|>> Here is a minimal pair to illustrate that point: |>> Er hat in Moskau liebe Genossen. |>> Er hat in Moskau Liebe genossen. |>> which translates to: |>> At Moskow, he’s got dear comrades. |>> At Moskow, he has enjoyed love. |> |> A classical joke are those two newspaper header lines: |> |> Der Gefangene floh |> Der gefangene Floh |> |> which translates to |> |> The Prisoner Escaped |> The Caught Flea | |So in this case, the imaginary newspapers made use of written forms |that they perhaps would not have used orally, if instead of newspapers |they had been Radio channels. | |The general subject here is the fact that “outer“ things, such as the |(effect of the) “look“ of the language, affects on the “inner“ \ |things, |namely how we use the language.
Better fit for Germany would be »how we are supposed to use the language«, *though*. ..Just because today it was announced that Otfried Preußler (..search Preussler..) died (at the age of 89).. ..Sigh.. A terrible motion in the german language is killing »evil words« from children's books. A few years ago Astrid Lindgrens »Pippi Langstrumpf« was forbidden to use the word »Neger« (Negro), after a (i think long) trial fought by the family. And a few weeks ago the word »Negerlein« (minimization form of »Neger«) has been axed from Ottfried Preußlers »Die kleine Hexe« (The Little Witch) [1, German]. That is, future generations will read clean books. And the mentioned website may have good contents, but a »Graf Ortho« is soooo poor given that the german »Sesamstrasse« has a »Graf Zahl« (Lord Number) since decades. Well, it may be easier for kids to overcome their inhibition level like that. *In the seventies young girls thought on their own [2,3]*! And at the same time Germany has become the 3rd largest arms-exporting country. As a side note, the german garbage collection is called »Veolia«. For the clean-away in us. Had to be said. Steven [1] http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/literatur/sprachstreit-um--die-kleine-hexe--die--boesen-woerter--von-otfried-preussler,10809200,21450236.html [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EshRTkJ7M6A [3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utSnv-0_tzY (120 seconds, please!)
