Pseudo-English revisited

Languagehat has taken up the topic I mentioned earlier, and in his comments, Bertil gives a link to the Wikipedia page on Scheinanglizismen.

This is what I need. I am sure there are more around, and it would make sense to add them here. I had been thinking of beginning a collection myself, but it’s only a few I’m really interested in, that come up in my translations sometimes. I’m not interested in the argument about whether or not a cell phone or something similar was ever called a handy in English.

Body Bag is familiar, of course. It refers to one of those sort of half-rucksacks or lopsided handbag-like bags that are held close to the body by the construction of their straps. I suppose rucksack and backpack are the English terms (this site gives the necessary translation into English).

Bertil writes:

I think the original objective of the dictionary is to find German words for English words that enter their language. To mix this with Scheinanglizismen is a bit confusing.

I think the truth is more surprising than that. The purpose of the Fruchtbringendes Wörterbuch is, in part, to invent words:

Es soll zeigen, daß Sprachentwicklung auch ohne staatliche Reglementierung möglich ist. Das Projekt dient nicht nur dazu, bereits existierende Neuerungen zu dokumentieren, sondern ausdrücklich auch dazu, neue Wörter zu erfinden, und zwar unabhängig davon, ob für einen Gegenstand bereits ein Wort in einer anderen Sprache existiert oder nicht.

I think I’m too old for that, I mean not for inventing words, but for contributing to that collection.