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[marcelo]

Caro NES

Is your doctoral research going to appear in print? In which field of knowledge was it submitted, literature, history?

[Milo]

We are all Londoners.

Nicely said. However, I remember an American who was "ein Berliner"

I know that's what he said himself, but was he really? Native speakers of German may correct me, but I presume Kennedy actually meant "Ich bin Berliner." With "ein" included the litteral, if pedantic, translation would seem to be "I am a donut."

Milo

[NES]

Milo

I've heard Kennedy's speech just now and that's really what he said: "ich bin ein berliner".

I'm not an expert in German, but it should be correct. The speech was revised and Kennedy trained it in Willy Brandt's office. Of course he could mean pastry. Or a newspaper.

"Ein berliner" is not exactly "a donut" but what we in Portugal call "uma bola de berlim" - literally "a ball from berlin"!

[marcelo]

Kennedy’s words were, indeed, “ich bin ein Berliner”. They were for a time endlessly repeated in The History Channel as part of a vignette. Kennedy's words themselves were used as an allusion to the Latin dictum “Civis romanus sum” which every Roman citizen felt entitled to proffer as a sign that no injustice could be committed against him outside of the Roman Empire. Now, one interesting thing about this is that not Kennedy, but a Portuguese born British citizen seems to have been the first person to evoke these words in modern times to plead for a rightful treatment. His name was Don Pacifico. This story is told in a delightful book I have just finished to read: Anglomania, by Ian Buruma. (The relevant passage appears on page 195). Since we are all Londoners, as the author of this thread has suggested, I can only recommend this book. One of the chapters is entitled “The man in the tweed coat”, and narrates an interesting episode the author himself experienced while wearing a tweed coat in London. Incidentally, I remember Nicholas Storey also mentioned Don Pacifico's “Civis romanus sum” in another thread: http://thelondonlounge.net/gl/forum/vie ... 69&start=0

[NES]

This a portuguese ball from Berlin.
You can hear it saying: "ich bin ein berliner"!

[marcelo]

We are all Londoners.

Nicely said. However, I remember an American who was "ein Berliner"

I know that's what he said himself, but was he really? Native speakers of German may correct me, but I presume Kennedy actually meant "Ich bin Berliner." With "ein" included the litteral, if pedantic, translation would seem to be "I am a donut."

Milo

The donut-like cake depicted above is, indeed, known as “Berliner” in several parts of Germany, but not, for instance, in Munich where it is called, as far as recollect, a “Krapfen”. I think the Berliner wouldn’t call a it a Berliner either. And not least at the time Kennedy made his speech.

[NES]

Caro Marcelo

My doctoral research's field is what has been named here "Ciências da Arte". I would rather translate it as "Art Studies". It's close to Cultural Studies but more "art oriented". Roughly, it combines philosophical aesthetics and art history.

I'm still working on it, but I think it will eventually appear on print, at least in part, in a trimmed version.
Its theme - "aesthetics of existence" - is a reference to Jacob Burckhadt.

Nuno