pj@prime.UUCP (Peter J. Weyman) (07/26/85)
This falls in the believe it or not category. In this month's Reader's
Digest, there is a paragraph describing John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein
Berliner" statement. Apparently, he *should* have said "Ich bin
Berliner". In fact, the article claims that "Ich bin ein Berliner"
translates to "I am a jelly doughnut".
Someone out there must understand enough German to help me understand
why this is so...I frankly can't see it.
By the way, this was *not* in one of those "humour" sections of RD.
{ihnp4,allegra,ut-sally,seismo}!harvard!prime!pjriddle@im4u.UUCP (07/27/85)
> This falls in the believe it or not category. In this month's Reader's > Digest, there is a paragraph describing John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein > Berliner" statement. Apparently, he *should* have said "Ich bin > Berliner". In fact, the article claims that "Ich bin ein Berliner" > translates to "I am a jelly doughnut". > > Someone out there must understand enough German to help me understand > why this is so...I frankly can't see it. Okay. First of all, if you looked up "Berliner" in a sufficiently encyclopedic German-English dictionary, you would find both definitions: "a person from Berlin" and "a jelly donut." The difference lies in the use of the article. There is a rule in German that you drop the indefinite article before nouns of occupation, nationality, and the like is simple sentences in the form "<person> is <noun>". Thus the sentence "He is a doctor" would translate to "Er ist Arzt," never "*Er ist ein Arzt." (Why the rule? Don't ask. I'm not sure there even *is* a "why" for rules like this.) Following this rule, "Berliner" can't be correctly parsed as a noun of citizenship in Kennedy's sentence, so it defaults to its second meaning, a kind of pastry named after the city of Berlin. (There was a cartoon circulating in Germany a couple of years back which portrayed Ronald Reagan saying, "Ich bin ein Hamburger!") --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech}!ut-sally!riddle riddle@ut-sally.UUCP --- riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally, riddle%im4u@ut-sally
asente@Cascade.ARPA (07/28/85)
In article <130@prime.UUCP> pj@prime.UUCP (Peter J. Weyman) writes: >This falls in the believe it or not category. In this month's Reader's >Digest, there is a paragraph describing John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein >Berliner" statement. Apparently, he *should* have said "Ich bin >Berliner". In fact, the article claims that "Ich bin ein Berliner" >translates to "I am a jelly doughnut". > >Someone out there must understand enough German to help me understand >why this is so...I frankly can't see it. If you know enough English to understand the difference between "I am Danish" and "I am a danish" you should be able to understand why this is so in German. -paul asente Actually, it wasn't a mistake. He really *was* a jelly doughnut.
long@oliveb.UUCP (Dave Long) (07/29/85)
In article <130@prime.UUCP> pj@prime.UUCP (Peter J. Weyman) writes: | This falls in the believe it or not category. In this month's Reader's | Digest, there is a paragraph describing John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein | Berliner" statement. Apparently, he *should* have said "Ich bin | Berliner". In fact, the article claims that "Ich bin ein Berliner" | translates to "I am a jelly doughnut". This is because occupations, to what area one belongs to, etc. are like adjectives in German. So, like one would say "I am sick", one says "I am programmer", "I am Californian", etc. In this case "a Berliner" is the name of a type of jelly donut, just like things such as "a Hamburger" (not the same thing as in the US). Dave "Ich bin Teerferse" Long -- {hplabs,fortune,idi,ihnp4,tolerant,allegra,tymix}!oliveb!long
ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (07/29/85)
In article <130@prime.UUCP> pj@prime.UUCP (Peter J. Weyman) writes (paraphrased for conciseness): > > [John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" versus "Ich bin Berliner"] > > ["Ich bin ein Berliner" as "I am a jelly doughnut"] In article <410@Cascade.ARPA> asente@Cascade.ARPA (Paul Asente) writes: > If you know enough English to understand the difference between "I am > Danish" and "I am a danish" you should be able to understand why this > is so in German. But I *remember* that speech; he started by saying "I am a Berliner" (in English) which we heard the translator render as "Ich bin ein Berliner". After two renderings through the translator, *then* he said "Ich bin ein Berliner" (in German). So what the heck was the translator thinking of (if the "jelly doughnut" statement is true.)?!? Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl