In the staid banking capital of Zürich, masked black bloc activists (anarchist APOisten) ran wild last night. As such, that is no concern of
this blog; but we shall notice
some curious linguistic detail.
Die Randalierer trugen ein Banner
mit der Aufschrift «Reclaim the Streets». In den vergangenen Jahren war es
unter diesem Titel mehrmals zu erheblichen Sachbeschädigungen gekommen. Am
Freitag nun riefen die Veranstalter im Laufe des Tages per SMS dazu auf, sich
um 22 Uhr im Sihlhölzlipark in Zürich-Wiedikon zu treffen. In Aussicht gestellt
wurde der «one & only dancefloor» unter dem Motto «äRTeäS», hinter dem sich das Akronym RTS für «Reclaim the Streets»
versteckt.
If you read about this in the anglophone press,
you might assume that this slogan, «Reclaim the Streets», was a translation from the German, for the convenience of
English-speakers. Not
so; the following photo from
Zurich last night, provides ocular proof:
Not only that, but the expression “black block”
(or “black bloc”) has gone international.
A while ago (an Egyptian friend informed me) Angela Merkel apologized to
Egypt for the “black block” anarchists there, who had imported a German
ideology; when I asked him, How did
that come out in Arabic, he said: “black
block”.
Strangest of all, though, is this motto äRTeäS, within which the acronym RTS
(for “Reclaim The Streets”) lies perdu
in plain sight. It looks like some new offbeat flavor
offering from Häagen-Dazs, or perhaps a song by Mötley
Crüe.
As for orthoëpic guidance, such as we commonly offer to our glottophilic
flock, we are at a loss.
Conjecturally, the word
begins with a sort of vocalic sheep-bleat, and then the majuscularity of the
following two consonants is signaled by pronouncing them at top volume while
waving your arms (Monty Python has an instructive video along these lines),
then back to a sheep-bleat, then back to the flapping. Either that, or the vowels are
silent.
[Note:
Just kidding. If you simply pronounce the letters "R T S" in
the German fashion, it comes out rather like ärteäs. ]
A polyglot German reader
of the above article comments:
Ein
gewalttätiger Anarcho-Fascho-Mob holt sich die gratis Party unter allesamt
englischen Organisationskürzeln für eine "friday night" nach deren
Gusto.
At all events, äRTeäS
is but the latest acronymic/cryptographic contribution from the German-speaking
world, to the contemporary lexicon of political street-protest. Some others we have elucidated
here:
~
The signage of one of the vandalized shops
(international anarchy strikes back
against the tyranny of the corner bakery!) is an interesting anglo-alemannic mix:
Znüni ? It’s Schwizerdütsch for what in general
German would be Imbiß (etymologically:
‘in-bite’): ‘snack’, or rather
specifically a morning snack, since etymologically it means “a nine-o’clock-er”
(from the Alemannic equivalents of zu
+ neun).
[Update 14 December 2014] Another aspect of German political movement names, foreign to the American way of naming, is its hospitality to Mundarten. Thus, consider the following headlines from earlier this morning:
"Arsch
huh" gegen rechte Gewalt - Künstler demonstrieren in Köln
„Arsch
huh“-Demo: Mit Karnevalisten und dem 1. FC Köln gegen Rechts
Um… say what? They never taught us that in German class..
It’s the name of an anti-rightist movement in
Cologne: in full “Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander”; which, de.wikipedia helpfully explains, is “Kölsch für Arsch hoch, Zähne auseinander”. Umm … ‘Butt up, teeth apart’?? -- I still don’t get it.
The “rp” in rp-online stands for “Ripuarisch”, a
northern dialect of German. And
indeed, Ripuarian has its own Wikipedia -- ksh.wikipedia.org (“ksh” for “Kölsch”, after the
principle regional city). They explain:
Unger
dämm Motto „Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander!“ hann sich em Johr 1992 kölsche
Musikjruppe un Schauspiller, un e paa andere Künßler zesamme jeschlosse, öm
jäje Fremdefeindlichkeit un Antisemitismus ze demonstriere.
The American language shows nothing comparable to
such Mundarten. Sure, Bostonians say “pahk the cah in
Hahvahd yahd” -- but they don’t have their own Wikipedia.
Factoid: Continuing with our amusement at the proliferation of
umlauts (which in the case of the icecream-company and the rock-band are completely meaningless), let us note
that one of the main backers of “Arsch huh” is a Kölner rock-band called
“Bläck Fööss “ -- which means, however, ‘bare feet’.
“Bläck Fööss “ -- which means, however, ‘bare feet’.
And, another gnarly political acronym: Gröfaz
~
Weiteres in re Confoederatio
Helvetica :
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