I know Turkish vocabulary is rich because I have been trying to learn some with little success. I know there are words there that come from the Arabic, and I suppose Persian/Farsi too. But am I to believe the famous Zaman Daily Newspaper?

‘Turkish Vocabulary Rich Compared to English’

It says that Turkish has over 600,000 ‘vocabulary words’ (as opposed to non-vocabulary words?) and English has 430,000 vocabulary words.

Well, it certainly seems like that when I look at the next chapter of my book for the Volkshochschule (evening classes institute). I think all the language book publishers have been forced by the German VHSs to create a textbook and a workbook and a CD. The vocabulary in the textbook is never listed alphabetically together with the translation, because we aren’t supposed to think about the German word. There is an alphabetical list of Turkish words in the back, directing you to a chapter and section, where you will find the German. The grammar only becomes vaguely clear if you look at the workbook. So you finish up with fingers in about five places in the books. I have long since torn the vocabulary pages out of the back of the textbook. (I should say that the way the grammar is gradually introduced is quite good, or would be good if it were more accessible).

For a sensible approach, I recommend Colloquial Turkish, which is published by Routledge, by those mysteriously un-British and un-Turkish-sounding authors Jeroen Aarssen and Ad Backus.

But back to the article.

bq. Turkish Language Institution (TDK) President Prof., Sukru Haluk Akalin, said yesterday: “This work will show our magnificent richness. When this work is completed, we will organize meetings with writers, poets and media institutions in order to spread the use of Turkish.”

Well, it may be too late for me.

In an interview for the Guardian, Mark Haddon briefly discusses the translations of his novel (the German one has already appeared, translated by Sabine Hübner).

This is just an excuse to say how much I enjoyed it. Having a narrator with Asperger’s syndrome is like an intensification of the naive child narrator. Unfortunately it was over too soon. (I am recovering from a couple of other books I perhaps shouldn’t have read to the end).

bq. Q: How much input do you have into the various translations – especially with the idiomatic expressions (pig of a day, apple of my eye, skeleton in the closet etc)? Do they tell you how they think they would work in another language and ask your permission, or do they just go ahead and do whatever they want?

bq. I worked in Swindon for a while. Made me want to kill a poodle too…

bq. MH: I have had long, involved and often very funny email discussions with other translators about, for example, the precise size of the fork or the precise nature of liquorice laces.

bq. Q: Did you discuss the book with your translators at all, or was it simply something organised by your publisher without your input? Were they able to contact you with specific queries?

bq. MH: The translators are organised by the foreign publishers but they’re always free to contact me through my agent over here. Mind you, so far there have been, I think, 34 foreign co-editions, so I’m quite glad that most of the translators were happy to go ahead without input from me…

The remark on the translation of metaphors is misplaced. Christopher, the narrator, cannot understand metaphors. If ‘a pig of a day’ doesn’t work in the target language, any other idiom will do just as well. I can’t imagine asking the author’s permission if the original metaphor doesn’t work, or you could ask 300 questions. The reference to ‘other translators’ makes it sound as if something has been cut.

[No offence to Armin in Swindon]

Found in the Blogbook’s links. (They’re great links, but they still think Herr Simon is a Simone!):
Sixth Form law weblog.

Das [geändert von dem falschen “der”] Sixth Form law weblog ist geschrieben für Sixth Formers, man könnte sagen Abiturienten, die Recht als Schulfach studieren.

Über ein Link findet man weitere Links bei Bournemouth & Poole Sixth-Form College (ein Sixth-Form-College ist eine Schule nur für die letzten zwei Jahrgänge, Alter 16-18).

Einführungen ins englische Recht auf diesem Niveau bieten einen guten Einstieg auch für Ausländer, da sie meist knapp sind und ein großes Feld abdecken.

The Küblbock cucumbers have been taken up more seriously by law blog and Handakte WebLAWg.

Rainer Langenhan says that the SZ was incorrect to say up to 25 euros was being bid – the current prices are no more than 7.50 euros (Paul Thomas, in a comment to the last entry, says he counted 117 offers). However, it may be that some have already been sold in an auction wíth a short deadline.

Udo Vetter says the public prosecutor’s office is mistaken to describe the cucumbers as worthless if they are being sold on E-Bay. Rainer Langenhan says even if they are not worth much, there is still an offence available under section 259 (2) of the German Criminal Code, Teilnahme an der Entwendung geringwertiger Sachen – participation in the misappropriation of property of little value – and that there is a public interest in prosecution in view of the auction. Veter adds that even valueless property can be stolen, although the victim (here presumably the pickles company) has to make an application for prosecution (Strafantrag) for theft of property worth less than 25 – 50 euros. But if there is public interest (see above), the public prosecutor can go ahead without an application from the victim. The exploitation of an accident might be enough – at least, if the public prosecutor wants some publicity.

And finally, Vetter adds, selling pickled cucumbers bought from the local supermarket as Küblbück accident pickles (!) is frau (Betrug).

Senioren Union: Aufruf zur Unterschriften Aktion gegen sinnlose Anglizismen.

Abnu of Wordlab (see also earlier entry) drew my attention in an email to a Deutsche Welle article in English on Denglish.

Apparently February 21st, a week ago, was International Mother Language Day. The article suggests more German is beginning to be used in advertisements in Germany – for instance, McDonalds has replaced the slogan ‘Every time a good time’ by ‘Ich liebe es’ (I love it, or, according to Deutsche Welle, I’m lovin’ it – well, OK, that’s the original US verb form, but it doesn’t really go into German, at least not as Ich liebe es).

It also recounts the study that found how poorly many Germans understand English slogans. I mentioned it briefly earlier and PapaScott had a fuller report. But this is the first report in English I remember seeing – there must have been others, though. And the article gives a number of other examples of Denglish.

There’s a group of older people in Nuremberg who are campaigning against the use of so much English in German, by shops, authorities and churches (Ticket-Office im Basement, Bratwurst Point, Feel-Good und Come-In Gottesdienst).

Thanks, abnu (I’m not sure you’d get away with that name in Germany…)

The Wordlab site has a link to an interesting article (with photo) on a new lavatory, an art object, in London, designed for tourists not wanting to miss any sightseeing time – it has one-way mirrored walls.

LATER NOTE: I see that Wordspy has an entry on Denglish. The earliest usage it found in English was in 1998.

bq. Example Citation:
“Many billboards have slogans in ‘Denglish’ — a mix of English and German. Ad posters for sleeveless jumpers call them ‘tanktops’. And Berlin’s roadsweepers are promoted under the slogan ‘We Kehr For You’ — kehr means to sweep.”
—Michael Lea, “Germans throw in towel and start talking English,” The Sun, April 7, 2000

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that some people on E-Bay are selling jars of pickled cucumbers allegedly from the accident where a lorry loaded with pickled cucumbers was the victim of Küblböck’s bad driving (he hasn’t taken his test yet).

Some of the photos are convincing, showing the scene of the accident. Or rather one picture, which has presumably been ‘borrowed’ from the original source.

Apparently they were Specht Prager Gurken pickled cucumbers. Or else Develey, if you believe the minority. Actually, they are one firm now, so both are probably right.

To quote the Süddeutsche:

bq. Nach Angaben der Staatsanwaltschaft Landshut müssen die Gurken-Jäger, die das Gemüse an der Unfallstelle aufgesammelt haben, nicht mit einer Strafe rechnen. Die Gurken seien durch den Frost als Nahrungsmittel unbrauchbar geworden und damit wertlos, erklärte Oberstaatsanwalt Alfons Obermeier. Der Vorgang werde zwar geprüft, ein förmliches Ermittlungsverfahren sei aber wohl nicht zu erwarten.

bq. According to the Landshut public prosecutor’s office, the pickle poachers who collected the jars from the accident are not going to be charged. The pickled cucumbers are no longer edible as a result of the frost and so they are worthless, said the Chief Public Prosecutor Alfons Obermeier. The events will be looked into, but it seems unlikely that there will be formal criminal investigation proceedings.

Other cucumbers for sale on E-Bay in Germany include weiße Gurken – white cucumber seeds. Apparently white cucumbers were quite the rage in the Austro-Hungarian empire.