Following the discussion on Berliner, some discussion in the languagehat comments. John Emerson writes:

bq. Well then, why DID the effete Europeans name all their great cities after pastries and sausages?

And Chris Waigl comments on the Amerikaner. Now I thought Amerikaner here were always black and white, but my search today (in the middle of a heatwave) only produced a white one. Here it is nearing the end of its life:

And here (added later) a vague indication of size:

Of course there are Debrecziner and Krakauer, and even Regensburger. And on some translators’ list (pt?) there is currently a discussion about Engländer, Franzosen and Schweden – all of them types of wrench, if I understood it correctly. It can’t have been the Werkzeugforum, because I don’t read that.

LATER NOTE: How could I forget the Weimaraner?

2003 hat der Marketing Director von SDL (die jetzt Trados gekauft hat) freiberufliche Übersetzer so beschrieben: “Irgend jemandes Oma, die über einem Laden in Nürnberg arbeitet”.

I’m a bit behind the times with this 2003 quote from Hedley Rees-Evans, SDL’s marketing director:

bq. The companies also face price competition from small outfits that may focus on translating into one language, or from people with personal ties to corporations. Companies continue to farm out work to such individuals, but are learning that a more sophisticated provider may be a wiser choice, said Rees-Evans.

bq. “It’s somebody’s granny working above some shop in Nuremberg,” he said. “Then they realize that there are actually economies of scale to be realized and questions of quality.”

Thank goodness I have left it too late to be a granny. I do work above a shop, and not far from Nuremberg. And I agree that economies of scale can be made, and that questions of quality need to be considered.

(Thanks to Marc Prior)

It’s still very hot here and this is what I saw when I went out to get the paper this morning:

It suits him very well. People sit outside the restaurant and café and around the fountain very late in these temperatures, and this is what some of them got up to. The three rather wishy-washy-looking figures are the original three rulers of Fürth – the dean (Dompropst) of Bamberg, the margrave of Ansbach and the imperial city of Nuremberg. The fact that there were three rulers rather than one led to the freer regulation of trade in Fürth and the presence of many foreigners, still so deprecated in Nuremberg today.

They may not have needed this voucher for soft icecream at IKEA, since they stand in front of an Italian ice cream parlour.

There’s an English report on the Deutsche Welle site about the Currywurst (curry sausage) museum in Berlin.

bq. A skinless pork sausage smothered in curry-laced ketchup, currywurst is sometimes served whole but most often chopped into bite-sized morsels and eaten off a flimsy paper plate. It costs about €2.50 ($2.65).

This is a strange thing. I haven’t had one for years but in my memory, first the chopped sausage is put in the carton, then it’s covered with tomato sauce, then curry powder is sprinkled on top. Things may have changed, though.

A museum to the currywurst is to open on 30 March 2006. More details will be revealed on 30 June 2005.

Zum Thema des Currywurstmuseums bietet sich die Lektüre des Fastfood Freunde-Blogs an. Hier zum Thema Currywurstmuseum.

Hier erfährt man z.B., wie man bei McDonalds eine Apfeltasche verlustfrei isst (von Thomas Jungbluth, einem der acht Blogger):

bq. Zunächst einmal: Niemals. Niemals, eine Apfeltasche essen, die frisch zubereitet wurde, weil nicht genügend auf Vorrat bereitgehalten wurden (und es werden selten genügend auf Vorrat gehalten). Das Innere einer frisch zubereiteten Apfeltasche hat die Brennkraft von Lava und betäubt die Geschmacksnerven für etwa 24 Stunden. Mindestens 30 Minuten muss eine solche Apfeltasche abkühlen.

bq. Dann wird sie senkrecht gehalten, damit die Füllung nach unten rutschen kann. Man isst nun oben vorsichtig eine erste Öffnung in den Teig. Dann dreht man sie in die andere Richtung senkrecht, Öffnung nach unten, und saugt erste Teile der Füllung aus der Teighülle. Wenn Sie flach ist, kann der Teig dann in kleinen Bissen verzehrt werden. Das letzte Drittel (oder Viertel) wird komplett gegessen.

(Über Mosaikum)

In an important discussion about doughnuts on an ITI list, Herbert Eppel‘s Google search gave me a useful link :

Linguist Jürgen Eichhoff, writing in the academic journal Monatshefte, confirms there was no flub on Kennedy’s part. “‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ is not only correct,” he says, “but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say.”

Thank goodness for that! It’s amazing what hordes of people who don’t speak a word of German love to jump on that bandwagon.

Comments may be ignored or deleted!

If one is to believe the Beck Verlag website, the new German-English volume of Dietl’s law dictionary has appeared in book form and the CD-ROM is promised for the end of July 2005.