Heart of Spain: Thälmann Battalion

[Westfalia Chris]

"Thälmann" with the Umlaut would be the right variant, most monuments (in ex-GDR-cities, like Stralsund, for example) show it that way. I guess they adopted the "ae" writing to avoid using the Umlaut.

[Plynkes]

I wonder why they'd be shy about using the Umlaut?

For a lazy person (like me) it is less bother to put two little dots on an "a" than to have to paint a whole other letter.

Unless of course they were doing the banner on their PC, and couldn't find "ä" in Character Map.

Or perhaps there was rationing of Umlauts because of the war...

 

[Westfalia Chris]

Well, they certainly didn´t have a Fraulein Ingeborg at hand...

[Neldoreth]

Perhaps the replacement of the umlaut is the Spanish-ization of the word. Look at the 'Carlos Marx' name was well. It seems that they didn't mind changing names to make them palatable to the Spanish tongue (excuse the pun there...)

In any case, I am very interested in this project! I don't mind the political discussion either, nor the various idealisms, we are all here to miniature game after all Anyway, my love of the anarchists seems to have some support; on the title page of Force of Arms miniatures they have a picture of some FAI Milicianos infront of a T-26B. I need those figs! Gotta love that red and black!



n.

[Westfalia Chris]

Damn damn damn! Stupid mail guys! Deliver my Anglian Miniatures already, ye foul varmints, you! :x ::

Mind you, I don´t want ideological flame wars, but being the homme moyen sensuel I am, I always chose the side which appears to be the lesser evil... ::

[KeyanSark]

Interesting to hear about the "Brigadistas" - in german, it´s "Interbrigadisten" as a plural form, but I thought "Brigadistas" sounded a wee bit feminine. But it´s "dinamiteros" for those nutty commie activists, right, not "dinamitistas"?

You are right... I was wondering how to explain why it is that way but... I don't know!  ::

A guy/girl who does/work-in "something" is a "something-ista" or "something-ero". I suppose there are rules, but if I studied them I already forgot...   A football player is a "futbolista". A shop owner is a "tendero"

Muchas gracias, senor!

 

"No hay de qué"  :wink:

[KeyanSark]

I wonder why they'd be shy about using the Umlaut?

I suppose that "umlaut" is the english word for those two dots over the vowel like in "ä", isn't it? (This forum is culture, man!)

If that is the case, the reason could have been that spanish language never uses umlaut over "a, e, i, o". Only "u" and in a few restricted cases.  

[Westfalia Chris]

"Umlaut" is the german term for those special vowels, since they are unique to german; there is no english term (that I know of!) and thus, the german word is used.

Ä, for example, is pronounced similar to english "aesthetics", and is mainly used in german to denounce a sound similar to, but still noticeably different from "e".

[Plynkes]

Character Map on my PC calls it a diaeresis.

But while a diaeresis mark may look exactly the same as an umlaut (two little dots above the vowel), I'm not sure that it signifies quite the same thing.

[Monk]

I've been eagerly planning a few SCW forces.  Does anyone besides Anglian make 28mm figures for it?

Also, can anyone recommend specific books on the war.   I've browsed for hours on Amazon, but don't know what to get.

[Westfalia Chris]

The diaeresis mark, which is called a "trema", does, in phonetics, denote a composite of two vowels which are supposed to be pronounced separately rather than as a diphtong, for example in french "noël" (christmas), to be pronounced "no-ell" rather than "nowl" or "nole" (the latter like in Noel Gallagher). It is not commonly used in german since there are few occurances of non-diphtong vowel composites (they are almost automatically pronounced separately, "ideal" being a prime example, roughly pronounced "ee-day-ahl"), but is prevalent in both dutch and french.

Thus, it is different from the Umlaut, which is a special kind of diphtong, equaling the original vowel mated to a suffixed -e, ie ä=ae, ö=oe, ü=ue. Ä, for example, is generally pronounced as in "aesthetics", and imagine similar sounds for the other two - I can´t imagine any at the moment, but most english native speakers I met have great trouble at formulating the Umlaut sounds - not that it was unintelligible, though. Many consider the Umlaut archaic.

We have to replace Umlauts in website adresses by those diphtongs since the english code won´t allow for Umlauts (or would not until recently, I´m not totally up to date on that).

[Plynkes]

Wow, check out the big brain on Chris!
 

[Plynkes]

 Most english native speakers I met have great trouble at formulating the Umlaut sounds - not that it was unintelligible, though.

I have an English friend who has lived in Germany for some years. He says whenever you have to say an umlaut vowel sound in German you should just imagine you are a Geordie before you say the vowel.

"Geordies" are natives of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city in Northeast England. They have a very peculiar way of talking, especially the way they say their vowels.

I find my friend's tip that you should try and talk in a silly English accent when trying to pronounce your German quite amusing.

[LeadAsbestos]

I'm tempted by the Anglian minis as well, but I'm a bit daunted by all the various factions, militias, Internationals, etc. I wouldn't know where to begin!

The idea of uniformed Anarchists is a bit    as well!

[Neldoreth]

Monk:

Yes, Force of Arms does SCW figurines:

http://www.forceofarms.co.uk/

LeadAsbestos:

Firstly, here is a great resource that breaks down the factions very well:

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/scw/scwpolit.htm

Secondly, Anarchists are not against organization and order, they are just against authority. That is, anarchism is against government-imposed order! Anarchism opposes order at the edge of a blade, the side of a club, or the end of a gun, or by majority tyranny like in representative 'democracies'. Order is good, organization is great, authority is bad. That is the idea. The anarchistists in the SCW were also syndicalists (which means unionists). Unions are totally about organization!

Who would have know miniatures would make for a great way to teach people about anarchism

n.[/b]