LL-L 'Orthography' 2007.02.01 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 01 February 2007 - Volume 03

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From: Karl-Heinz Lorenz <Karl-Heinz.Lorenz at gmx.net>
Subject: LL-L 'Orthography' 2007.01.30 (04) [E]

"More correct grammatically" was maybe a bit daring but what I meant is that
a construction with a genitive looks more classical and elegant in German.

For those who are learning Standard-German: You have the choice between

1. a compound word: „die Vogelhochzeit" (which is certainly the most correct
concerning the folksong),

2. a dative construction: „dem Vogel seine Hochzeit"
(Pretty often used in all German varieties, I think also in Lowlands
languages, do you say: "den Vogel sien(e) Hochtied" in LS and "de[n] vogel
zijn bruiloft" in D?)
and

3. a form with genitive: „des Vogels Hochzeit" or die Hochzeit des Vogels.

(a 4th but quite unusual way is with "von": "die Hochzeit vom (von dem)
Vogel",  or "Vom (von dem) Vogel die Hochzeit")

For me a word order with the genetive in front looks best. Genitive is
hardly used in colloquial German (I don't know  any (real) German dialect
which uses the genitive), and this is probably why in written German the
genitive is dying, hence we say "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod". And so
do the compound words: they replace genitives.

And as there are at least two birds who marry: "der Vögel Hochzeit" is
without any "Zweideutigkeit" what is not the case with "Vögelhochzeit" (for
non-native German speakers: "Vögel" is not only the plural form of  "Vogel"
but also in a compound word as "Vögel-" an attribute derived from "vögeln" =
having sexual intercourse in E). But this is maybe "ein Glücksfall für
deftige Humoristen", because "Vögel" is one of the few homonyms in German
that allow to make "eindeutig zweideutige Witze" (btw: I don't do that!)

I agree with "des Affen Zirkus"  but "Der Affenzirkus" could be also
interpreted as "Der Affen (plural) Zirkus" ("Der Zirkus der Affen"
umgedreht).

So I suppose this is a bit confusing for those who learn German but
nevertheless I'd like to add one thing:

The title of Hans Christian Andersen's "Keiserens nye Klæder"

(http://da.wikisource.org/wiki/Keiserens_nye_Kl%C3%A6der>),

in German is: "Des Kaisers neue Kleider". For me this looks much more
attractive than: "Die neuen Kaiserkleider".

Regards
Karl-Heinz
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