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

nonsensical Nonsense is a form of communication, via speech, writing, or any other formal logic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. In ordinary usage, nonsense is sometimes synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwrit ...

English created by literal word-by-word

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, 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 English la ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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

president of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

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

konkret has been the name of two German magazines. 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 dissolved in 1973 as a c ...

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

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', mainly by staff writer Ernst Goyke and subsequent

letters to the editor A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...

.''

'' 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 Otto Gerhard Waalkes (born 22 July 1948), also known as simply Otto, is a German comedian, actor, musician, writer, and comic book artist. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films. His best known tradema ...

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