From Lifechanges … delayed on February 11th:

bq. This morning, the story that the radio awoke us with was about the British Library’s new Collect Britain website, and specifically the collection of English Accents and Dialects. The site features audio clips from the “Survey of English Dialects” and the “Millennium Memory Bank,” capturing regional variation in English language.

Also picked up by language hat and Trevor / kaleboel, and emailed to me by Tim Slater.

Northern English accents are online now.

I wasn’t aware that a new edition of what I know as the Kleiner Muret-Sanders, at least the DE>EN volume, had appeared. It’s dated November 2003 (the EN>DE volume came out in 2001).

Sample pages can be seen here. It appears that the old one (1984) is still listed, but at least the dust jacket is different. Does anyone think this is worth having? I use the old one quite a lot.

It says it has about 100 pages of appendices, for the first time including lists of famous works of world literature, classical music, ballet and opera (these things I would have expected in the Großer Muret-Sanders, aka Enzyklopädisches Wörterbuch).

For translation see below.
Von/from Kant für Anfänger. Die Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Eine Lese-Einführung von/by Ralf Ludwig, dtv 1995, ISBN 3-423-31035-x

|4.55|Wecken durch den Diener Lampe mit den Worten: “Es ist Zeit!”|
|5.00|Aufstehen. Frühstück: keines, nur zwei Tassen schwacher Tee und eine Pfeife Tabak zur Anregung des Darmes. Erstes Arbeiten in Schlafrock, Pantoffeln und Nachtmütze, wahrscheinlich für die folgende Vorlesungstätigkeit.|
|7 – 9|Vorlesungstätigkeit, inzwischen in vollständiger Garderobe.|
|9-12.45|Hauptarbeitszeit für die Abfassung seiner Bücher, wieder im Hausmantel.|
|12.45|Umkleiden, Empfang der Tischgäste im Arbeitszimmer, wieder in vollständiger Garderobe.|
|13-16|Ausgedehntes Mittagessen im Speisezimmer mit geladenen Freunden, die einzige Mahlzeit am Tag. Lieblingsspeise: Kabeljau, stets eine Flasche Rotwein “Medoc”, manchmal auch Weißwein. Die Tafel wird eröffnet mit dem stereotypen “Nun, meine Herren!”|
|16|Kant geht spazieren, immer allein. Er nimmt, von einer Änderung abgesehen, immer den gleichen Weg. Die Königsberger Bürger, so wird gerne erzählt, stellen die Uhr nach ihm.|
|Abends|Lesetätigkeit, “leichte” Lektüre, bevorzugt Reisebeschreibungen.|
|22|Strengste Bettruhe.|

|4.55|Woken by his servant, Lampe, with the words ‘It’s time!’|
|5.00|Gets up. No breakfast apart from two cups of weak tea and a pipeful of tobacco to stimulate the bowels. Starts work in nightdress, slippers and nightcap, probably preparing lectures for later. |
|7 – 9|Lectures at the university, now fully dressed.|
|9-12.45|Main period for writing books, in dressing-gown again.|
|12.45|Changes his clothes, receives his dinner guests in his study, again fully dressed.|
|13-16|Extended lunch/dinner in the dining room with invited guests, Kant’s only meal of the day. Favourite food: cod; always with a bottle of Médoc red wine, sometimes white wine as well. The meal begins with the stereotypical formula, ‘Now, gentlemen!’|
|16|Kant goes for a walk, always alone. With the exception of one change, he always follows the same route. The citizens of Königsberg, it is often reported, set their clocks by him. |
|Abends|Reading, ‘light’ reading matter, preferably travel reports. |
|22|Bed; strictest rest.|

Desbladet has temporarily abandoned K for Knudella for K for Kant (does Knudella mean anything? It sounds like ‘knuddelig’, but she doesn’t look very cuddly).

You could also read Professor Sharon Byrd on Kant, when you’ve finished reading her on Anglo-American law and language.

Corp Law Blog discusses the design of contract clauses. The trigger was an entry in Professor Bainbridge’s blog. This is the kind of thing discussed:

bq. The real lesson is, of course, to:
a) think,
b) draft and
c) speak
in clearly identified clauses.

Incidentally, my German students had difficulty understanding something slightly different, which Germans don’t do: parallel structures after either/or etc. (I add the divisions only as an aid to understanding – there should be no ‘(a)’ and so on).

We will go either on a) Friday,
b) Saturday, or
c) Sunday.

We will either a) go on Friday,
b) go on Saturday, or
c) go on Sunday.

That’s to say, the structure after the either/or is like the bits in the brackets in algebra.

Meanwhile, a number of books have hit the German market on how to draft contracts. And the latest edition of the German law students’ periodical justament has an article on Vertragsgestaltung (drafting contracts). Here’s a review of Wolfgang Däubler’s recent Verhandeln und Gestalten.

Can anyone tell me why I can’t write a c between two brackets/parentheses without it being converted into a copyright sign (c)? I will just have to leave one bracket away. I know how to switch that off in Microsoft Word, but is this html or Movable Type?
LATER NOTE: have removed one bracket as the MT-Textile plugin was converting my c’s to (c)’s.

I have uploaded a file: an article by Justice Richard Chesterman that originally appeared in the Queensland Bar News. Justice Chesterman gave me permission to upload the file (it’s a PDF file). This permission was forwarded by Ian Hanger QC, the original McKenzie friend.

Download file

A McKenzie friend is someone, who may or may not be a lawyer, who assists an unrepresented litigant in court.

I made earlier entries on the topic, on June 3rd, June 8th and November 6th 2003, and was very excited when the true McKenzie friend wrote a comment!

There are two recent comments under the November 6th entry from Australians asking questions I can’t answer.

I have other files to upload, and I will eventually put a link in the margin.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that a lawyer in Düsseldorf, Frank-Georg Pfeifer, has produced a leaflet called ‘Augen auf beim Hauskauf’ (Keep your eyes open when you buy a house).

bq. „Augen auf beim Hauskauf“ von Rechtsanwalt Frank-Georg Pfeifer, 2,50 Euro, Haus & Grund Deutschland – Verlag und Service GmbH, Mohrenstraße 33, 10117 Berlin, Telefon: (030) 2 02 16-0, Fax: (030) 2 02 16-580, E-Mail: verlag@haus-und-grund.net.

The problems are similar to those in English. Pfeifer says you should pay less attention to what ads say and more to what they don’t say. Here are some translations of his:

|Landhausbauweise| Ausgebauter Geräteschuppen |
|(country house building style| a shed with extensions)|
| Seriöses Umfeld | Bankenviertel, abends tote Gegend |
|(respectable surroundings| banking district, dead at night)|
| idyllische Hanglage | Feuchtigkeit gratis |
|(idyllic site on a slope| damp at no extra charge)|
| Traumhafter Blick über Pferdekoppeln und Weideland |Von Straßen keine Rede; glücklich der Erwerber, der über einen Geländewagen verfügt. |
|(Fantastic view over horse paddocks and pastureland|no roads mentioned – count yourself lucky if you have a Land Rover)|

The BBC offers the equivalent for Britain: Estate agent speak: a dictionary.

bq. Benefits From: Contains a feature you may expect to be the bare minimum for the extraordinary price you are paying.
Example: “Benefits from roof, floors, walls”.

bq. Bijou: Would suit contortionist with growth hormone deficiency.

bq. Borders: Loose term signifying that a property is sufficiently close to a desirable area to ensure the burglars who live next door to you will travel to work.
Example: “Fidel Castro’s house is situated in the highly desirable Bahamas Borders area”.