Re: built-in rules

[Wolfgang Bechstein bechstein@xxxxxxxx]

"David B. Kronenfeld"  wrote:

> I don't know from German, so I'll stick to English. "I am a Danish." vs.
> "I am Danish." seems to more or less parallel the German Berliner bit.

This will _really_ (no, really!) be my last message on the subject, but
the above, far from shedding any light is just muddling the issue
further, and most definitely is not correct. If we must employ forced
parallelisms, "ein Berliner" can both mean someone born in Berlin or "a
citizen of Berlin". So, do you say "I am citizen of Berlin" or "I am a
citizen of Berlin"? Kennedy (or rather his speech writer) did the latter,
and no matter how worked up certain people with an imperfect grasp of
the language get, it simply isn't the gaffe that it's made out to be. It
makes a good story though, much more interesting than the pedestrian
"truth", so I guess that's why it keeps making the rounds.

Wolfgang Bechstein
bechstein@xxxxxxxx