew will be strolling around close, but I was interested by the green-footed moorhen – until I realized that all moorhens are green-footed.
Here is a juvenile moorhen hiding its feet:
and here a muskrat (they must have heard there is no price on their heads at the moment):
