Re: [Groff] latin2.tmac

[Werner LEMBERG]

> Following up on Werner's assertion of "German speaking people" as
> contrary to Germans: to call an Austrian "German" is worse than
> calling him names, so you better watch it.

Well, this is extreme :-) It is worse if people ask: Where are the
kangaroos?

> He who taught me the German language when I obtained my ZDaF[1] is
> Austrian and quick of tongue (it still hurts ;-).

Oscar Wilde writes in `The Canterville Ghost' (1887):

  We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except,
  of course, language.

This saying also exists in a German version (erroneously attributed
to Karl Kraus):

  Der Österreicher unterscheidet sich vom Deutschen durch die
  gemeinsame Sprache.

Living in Germany, I try to maintain my Austrian German as much as
possible.  Fortunately, most people like my Viennese accent from
Vienna's 13th district (called `Schönbrunner Deutsch' -- Hugo von
Hofmannsthal's text to the opera `Der Rosenkavalier' by Richard
Strauss represents the exact rhythm and colour of what I'm used to
speak, except the old-fashioned words).

> On your question. Perhaps it is because the German language has a
> grammar and syntax very much alike to troff's. I see a groff macro
> with the same esthetic eye as when reading Rilke, that is, you have
> to feel the rythm otherwise it just sounds like noise.  (Running to
> get cover ;-)

You should read the late Ernst Jandl!  His poems sometimes really
resemble computer programs -- or output from programs for combinatoric
exercises.


    Werner