From lutterdc@cs.purdue.edu Mon May 3 20:49:43 1999 Path: news.nic.utwente.nl!surfnet.nl!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newshub.nntp.mr.net!NewsNG.Chicago.Qual.Net!129.79.6.160!news.indiana.edu!news.iupui.edu!mozo.cc.purdue.edu!not-for-mail From: lutterdc@cs.purdue.edu (David Lutterkort) Newsgroups: soc.culture.german,soc.answers,news.answers Subject: soc.culture.german FAQ (posted monthly) part 2/6 Supersedes: Followup-To: soc.culture.german Date: 1 May 1999 10:35:08 GMT Organization: Purdue University Lines: 1470 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Message-ID: References: Reply-To: scg@cs.purdue.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: proxima.cs.purdue.edu X-Trace: mozo.cc.purdue.edu 925554908 6985 128.10.8.80 (1 May 1999 10:35:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@mozo.cc.purdue.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 May 1999 10:35:08 GMT Summary: These postings contain a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) posted to soc.culture.german. Please read them before you post a question. Originator: lutterdc@cs.purdue.edu (David Lutterkort) Xref: news.nic.utwente.nl soc.culture.german:163599 soc.answers:9361 news.answers:73045 Archive-name: german-faq/2 Last modified: 1999-04-29 Posting-Frequency: monthly URL: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/~lutterdc/scg/ Version: 1999-04 http://www.cs.purdue.edu/~lutterdc/scg/ (The original !-) ================================================================== This is part 2 of the ASCII version of the FAQ list for soc.culture.german. Find the WWW version at Table of Contents for Part 2 ============================= 5. The Internet 5.1 Side Remarks on the Structure 5.2 Finding Germany-Related Information on the Net 5.2.1 Search Engines 5.2.1.1 Germany-Specific 5.2.1.2 Libraries 5.2.1.3 Generic WWW Searchers 5.2.2 Country Codes etc. 5.2.3 Cities 5.2.4 Companies 5.2.5 Miscellaneous Collections of Data on/from Germany 5.3 List of Anonymous ftp Servers in Germany 5.4 Dedicated People's Pages 5.5 Email in Germany 5.6 Getting Internet Access 5.6.1 Universities 5.6.2 Internet Provider Lists and Searchers 5.6.3 Private Networks 5.6.4 T-online 5.6.5 Public Unix Systems 5.6.6 Your Local BBS 5.7 de.* Newsgroups 6. Geography 6.1 Statistics 6.1.1 The 16 Federal States 6.1.2 Cities with >100,000 Citizens 6.2 Daylight Savings Time 6.3 No AM/PM -- 24 hr! 6.4 Maps online and on paper 6.4.1 Online maps 6.4.2 Maps on paper 6.5 World-Wide Weather 6.6 Astronomy, As Observed in Germany 7. Language 7.1 Literature Search Engine 7.2 Duden Editorial Board 7.3 What does the Adjective 7.4 German is so Strange...or is it? 7.5 Listserver LOWLANDS-L for Friesisch and Niederdeutsch 7.6 FOLKHART 7.7 Learning German as an Adult 7.8 Learning German on the Net 7.9 German Words in English 7.10 Tongue Twisters 5. The Internet 5.1. Side Remarks on the Structure o WiN is the Wissenschafts-Netz, connecting universities, Max Planck institutes and other science-related institutions. Run by Deutsche Telekom for the DFN-Verein , it currently has backbones with bandwidths of 1.92 MBit/sec; some are already, many lines are going to be expanded in 1996/97 to 34 MBit/sec. 1996-07 Connections from WiN to US-based networks usually are 1 to 6 Mbit/sec fast. o DE-NIC the network information center for the *.DE domain Their main task is the coordinated distribution of internet numbers and services. They also prepare statistics about the hardware constituting the net. In Nov/95, for instance, there where some 400,000 machines with internet access in Germany, 2 million in Europe; growth is exponential with a doubling period of little more than a year. 1995-12 o The NDA - Norddeutsche Daten-Autobahn connects Northern German internet services. 1995-3 5.2. Finding Germany-Related Information on the Net 5.2.1. Search Engines 5.2.1.1. Germany-Specific o web.de -- Deutschland im Internet; points to German language information pages. 1996-04 o Deutsche Welle background infos 1996-02 o DINO page 1996-09 o Metamedia o Quantum Server 5.2.1.2. Libraries o U Karlsruhe; The WWW Virtual Library: German Subject Catalogue 1996-02 o U Duesseldorf; Virtual Library 1996-02 o TU Darmstadt; Libraries in Hessen 1996-05 o U Cologne; university libraries 1996-05 5.2.1.3. Generic WWW Searchers Since there are so many of these robots, I will only give Meta searchers -- pointers to pointers... o Metasearch o CUSI o Ralf's collection of spiders, robots, crawlers, etc. 5.2.2. Country Codes etc. o phone country codes; from Germany o phone country codes; to Germany o country codes o currency codes 5.2.3. Cities o Arthur Teschler (email Arthur.Teschler@uni-giessen.de) provides a neat mailserver which allows for substring as well as soundex searches in a database of than 50,000 entries of municipality data. Results provide: Gemeindekennziffer, county, region and state, zip code, population, geographical location, topographical maps. For more information send email: To: Arthur.Teschler@uni-giessen.de Subject: _GEO_ 1st line: INFO 1996-02 ok o postal zipcodes o international airports o phone area codes o geographic coordinates o license plate numbers 5.2.4. Companies o a nice collection of web-pages to search for and reseearch German companies. 1998-04 o email-addresses of companies o zipcodes of companies o European Banks 1996-04 o German Banks 1996-04 o bank routes (Bankleitzahlen) using postal codes o bank routes (Bankleitzahlen from Deutsche Bank) 1996-04 o Bankleitzahlen pur 5.2.5. Miscellaneous Collections of Data on/from Germany Before I re-invent everything ...I'll much rather tell you where to find original sources ;-) The 1995 version of the CIA world factbook has a section on Germany, too. 1996-03 This DINO page is also a real saurus... 1995-11 and DW has put up quite an extensive server, too! Available in both English and German. Very nice. 1995-11 The Kassandra Project has a number of nice links for various topics. 1996-03 5.3. List of Anonymous ftp Servers in Germany Christian Hettler (email hettler@ask.uni-karlsruhe.de) maintains a list which you can get via ftp from U Karlsruhe or at its WWW version or through an email server: send an email (leave subject blank) To: mail-server@ask.uni-karlsruhe.de begin send /pub/info/ftp-list-de end 5.4. Dedicated People's Pages Here are quite a few people who collect their own URL's on German resources. Chances are, you'll find a lot that is not included in this FAQ ;-).. o Katharina Davitt's Deutsches Eck 1996-10 o Stephan Gloge's Homepage 1996-02 o Gary Kemper's German Resources 1996-02 o Knut Menard's German Resources at Carleton University 1996-03 o Carl Butler's collection of German newspapers, magazines, etc. 1996-04 o Markus Kolbeck maintains the Bibliomaniac List , a list of links about books, literature and bibliomaniacs, containing now 2700 literary links, many quotations, texts and information about reading & books. 1999-04 o Axel Boldt's thoughts on cultural differences between the USA and Germany 1997-06 5.5. Email in Germany The pointers and tools described here are mostly of general interest in the sense that their scope is not restricted to Germany. Finding Email Addresses Generally speaking, finding an email address is a non-trivial undertaking, but it's not impossible. Several tools exist and you ought to try to them first before you resort to posting a personal I'm looking for a friend - note on the net. These tools include the more modern searchers (handy, www-style, recommended): o Four-11 Directory Services 1996-03 o Look Up! 1996-03 o email-addresses of companies and the following less easily used tools: o Finger Gateway o KIS - the Knowbot Information Service o Netfind o in Germany o in the US o Paradise o Telephone guides o WHOIS o US-based o Whois Gateway o WHOIS servers o Worldwide database of directory services (X500) o X.400 <-> RFC 822 address converter o X.500 The more information you know about your associate (name, place of business or school, and so on) the better your chances are! Internet in General, read the newsgroups news.answers and alt.internet.services Get any FAQ list from there. Email Basics, Obtain basic information on email on the internet. From Network to Network, If you have trouble navigating from one network to another (buzz-word gateways!), read the pretty extensive Inter-Network Mail Guide edited by Scott Yanoff (formerly edited by John J. Chew.) How to Find Email Addresses?, One good starting point is the Sura-guide; Chapter 2 talks extensively about finding email addresses. Another very complete answer is the FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses, frequently posted in the newsgroup news.answers and also available by sending email To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with body: send usenet/news.answers/finding-addresses College Students' Addresses, Try the soc.college FAQ list (this is a second source ); it contains only a few German addresses as of now. If your university is not listed, send a detailed description of how to find email addresses at that place to dalamb@qucis.queensu.ca. If you have a person's name and their academic location in Germany, you may try a netfind for the domain name o uni-stadt.de for Universitaeten o fh-stadt.de for Fachhochschulen o tu-stadt.de for Technische Universitaeten o th-stadt.de for Technische Hochschulen where stadt is to be replaced by the name of the town where the person lives. (example: the university of Karlsruhe is *.*.uni-karlsruhe.de) 1994-4 5.6. Getting Internet Access Public Internet access is (still) nothing you could take for granted. Not even at German universities; although the general trend is going towards better service. Some universities provide it and some don't. The University of Bonn, for instance, provides public Internet access only since August 1993. Nevertheless, usually it should be possible to stay on-line in Germany. For a good overview try this gopher service or its http version. 1995-3 Also try reading the newsgroup de.org.sub (see `The Internet' for more) 1994-11 5.6.1. Universities Statistics about University-Originated access to the Net Ralf Taprogge is conducting a survey about internet accessibility at German universities. He posts his results on the WWW. As of early December 1995, the following data had emerged: For those 47 Universities that had answered... o Some 800,000 students were enrolled total. o About 120,000 students had email accounts. o More than 85% of the universities offer SLIP/PPP for modem access. o More than 50% offer students to create WWW-pages. 1996-1 If the university offers Internet access, you can be sure that the services are not very much like what American students are used to. For example ftp might be very(!) restricted. Usually you'll have to be a student, postdoc, etc. to be entitled for email access at your university. Ask for email at your local Rechenzentrum. 1994-3 5.6.2. Internet Provider Lists and Searchers There are numerous options for internet services. The following is just a limited selection ;-) At the U Hannover you find a specialised service which returns possible providers according to location. 1996-04 Network USA's overview over internet-providers around the world contains also pointers to German providers. More specialized on Europe and Germany is Fokus 1996-04. You may also get Wolfgang Sander-Beuermann's lists on public Unix access and internet access in Germany. Currently reports 68 unix machines; between 0 and 50 DM/month; generally including mail and news service; frequently other services such as UUCP, IP, ISDN) (Also on WWW) 1995-5 Also try this http server at U Kaiserslautern or their gopher. 1995-3 Read de.etc.lists (see `The Internet' on how) Look for Jan Richert's list publicuucp. And finally look for Benoit Carl LIPS' list of dial-in connections in Europe. Obtain the latest version from the USENET groups alt.internet.access.wanted and alt.internet.services or get it via WWW or by ftp 1995-4 5.6.3. Private Networks There are a number of ways besides university connections to stay on- line. Truly commercial providers (like UUnet, etc.) may be a little too complete in service and price for one's personal email and news service needs. Private BBS-based networks like FIDO, MAUS, Z-Netz, Comlink... offer cheap connections to Internet and USENET. Their news and mail service should be satisfactory; IRC, WWW, ftp, and such services are usually not provided. Be aware; the telephone bills from the German Telekom could prove to be nasty. :-( MAUS.NET, SUBNET, INDIVIDUAL.NET To get access to a NON COMMERCIAL BBS (like MAUS-NET). You can only read or write messages or use email. Most of these feed into SUB.NET or INDIVIDUAL.NET (IN) ... which is why you might want to consider getting their services directly; their internet connection is also faster and more complete. Sub.Net SubNet e.V., Geschaeftsstelle c/o Heiko Rupp, Gerwigstr. 5, 76131 Karlsruhe, fax +49 721 661937, email info@subnet.sub.net 1994-10 Individual Network About 40 DM/month for IP, possibly less for news and mail only. Regional differences apply in price and service. 1996-07 email in-info@individual.net or write: Individual Network e.V., Geschaeftsstelle, Scheideweg 65, D-26121 Oldenburg, Germany, tel +49(441)9808556, fax +49(441)9808557 1994-6 Maus.Net Their official homepage is now available. 1997-10 If you happen to know the license plate id (Search for KFZ-Kennzeichen at the quantum server.) for the area of your interest try the following (note that this method is not guaranteed to work!) SYSOP@license plate id.MAUS.DE example: SYSOP@K.MAUS.DE for service in the Cologne area. In the body of the message ask for the telephone number of your local BBS box. 1994-2 5.6.4. T-online All over Germany you can take "Deutsche Telekom" directly with it's t- online service (BTX included.) The price for T-Online access is DM 8,-/Month access fee (including two free hours) and DM 0,06/min usage fee (including phone costs!) plus DM 0,06 for each connection. 5.6.5. Public Unix Systems The following represents a condensed version of the dial-in access possibilities in Germany as cited in Benoit Carl Lips' list (see `Lists of Public Unix Systems') APC/Comlink e.V. Emil-Meyer-Str. 20, D-30165 Hannover email support@oln.comlink.apc.org CUBENet GmbH Ohlauer Str. 74, D-80997 Muenchen email info@cube.net DFN-Verein e. V. Pariser Strasse 44, D - 1000 Berlin 15 email dfn- verein@dfn.dbp.de UUnet Germany (UUnet Deutschland GmbH) Emil-Figge-Strasse 80, D-44227 Dortmund email info@de.uu.net homepage 1998-03 GeoNetn (GeoNet Mailbox Systems) email GmbH@geod.geonet.de Individual Network (IN) Scheideweg 65, D-26121 Oldenburg email IN-Info@Individual.NET access: Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bielefeld, Boeblingen, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Chemnitz, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Dresden, Duesseldorf, Duisburg, Erfurt, Erlangen, Flensburg, Frankfurt/Main, Friedberg, Giessen, Goettingen, Halle, Hamburg, Hannover, Heilbronn, Jena, Kaiserslautern, Kassel, Kiel, Koeln, Konstanz, Leipzig, Ludwigshafen, Luebeck, Lueneburger Heide , Magdeburg, Mannheim, Muenchen, Muenster, Nuernberg, Oldenburg, Osnabrueck, Paderborn, Passau, Pforzheim, Pirmasens, Regensburg, Rendsburg, Rostock, Ruhrgebiet, Saarbruecken, Schauenburg, Sauerland, Schleswig, Schwerin, Stuttgart, Tuebingen, Ulm, Velbert, Weser-Ems, Wetzlar, Wolfsburg, Wuerzburg, Wuppertal Interactive Network Information Systems GmbH i.Gr. Spohrstrasse 24, D-60318 Frankfurt am Main email info@nacamar.de, WWW, fax 06103-966127 Chemnitz, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Hannover, Kassel, Duesseldorf, Aachen, Bonn, Gau-Algesheim, Koeln, Mainz, Frankfurt/Main, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Dreieich, Kaiserslautern, Saarbruecken, Darmstadt, Nidderau, Aalen, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Augsburg, Muenchen, Nuernberg, Weiden, Wuerzburg Interactive Networx GmbH (unlisys InterNET Services) Hardenbergplatz 2, D-10623 Berlin email info@unlisys.net INS Ruhr-Area, Germany email info@ins.net CompuServe Germany tel +49(130)864643 (toll free), +49(89)66550-111 access: Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Duesseldorf, Koeln, Frankfurt/Main Karlsruhe, Muenchen, Nuernberg Lemke & Fuerst GbR Kleinknechtstrasse 35, 70567 Stuttgart email info@lf.net NACAMAR Deutschland Kirchweg 22, D-63033 Dreieich (near Frankfurt) email landi@nacamar.de NCS GmbH Amalienstr. 17-21, 26135 Oldenburg email info@nordwest.de NET GmbH Figarostr. 3, 70597 Stuttgart email info@n-e-t.de Netzwerk und telematic GmbH, Geschaeftsbereich Xlink Vincenz-Priessnitz-Strasse 3, 76131 Karlsruhe email info@xlink.net, or no sales@xlink.net their web site tel +49(721)96520 fax +49(721)9652210 1995-4 And here you can find a whole lot more commercial email providers. For my taste a truly exquisite WWW-server finder is http://www.entry.de/ 1997-05 5.6.6. Your Local BBS If you don't have email access, you might want to pick up the latest issue of C'T computer magazine to look up the list of phone numbers of all network systems. Then dial into the appropriate BBS and ask the local sysop about fees for connection. Cost? A typical user, reading news from de.* and sci.* might want to expect about 10DM connection fee and 15DM in telephone charges (using an off- line reader!) 5.7. de.* Newsgroups The de.* newsgroups are a good idea if you would like to know more about Germany and you are able to read and write German try the newsgroups in the de.* hierarchy. Those newsgroups are mostly available in Germany and at some sites in the US. Specifically parts of the hierarchies maus.*, fido.* and cl.* are fed into international news channels. (Note that these groups usually converse in German-only mode...) 1994-11 NNTP You can try and nag your sysadmin or Internet Service Provider into carrying the newsgroups you are interested in. This will be the easiest way for you to gain access to the de.* hierarchy. Failing that, there are some providers that let you use their news servers. One of them can be found at http://news.cis.dfn.de/. This web page contains instructions on how to get access to the news server. The service is free, but requires registration by email. 1999-04 HTTP DejaNews archives pretty much all the newsgroups known to mankind. You can search and browse their archives to your hearts content, or simply read one of the de.* groups with your web browser. 1999-04 6. Geography 6.1. Statistics 6.1.1. The 16 Federal States State Area km^2 Population Capital ISO 3166 abbrev. Schleswig-Holstein 15738.68 2694875 Kiel SH Hamburg 755.33 1702887 Hamburg HH Niedersachsen 47605.91 7648004 Hannover NI Bremen 404.23 683096 Bremen HB Nordrhein-Westfalen 34071.50 17759300 Duesseldorf NW Hessen 21114.25 5967305 Wiesbaden HE Rheinland-Pfalz 19845.38 3925863 Mainz RP Baden-Wuerttemberg 35751.39 10234026 Stuttgart BW Bayern 70547.44 11863313 Muenchen BY Saarland 2570.02 1084522 Saarbruecken SL Berlin 889.11 3475392 Berlin BE Brandenburg 29481.22 2537661 Potsdam BB Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 23169.47 1843455 Schwerin MV Sachsen 18408.61 4607660 Dresden SN Sachsen-Anhalt 20445.85 2777935 Magdeburg ST Thueringen 16175.15 2532799 Erfurt TH total 356973.54 81338003 Berlin The 16 federal states in overview. Residence of the parliament is still Bonn. Source: Fischer- Weltalmanach 1993-12 6.1.2. Cities with >100,000 Citizens 6.2. Daylight Savings Time From 1996 on, daylight savings time will start on the European continent on the last Sunday of March 1:00 UTC (2:00 MEZ) and end on the fourth Sunday in October 1:00 UTC (3:00 MESZ). At these times all clocks are to be set one hour spring-ahead or fall-back. 6.3. No AM/PM -- 24 hr! Although most everybody in Germany will comprehend (esp. when printed) the AM/PM scheme for the time of the day, the 24hr notation is much(!) preferred. (And no, 19:30 is not pronounced neunzehn hundert dreissig Stunden; it is neuzehn Uhr dreissig.) 1997-01 6.4. Maps online and on paper 6.4.1. Online maps Goodness, yes, there are maps... tons probably... like this zoomable world-overview map or this monster of political map (257kB) A very nice overview of all German states also gives you a lot of WWW pointers to more information by-state! Check it out! 1995-5 And this map of German WWW servers lets you click for information on individual cities. 1999-04 The best source for city maps (Stadtplaene) is Falk Online . They publish maps of all major German, Swiss and Austrian cities. For looking up a specific address, you can try your luck with MapQuest ; their collection of Germany maps isn't half bad. 1999-04 Quite a number of historical maps, which might also be useful in genealogical research, can be found at the FEEFHS web site. 1999-04 6.4.2. Maps on paper The Mercedes Benz among German city maps are made by Falk Verlag . Their "patent folded" maps are available in almost all airports, train stations etc. and make finding your way around a city a pleasure. 1999-04 For driving around the country, several oil companies publish their own collection of maps, leading to such luminaries of German vacationing as the Shell-Atlas or the Aral-Atlas. Rank Name Population 33 Aachen 246671 29 Augsburg 264764 81 Bergisch Gladbach 104991 1 Berlin 3475392 18 Bielefeld 324674 16 Bochum 401058 20 Bonn 296859 67 Bottrop 119676 30 Braunschweig 256267 10 Bremen 551604 55 Bremerhaven 131492 23 Chemnitz 279520 59 Cottbus 128121 9 Duesseldorf 574936 52 Darmstadt 139754 7 Dortmund 601966 15 Dresden 479273 11 Duisburg 536797 39 Erfurt 200799 82 Erlangen 102383 6 Essen 622380 75 Fuerth 108097 5 Frankfurt/M. 659803 40 Freiburg/Breisgau 197384 58 Goettingen 128419 22 Gelsenkirchen 295037 64 Gera 122974 37 Hagen 214877 21 Halle/Saale 295372 2 Hamburg 1702887 43 Hamm 182390 12 Hannover 524823 53 Heidelberg 139429 65 Heilbronn/N. 122396 44 Herne 180539 79 Hildesheim 106303 74 Ingolstadt 109666 84 Jena 100093 4 Koeln 962517 83 Kaiserslautern 102370 24 Karlsruhe 277998 38 Kassel 202158 32 Kiel 248931 73 Koblenz 109807 31 Krefeld 249565 36 Luebeck 217269 14 Leipzig 490851 49 Leverkusen 161761 46 Ludwigshafen 168130 28 Moenchengladbach 265312 45 Muelheim/Ruhr 177175 3 Muenchen 1255623 27 Muenster 267367 26 Magdeburg 270546 42 Mainz 185487 19 Mannheim 318025 78 Moers 106631 13 Nuernberg 498945 50 Neuss 148560 35 Oberhausen 226254 70 Offenbach/Main 116870 51 Oldenburg 147701 47 Osnabrueck 168078 56 Paderborn 130130 69 Pforzheim 117450 54 Potsdam 139262 61 Recklinghausen 127150 62 Regensburg 125337 63 Remscheid 123610 77 Reutlingen 107607 34 Rostock 237307 41 Saarbruecken 190902 68 Salzgitter 117684 66 Schwerin 122189 72 Siegen 111845 48 Solingen 166064 8 Stuttgart 594406 71 Ulm 114839 57 Wuerzburg 128875 25 Wiesbaden 270873 80 Witten 105807 60 Wolfsburg 128032 17 Wuppertal 386625 76 Zwickau 107988 total 26027788 Source: Fischer-Weltalmanach 1993-12 All of Germany is available on topographic maps of 1:25,000 scale, and a large part of it even on 1:5000 scale. Find the right map for you by using `Arthur Teschler's' email-server, (see Internet/Search Engines) then contact the corresponding Landesvermessungsamt; they are in the state capitals. 1996-02 Another option is to contact an international map shop, like RV Geocenter Munich, tel +49(89)431890 1995-3 6.5. World-Wide Weather A quick text-based international weather summary (including Berlin, Bonn, Frankfurt, Munich) might just be all you need. For more extensive coverage you may also try the MeteoSat 5 images of Meteo-France. 1995-10 ok or the report from FU Berlin. (In English.) 1995-4 And from Edinburgh you may obtain the current visual image of Northern Europe, as seen by MeteoSat. (Large!) 1995-7 6.6. Astronomy, As Observed in Germany Astronomical events, visibility and positions of heavenly bodies, calculated for your location in Germany, international holidays and anniversaries, local festivals, birthdays of famous Germans, religious holidays and feasts ... all in a handy pocket diary. For a German/English version email norb@kcbbs.gen.nz 1999-01 7. Language 7.1. Literature Search Engine So far it serves only documents from the universities of North-Rhine- Westphalia...some 22,000 and growing. Reach the server at the center for parallel computing of the U Cologne. 1996-05 7.2. Duden Editorial Board The most widely accepted authoritative answers to questions about the German language are provided by the Sprachberatungsstelle der Dudenredaktion, Postfach 100311, 68003 Mannheim, Germany, tel +49(0621)3901426 1996-03 7.3. What does the Adjective German Mean? The origins of the German language are quite manifold as various peoples have influenced it throughout history. Conversely, there is an impressive variety of expressions for the meaning of the adjective German in those languages. 1. The German deutsch or (ancient) teutsch, has developed through history in several stages, referring first to the language, then to the people and finally to the territory. It stems from the old German word thiutisk or theudisk, which the West Franks used since the 9th Century to refer to their language, the common language, as opposed to the educated language Latin. Karolus Magnus (Karl der Grosse, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, 742-814 AD) took it to name his multilingual and multicultural empire as deutsch because this did mean just the people and had no specific reference to any particular nation living in his empire. Other derivations from theudisk found their way into a number of other languages, as well: o Scandinavian: Tysk o Italian: Tedeschi o Dutch: Duits 2. Tribe names; many European peoples adopted the names of Germanic tribes living close to their own territory: o Latin; germanus in Latin meant the tribes settling in central Europe. Probably originally adopted from the Germanic expression spear-bearer (ger-man.) o The English word Dutch is related to deutsch and originally meant German. Since Holland became an independent country in the 17th century, it was used for that former part of the German empire only. The new word for Germany in English was adopted from Latin. o French, Spanish and Portuguese: Alemans was the name for the southwestern German tribe, next door neighbour to the French. o The Baltic peoples picked a different German tribe as a word for all of Germany: Saksalaiset. (Hence the Saxons as in Anglo- Saxons...) 3. In Slavic dialects, the root *nEm- generally means "mute" (unable to speak), dialectal data and the Church Slavic literature strongly suggest that this root also means incomprehensible for the listener, and, by extension, speaking a foreign language. o Russian: Njemzij o Polish: Niemzij o Tchechian: Nemci o Slovak: Nemec o Croatian: Nijemac o Serbian: Nemac 1996-06 o the Magyars took this term and called them Nimetek 1996-1 7.4. German is so Strange...or is it? Long Words!, The notorious Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaensmuetze in all its possible extensions is often cited as evidence how the German language uniquely burdens all non-native speakers with what seems to be nothing but curious absurdities. What do you know? English, does not, either, regard this type of word as excessively sesquipedalian...Richard Lederer (in Crazy English) tells us that even antidisestablishmentarianism is not very hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian. -- Hmm? Oh, German words are simply concatenated? Well, that, as well, is not that unique. Ponder, for instance, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis ... it is not to be floccinaucinihilipilificated! Really, very very very (...you get the picture) long words are not used in German, despite their possibility -- anything comprised of more than two parts (like Gedanken-anstoss) is rare. 1996-07 7.5. Listserver LOWLANDS-L for Friesisch and Niederdeutsch This email forum discusses those germanic languages and cultures that originated from costal areas around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, including Frisian, Dutch, Lower Saxon, Afrikaans, and more. To subscribe to the listserver... send email To: listproc@lists.u.washington.edu with body subscribe lowlands-l For more information email H.A.Y. Wolf 1996-1 7.6. FOLKHART FOLKHART is an ongoing project of a group of American (mostly Midwestern) descendants of Northwest German immigrants whose ancestral language is/was Low German (Plattdeutsch); it was founded to provide an online vehicle to help to learn/preserve/share/promote Platt (Low German). Sacred Seasons and other classical texts present introductory Plattdeutsch language as well as North German culture. There is also an adjunct project called WIND-MILL ONLINE. 1998-02 7.7. Learning German as an Adult Summary of experiences as reported by various readers of s.c.g (winter 95) Courses and tapes recommended o Berlitz Think and Talk German o InLingua o The taped exercises with the Deutsch 2000 course; available at better stores in the US o The Goethe Institutes (find their addresses in `the section on Goethe Institutes') o Mind Extension University (cable TV) has about 1.5 hours of German language a day, and sometimes even have German classes; get info at +1(800)777-MIND o Concordia language camps in Minnesota. Excellent immersion camps.1995-10 o The National Registration Center for Study Abroad evaluates and coordinates immersive study programs at a variety of language schools around the world, including Germany. You can get more information from their web page 1995-10 o The Volkshochschulen offer courses for foreigners. 1995-11 Reading Reading German as a means to learning spoken German was high on everyone's list. The following were recommended: o children's books o comic books o trash novels o Schau Ins Land - a monthly small magazine and cassette out of Nashville is good for building vocabulary once you are at an intermediate stage. o the German edition of Mad Magazine. o annotated anthologies Factors to success o be motivated o set goals o some period of total immersion in the spoken language o visit Germany o unlike English, German is pronounced as written; learn the pronunciation of letters and diphthongs o work through and learn German grammar; there is no way to escape this o do a daily word list o work in a language course trip to Germany o let your ear govern whether or not your mouth is doing the right thing o remember the article for every noun! Miscellaneous experiences: I am learning German in the US, and though I have the bene- fit of a German wife, she speaks such good English, that we never talk in German. I get children's books from the library (including picture dictionaries!), and I try to watch as much German TV as we get on cable: (Mind Extension University.) We also get the international channel, which has other German shows. Also, get a short wave radio and tune into Deutsche Welle, which broadcasts worldwide. I decided that it's like learning a language as a kid. Kids hear the language constantly, and absorb it all like sponges; kids don't even speak until they've been hearing a language for 12 to 24 months, so i figured I'd do the same, and did a lot of listening, so it would seep into my soul, and now, about a year later, I'm starting, with croaking voice, to speak, and it's fun. I learned German as an adult through a language 'school' called Inlingua (they're like Berlitz). They offer instruc- tion by native speaking teachers and it is taught by 'total immersion', i.e., only German is spoken in class. This is the best method to learn although it can be expensive (my company picked up the tab). If taking a formal class such as I did is not an option, I strongly suggest that while you are learning German through tapes, community college courses, etc., take every opportunity you can to speak Ger- man. In the car, to spouse/kids/partner/ roommate, family, or even to yourself. I would come home from class and tell my wife, in German, what I learned in class or did at work that day. I got some strange looks, but it really helped me to start thinking in German. When you start dreaming in Ger- man, you'll know you making good progress. I have had German exchange students, and have had great experiences with them. I would not recommend them as a way to learn German, however, as they are interested only in speaking English. I learned to speak German in a small village outside a city that had itself a rather boese dialect. I learned the local platt, and found that I got on better with that than I did with my attempts at high German. When speaking dialect I was always mistaken for someone from a farm town over the next hill, however on the rare occasions when I tried to speak High German, I was spotted immediately as an Ami. I've had good experiences renting from the German Language Video Center (see `Audio / Video Tapes'.) They also sell documentaries from Deutsche Welle TV for US$16.95, which I think is the same price Deutsche Welle sells them for. You can also get the documentaries on some PBS (Public Broad- casting System) stations - in the San Francisco area, chan- nel 60 broadcast two episodes of Schauplatz Deutschland starting last night at 11 p.m. It's in German with English subtitles. 1995-3 After I had gotten somewhat into the basics of the language, I started to read books that I had already read in Norwe- gian. This enabled me to keep most of my mind on the lan- guage, since I already knew what the story was. In addition to this, it would come in handy if you can listen to German on the radio, and after some time, and practice, you should of course go to Germany for a month or three. NB: When going to Germany, go alone! I was in Germany once, travelling with a group of other Norwegians, and whenever we were two or more Norwegians in one spot, we would speak Norwegian. I therefore made it a rule for myself to keep away from my fellow travellers as much as possible. Otherwise I would not have gotten full benefit of my stay. 1996-07 7.8. Learning German on the Net University of Victoria's German for Beginners is one of the first online- courses. 1996-10 The Internet Handbook of Grammar provides an introduction to the fundamentals of German grammar (intended for beginning students)... 1996-10 ...so does the German Grammar site 1996-10 7.9. German Words in English Oh my -- there are so many...and yet, there are so few, compared to the rest of all the English language. English has been influenced by so(!) many languages, that each makes but a more or less insignifcant portion of the whole. (Hope I don't insult any Latin speakers;-) As languages do so often (except for esperanto, I am told;-) I shall define a few arbitrary categories under which to collect some of those words. (Apply the usual "include, but are not limited to"...) Also, it should be noted that many of these words are of Yiddish origin -- according to Webster's dictionary, which I shall take as the definitive reference. Yiddish and German have had a somewhat symbiotic relationship over the centuries, with German words making it into Yiddish (e.g., Scheitel, Geld) and Yiddish words of differing origins being added to German ; in both cases, Yiddish is the link between quite a few German and English words. Commonly known words angst, blitz, bratwurst, geld, gestalt, gesundheit, hinterland, kaffeeklatsch, kindergarten, rucksack, sauerkraut, schadenfreude, umlaut, wanderlust, weltanschauung, weltschmerz Words of scientific origin ansatz, bremsstrahlung, eigen- (value, vector), entgegen and zusammen, leitmotiv, reststrahlen, umklapp process, zwitterion, Electronic dictionary search o "sch": affenpinscher, deutsche mark, doberman pinscher, festschrift, gegenschein, groschen, kaffeeklatsch, kirsch, kitsch, meerschaum, putsch, putschist, schilling, schlemiel, schlep(pen), schlieren, schmaltz, schnaps, schnauzer, schnitzel, schnorkel, schnorrer, schnozzle, schorl, schottische, schuss (Skiabfahrt), schwarmerei, tusche, wiener schnitzel, o "tz": blitzkrieg, ersatz, katzenjammer, kibbutz, kibitz, kibitzer, pretzel seltzer, sitz bath, sitzkrieg, sitzmark, spitz, switzer, waltz my personal favorite Gemuetlichkeit, zwieback 1999-04 7.10. Tongue Twisters Challenge your German pronunciation skills with these... o Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische. o In Ulm, um Ulm und um Ulm herum. o Der Cottbusser Postkutscher putzt den Cottbusser Postkutschkasten mit Cottbusser Postkutschkastenpaste. o Der uralte Riese Ruebezahl zaehlte rote Rueben im Riesengebirge. o Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenzweigen zwitscherten zwei Schwalben. o Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid. o In Mischa's Schischuh schwimmt ein Misch-Masch aus Sushi-Sossen. o Hob's B'steck z'spot b'stoet. (Ich habe das Besteck zu spaet bestellt.) o lilafarbenes wollenes Flanellaeppchen o Ob er aber ueber Oberammergau oder aber ueber Unterammergau kommt, wuesste er noch nicht. o Wir Wiener Weiber wuerden weisse Waesche waschen, wenn wir wuessten, wo warmes Wasser waere. 1996-06 o Es klapperten die Klapperschlangen bis die Klappern schlapper klangen. 1998-05 1996-1 -- ** David Lutterkort Dept. of Computer Science Purdue University ** ** email: lutter@purdue.edu url: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/~lutterdc/ ** You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him walk on it. G. Larson You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think. D. Parker