The term Lübke English (or, in German, ''Lübke-Englisch'') refers to

nonsensical Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwriters have use ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

created by literal word-by-word

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

phrases, disregarding differences between the languages in syntax and meaning. ''Lübke English'' is named after

Heinrich Lübke Karl Heinrich Lübke (; 14 October 1894 – 6 April 1972) was a German politician, who served as president of West Germany from 1959 to 1969. He suffered from deteriorating health towards the end of his career and is known for a series of embar ...

, a

president of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

in the 1960s, whose limited English made him a target of German humorists. In 2006, the German magazine ''

konkret ''konkret'' has been the name of two German magazines. ''konkret'' was originally the name of a magazine established by Klaus Rainer Röhl in 1957, that was an influential magazine on the German political left in the 1960s. The magazine was di ...

'' revealed that most of the statements ascribed to Lübke were in fact invented by the editorship of ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', mainly by staff writer Ernst Goyke and subsequent letters to the editor.''

'' 3/2006, S. 74: „In Wahrheit ist das angebliche Lübke-Zitat ‚Equal goes it loose‘ ��eine Erfindung des Bonner Spiegel-Korrespondenten Ernst Goyke, genannt Ego ��Auch alle anderen Beiträge zum »Lübke-Englisch« haben in der Woche nach Egos Story Redakteure des Spiegel unter falschen Absendern für die Leserbrief-Seiten des Magazins verfasst.“ In the 1980s, comedian Otto Waalkes had a routine called "English for Runaways", which is a nonsensical literal translation of ''Englisch für Fortgeschrittene'' (actually an idiom for 'English for advanced speakers' in German – note that ''fortschreiten'' divides into ''fort'', meaning "away" or "forward", and ''schreiten'', meaning "to walk in steps"). In this mock "course", he translates every sentence back or forth between English and German at least once (usually from German literally into English). Though there are also other, more complex language puns, the title of this routine has gradually replaced the term ''Lübke English'' when a German speaker wants to point out naive literal translations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubke English Macaronic forms of English German language Machine translation Syntax Heinrich Lübke

See also

References