Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kafka's language
Kafka's language[edit]
As a native speaker of German who has read some of his work, I can assure that the content of this page is total nonsense, both with respect to "Prussian dialect" and Kafka's writing. Even if it were not, Kafka's language should be discussed on Franz Kafka. Martg76 03:54, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. "Interesting tidbits" don't deserve their own articles. Gamaliel 03:58, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete: I agree, as well, that it's not exactly a set of true tidbits. The generalizations about "Jewish literature" are false, and Kafka's German might be technical, but does that make it Prussian? Isn't the coldness of the prose style part of the meaning of the fiction? Geogre 05:11, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete for reasons above --ExplorerCDT 05:51, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. jni 08:08, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. AtonX 13:02, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. --Wikimol 21:59, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. As an avid reader of Kafka and other German literature, I can attest to its being written in German. The idea that he could have had anything to do with "Prussian dialect", were such a thing to exist, is ridiculous. Servais 15:47, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Comment I agree with you. Last I remembered, the Prussian (Brandenberg) dialect of German is considered the standard German (like Florentine dialect is standard Italian). That being the case, the entire premise of the article is ridiculous. And the article's author attesting that the Prussian dialect and technical German are one and the same...that's an absurd idea, even more so when laced with the analogy regarding Lolita. But even if Kafka did write in a dialect (which being a Czech would have probably been the German spoken in the Sudentenland), then by reduction to the absurd, we'd have to have a discussion of Thomas and Heinrich Mann's use of dialect, or Goethe, or Schiller, or Lessing, or Marx, et cetera ad nauseam. Articles like this should really bring about a new criterion for speedy deletion. —ExplorerCDT 16:18, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- AFAIK, the traditional dialect of Brandenburg is a form of Low German, which is very remote from Standard German. The latter isn't really the dialect of any particular region. Martg76 02:12, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- We're both wrong (partially). Generally, the Low German dialects were centered further west, in Hannover, Friesland, Netherlands. While Brandenburgisch is considered Low German, it is very close to standard German because of linguistic mixing with middle German and slavic influences. Standard German mostly middle German (half of the Hochdeutsch dialects), which were popular in the Northeast (the other half were in Austria, Switzerland and Bavaria). —ExplorerCDT 06:05, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- AFAIK, the traditional dialect of Brandenburg is a form of Low German, which is very remote from Standard German. The latter isn't really the dialect of any particular region. Martg76 02:12, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Comment I agree with you. Last I remembered, the Prussian (Brandenberg) dialect of German is considered the standard German (like Florentine dialect is standard Italian). That being the case, the entire premise of the article is ridiculous. And the article's author attesting that the Prussian dialect and technical German are one and the same...that's an absurd idea, even more so when laced with the analogy regarding Lolita. But even if Kafka did write in a dialect (which being a Czech would have probably been the German spoken in the Sudentenland), then by reduction to the absurd, we'd have to have a discussion of Thomas and Heinrich Mann's use of dialect, or Goethe, or Schiller, or Lessing, or Marx, et cetera ad nauseam. Articles like this should really bring about a new criterion for speedy deletion. —ExplorerCDT 16:18, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Comment Absolutely. Furthermore, Prussia was much more of a political entity which eventually included various different dialect and cultural regions. In German people will talk of Berlin dialect or Saxon dialect, but I've never heard anyone call anything Prussian dialect. Servais 20:13, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- I've heard the Berlin dialect referred to as Brandenburger Deutsch which I assume is the same thing. Prussia was just too far spread, as you said, and even in East Prussia there are several dialects that are now extinct. This article is utterly ridiculous. —ExplorerCDT 21:41, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Comment Absolutely. Furthermore, Prussia was much more of a political entity which eventually included various different dialect and cultural regions. In German people will talk of Berlin dialect or Saxon dialect, but I've never heard anyone call anything Prussian dialect. Servais 20:13, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete it. [[User:Radman1|RaD Man (talk)]] 04:05, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- There is a possibilty if this nonsense article remains of a confusion with Old Prussian, which isn't even a Germanic language. Delete. Fire Star 17:35, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Delete. [[User:Squash|Squash (Talk)]] 06:23, Nov 28, 2004 (UTC)