“Bretterbütze” instead of buttered pretzel: In order to advertise Baden-Württemberg, the state marketing takes up an art project on “correct pronunciation” – and triggers very different reactions.
Freiburg / Stuttgart – For Charlotte Hübsch it is clear: It is called “Bretterbütze”. “Glued and knotted in two places, the wooden scabbard still holds as if it is lubricated,” she describes. Another word appears on the screen at the same time: buttered pretzel.
Underneath is a kind of serial title “Correct Pronunciation – BaWü Edition”. Held in the official design of Baden-Württemberg. The clips that state marketing has been spreading on the Internet for a few weeks come from the artist collective Luksan Wunder. Hübsch is the spokeswoman for the videos, which the Berlin-elect began to make back in 2015 – at the time without a focus on Baden-Württemberg. “We wanted to create an alternative world for people who order the wrong Prosetscho at parties,” she says. You could then google the videos and prove their pronunciation was correct. “So that people who are on the wrong side will be right.”
The whole thing can be understood with a big wink. Many also celebrate the clips. “There are those who go one better,” says Hübsch. Others just think it’s stupid. Or write the correct pronunciation in the comments, either factually or indignantly, for example for words from foreign languages – with reference to the fact that they are native speakers or have lived abroad for years.
So now there is also the “BaWü Edition” with words for inventions from the southwest. Under the clips, users refer to the local dialect of butter pretzels and Maultasche: “Budderbrezl” and “Mauldäschle”.
Are the videos misleading?
As a result of the influx of refugees, there has also been criticism that people who learn German and really want to hear correct pronunciation are being misled, says Hübsch. “But what is the worst case? Someone pronounces a word wrong. ”It is also a good indication that you should not rely on the first video that you find on the Internet. “And check sources!”
Ralf Knöbl from the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim thinks the parodies are great. Sometimes typical pronunciation problems are touched on, such as the pronunciation of Y as Ü or I, which often goes wrong with Libya, for example. Incorrect pronunciation of foreign words such as prosecco or gnocchi also exists in the real world. It is similar with the two-syllable pronunciation of A and O in cocoa – this is actually a common pronunciation of dialect speakers in the Rhine-Franconian area. “Nevertheless, I don’t see the danger that wrong pronunciations are solidified or even learned as a result,” says the co-author of the pronunciation study. “In the vast majority of cases, the pronunciation is clearly stylized and marked as a parody.”
Luksan Wunder has now produced hundreds of videos – and basically does not stop at anything: whether wines, actresses or the Bible, types of cheese, EM squad or car brands. Sometimes the alienation sounds like another word, for example the Maultasche becomes a “coat pocket”. Then again one hears completely different terms like “Klapapaprolle” – with a French touch with a silent ending E. What is meant is the toilet paper roll. Commissioned work such as now for the Baden-Württemberg state marketing has already been included, says Hübsch – for an art magazine or for companies, for example.
Special knowledge is required for some clips
The clips are very successful and some have over a million clicks, explains a spokesman for the State Ministry in Stuttgart, why state marketing has jumped on the bandwagon. The basis for the 15 videos of the “BaWü Edition” produced so far are inventions from the southwest. “From the multitude of culinary, technical and everyday inventions from the land of inventors and thinkers, Luksan Wunder has chosen those terms that are best suited for the mechanism of their clips.” The selection ranges from spaetzle press and high-pressure cleaner to Flädle and Wibele to Black Forest cake and cuckoo clock.
Here the reference to the southwest is still catchy. For words like spaghetti ice cream or the theory of relativity you have to have a little more background knowledge – for example that the ice cream creation should come from Mannheim and that Albert Einstein was once born in Ulm.
She has often thought that the format should slowly be phased out, says Hübsch, who comes from the Freiburg corner and studied linguistics and German in Stuttgart. Over the years, writing the lyrics has become more difficult “because a joke has worn out at some point”. Words from other languages, with many consonants and letter combinations that can be easily exchanged, have great potential. “We have almost everything through there, I think,” says the spokeswoman. “But I’m not worried that we will still find something.” Dpa
