Eric Bakovic of Language Log, in ‘Translation and Free Speech’, links to a New York Times articleof August 31st:

bq. SAN DIEGO (AP) — Several doctors and a group supporting English as the nation’s official language filed a lawsuit Monday challenging a Clinton-era executive order requiring federally funded hospitals, clinics and doctors to offer translation services for patients who speak limited English.

bq. The plaintiffs said the order is an illegal intrusion into their practices and will further motivate doctors to restrict their services or leave the industry.

They also, mysteriously, claim transaltion and interpreting limits doctors’ freedom of speech.

Apparently ProEnglish and Colwell filed a similar lawsuit two years ago in Virginia, but it was dismissed for several reasons.

This is one of the new spellings – Spaghetti is still allowed as well as Spagetti. It’s long been possible to write Frisör / Friseur, but now you can have Grafit / Graphit, Panter / Panther, or Myrre / Myrrhe.

The topic of the German spelling reform was very popular in language blogs a week or so ago. I had the feeling some of those opining were speaking more in theory than from experience of this specific reform: it’s easier to say the reform is a good idea if one hasn’t experienced some of its illogicalities or realized just what kind of a camel an international German-speaking committee can design. There is a good summary of links by Mark Liberman at Eggcorn Log, and Eamonn Fitzgerald’s Rainy Day had a summary of an article in the Neuer Zürcher Zeitung on English spelling reform:

bq. Waser runs through the various attempts to “put manners” on English, from the British Spelling Reform Association, which Tennyson founded in 1879, to the more recently instigated Simplified Spelling Society. The latter, by the way, would have us turn “their language” into “thair languaje” and “other countries” into “uther cuntries”. Er, yes. Along with its website, the Simplified Spelling Society informs the world of its doings with “leeflets” and “pamflets “.

There was an article by Professor Theodor Ickler in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the latest edition of the Duden Rechtschreibwörterbuch that goes into some detail on the kinds of problems involved.

Here is another of those stories that get reported wrong abroad. Ananova got the wrong end of the stick, and this filtered through to Wordlab too, and thence perhaps to the world. Boing Boing had it too.

In March this year, final-year students at a Jesuit school in southwest Germany sent Haribo a joke letter purported to be from school authorities, complaining about the lascivious appearance of the wrappings for Maoam sweets. A few days later, Haribo replied. The letter was clearly a joke, and it looks as if Haribo realized this (German originals here).

The Kölner Express newspaper reported on this on August 31st, suspecting in the last line that the letter was a practical joke, but milking the story for all it was worth, as did Bild a day later. Thanks to BILDblog for the true story (in German). BILDblog shows the first-page headline in Bild, which of course gives no suggestion that the letter was a hoax.

Ananova also places Sankt Blasien, which is near the Feldberg in the Black Forest, near Bonn, which isn’t. This seems to be because Haribo is in Bonn.

To quote the Law in a Box website:

bq. The Law in a Box range of CDs is a powerful resource and will be a useful supplement to your studies. Each CD, with the exception of Advocacy, which is a 2 hour film, contains a detailed textbook and a series of 10-15 recorded lectures. For the six Core subjects, the Casenote text is an additional resource. All Law in a Box CDs are kept up to date online, with the latest cases, statutes and relevant articles.

Online demo

These CDs are produced by Semple Piggott Rochez, who have an excellent site for their online law courses, and also Consilio online law magazine.

There is also Accounts in a Box.

(Via Delia Venables)

The site Echtename.de collects bizarre German names. It’s constantly being enlarged.

Of the many categories, double names (Doppelnamen) is particularly interesting, because Germans oftn combine two surnames when they get married.

bq. # Sylvia Dienstknecht-Ochse, Euskirchen (08.08.2004)
# Dralle-Fünfstück, Salzdetfurth (15.06.2004)
# Ingeborg Drossel-Gräser, Kreuzlingen, Schweiz (15.06.2003)
# apl.Prof. Dr. Ilse Dröge-Modelmog, Leiterin AG “Kultur von Frauen”, Univ. Oldenburg (07.06.2003)
# Barbara Dudda-Dillbohner, SPD-Ratsfraktion Wuppertal (25.02.2004)
# Anja Dudel-Neujahr, Hannover (18.02.2003)

Via PapaScott, via vowe (vowe is the only blog I know that has a photo of the building I live in in its galleries).

Juristische Buchhandlung mit einem Bestand von über 1000 englischsprachigen Büchern und Loseblattwerken zu Vertragsgestaltung, Intellectual Property, US und UK Gesellschaftsrecht, Europarecht, Rechnungslegung & Steuer, Bank- und Finanzwesen, M&A usw.

The German legal bookshop Schweitzer has a superb commented booklist of books in English on German law, 51 pages long at present. In about four weeks’ time it should be online at the online shop. Or you can have it sent by email as a PDF file.

The person to contact is Bettina Kube, whose email address has the same format as those in the Impressum on that site.

The bricks-and-mortar shop is in Munich, very near the Hauptbahnhof, but there are many other shops connected to it throughout Germany, for instance Büttner in Nuremberg (just behind Karstadt).

Here are the categories in the list:

• Antitrust – Competition
• Arbitration
• Bank – Finance
• Business – Corporations
• Civil Procedure
• Constitution
• Contracts – Forms
• Criminal Law
• Employment – Labour
• Energy – Telecommunication
• Insolvency – Liability
• Intellectual Property
• German Legal System
• Takeovers – M&A
• Taxation – Accounting
• Torts – Obligations
• Construction
• Miscellaneous

Schweitzer also has other commented lists, about English and US law. Again, they can be obtained by email and are updated once or twice a year:

Kommentierte Literaturlisten
Internationale Bücher, Fortsetzungswerke & CD-ROMs in englischer Sprache

Diese Listen werden ständig erweitert. Sie sind kostenlos. Und sie erhalten Sie per E-Mail (bitte geben Sie Ihre E-Mail Anschrift an!). Sie erhalten dann automatisch 1-2 mal jährlich den aktuellen Stand.

[ ] IAS – GAAP – International Accounting
[ ] Taxation
[ ] Company – Corporate Law USA
[ ] Company – Corporate Law UK & International
[ ] Competition & Antitrust
[ ] Mergers & Acquisitions
[ ] Banking & Finance Law USA
[ ] Banking & Finance Law UK & Europe
[ ] Contracts Forms Drafting
[ ] Germany – Law & Taxation

[ ] Biotechnology
[ ] Copyright & Design
[ ] E-Commerce & Internet
[ ] Intellectual Property
[ ] IT Law
[ ] Media & Sport
[ ] Patents
[ ] Trademarks & Licensing
[ ] IP Forms