Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 10:03:44 -0600

From: Luanne von Schneidemesser lvonschn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU

Subject: Berliner; pancake turners, spatulas, scrapers; slider



Check Juergen Eichhoff's Wortatlas der deutschen Umgangssprachen, vol. 2,

map 61 (1978) for more recent although similar findings on the names for

the (usu) jelly-filled pastry. In the north (Schleswig-Holstein,

Niedersachsen), west of the Rhine River, and in Baden-Wuerttenberg and

neighboring Switzerland, the term Berliner is used. Pfannkuchen is used in

what used to be East Germany. In Hesse and bordering areas the term

Kraeppel is used, less commonly Krapfen; Krapfen is the main term in

Bavaria and Austria. When I was doing this interviewing in the central

parts of West Germany, I found that the bakeries in Hesse would frequently

have signs for Berliner, but people would say Krapfen or Kraeppel when

asking for them.



To relate this to our ADS list more directly, check DARE: we have entered

Berliner (esp WI), krapfen (Ger settlement areas), and krebbel. More

interesting to me is the entry for bismarck (chiefly Upper MW, wGt Lakes).

This term is not used at all in Germany, but seems to come from the Hotel

Bismarck in Chicago.



And speaking of pancakes (more or less), we had a discussion at coffee

break a while back on pancake turners, spatulas, and scrapers. I grew up

with pancake turner for the thing you use to turn over what is being

cooked/fried in a pan (DARE has plenty of evidence on this, showing it to

be widespread but more frequent in the Northeast, North Central and West);

to scrape out bowls and pans we used a spatula (DARE shows spatula as

pancake turner to be quite widespread). Others disagreed, maintaining that

that was done with a scraper. DARE had no question on this latter point.

What do you call it?



One more point. Driving home from a wedding in Iowa City this summer, we

stopped at St. Donatus, Iowa. On the menu was a slider, a sandwich with

various kinds of meat. Do any of you know this term? Bob Wachal pointed

out the earlier use of slider for a White Castle hamburger, but that's not

the same thing.



Thanks.



Luanne von Schneidemesser



At 06:29 PM 11/29/1997 +0100, Jan Strunk wrote:

The word "Berliner" is indeed the name of a jelly-filled pastry, but only

in some parts of Germany, mainly in the west and south west.

I'm from Bochum, Northrhine-Westphalia, and it's native to me.

However, in Berlin itself, this kind of pastry is called Pfannkuchen

(pancake), although it's usually fried.

The Berliners may however have known the additional sense of the word.

Although one normally says "Ich bin Berliner" without indefinite article,

it's perfectly correct, grammatical and also understandable to say

"Ich bin ein Berliner".

In conclusion, I would say, that it might be funny for some people in

Germany, but I wouldn't call it a real mistake.



sources: myself

DWA (The German Word Atlas)



Jan Strunk

strunk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]t-online.de