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Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:11 pm
by Lianachan
This is a long shot, but would any of our resident cunning linguists be able to translate a WW1 German postcard? Sütterlin, which is a complication....

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:00 pm
by Arneb
My Sütterlin is rusty, but I can give it a try.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:52 pm
by Heid the Ba
If Arneb can’t do it, or if there is technical info required The Great War Forum is the place, I can post it, or give you my log in, whichever is easier. There are a number of people who can read it there.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:57 pm
by Lianachan
Cool, cheers chaps. There are a couple of people working on this already*, but many eyes, etc, plus it may be of interest to you both anyway.

* Including at the Great War Forum, apparently.

Image

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:00 pm
by Heid the Ba
Very interested, do you mind if I stick it on the GWF? Ah just read your post fully, I’ll pop over there.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:04 pm
by Lianachan
F’r’info - this isn’t anything to do with me really, a friend at the museum at Fort George stuck it in Facebook. It’s in their archive, and they were wondering if anybody could translate it.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:06 pm
by Arneb
Wow, tough. I'll try to print it out and chew on it.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:08 pm
by Heid the Ba
I can’t see it on GWF but their search engine is sketchy. There are some people I would trust there and others who lick bus stops so I would be wary of their efforts.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:08 pm
by Lianachan
Arneb wrote:Wow, tough. I'll try to print it out and chew on it.

Yeah, people who have a good grasp of Sütterlin have said the handwriting is bad and the man who wrote it doesn’t seem to be very literate. Don’t waste too much time with this!

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:12 pm
by Heid the Ba
Oh I can spend no time on this, it doesn’t matter which strain of German it is, it’s all Teutonic Jibber Jabber to me.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:16 pm
by Arneb
Remember the Feldpost episode from my first Pommeranian voyage? My grand uncle wrote a lot like this.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:29 pm
by Lianachan
Arneb wrote:Remember the Feldpost episode from my first Pommeranian voyage? My grand uncle wrote a lot like this.

Very cool. To my shame, this was the first I’d heard of Sütterlin.

:oops:

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:49 pm
by Lianachan
Heid the Ba wrote:Oh I can spend no time on this, it doesn’t matter which strain of German it is, it’s all Teutonic Jibber Jabber to me.

Exactly my contribution to this entire thing.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2019 10:10 pm
by Arneb
Project status report: Very tough, but I am making progress. I used an incomplete letter table in the beginning, so it took a while to get a footing. The content seems to be quite quotidian indeed. Would be interesting to know what further information you have about the card.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 11:05 am
by Heid the Ba
Lianachan, did your man ever get a good translation?

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:55 pm
by Lianachan
Ah, I do recall seeing a partial translation. Will see if I can find it - sorry, this all completely slipped my mind.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:58 pm
by Heid the Ba
No problem,idle curiosity.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:00 pm
by Lianachan
From a UK based German archaeologist who translates this kind of stuff as part of her work:

(Ort nicht lesbar) 19.04.1915
Lieber Bruder,
deine Karte dankend erhalten.
Lieber Bruder wir sind alle bei der Gesundheit und wünschen Dir dergleichen.
Lieber Bruder, unser Pfarrer Kaminski geht nach Straßburg und war gestern noch bei uns in Hohendenlinden zum Abschied gekommen und läßt auch alle grüßen welche im Kriege sind
die war gestern auf seinen Abschied nicht hier (nicht lesbar)
Lieber Bruder der Vater ist bis jetzt noch zu Hause.
Lieber Bruder schade, das Du die voherigen Karten nicht bekommen hast ärgerst Dich vielleicht dafür
Bist Du sich gar nicht (nicht lesbar) sehen jeden Tag auf den Brief von Dir
Jetzt grüßen wir Dich alle herzlichst bis zum glücklichen Wiedersehen
Dear brother, we have thankful received your card
Dear brother, we are healthy and we hope, you are too
Dear brother, father (this is meant religious) Kaminski is going to Strasbourg and was with us yesterday to say goodbye. He says hello to all of you who are in war and could not be with him for his goodbye
Dear brother, father (daddy) is still at home.
Dear brother, its a shame, you did not received the other cards and you are propably annoyed.
„now something hard to read) = starts with, you are not at all …. we see a letter from you everyday (propably means, that he is looking forward for the next letter)
We all great you until the lucky next meet again

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:21 pm
by Heid the Ba
So this was a postcard to a soldier? I’m curious if it says who it was addressed to, the 2nd Battle of Ypres started a few days afterwards. I appreciate most of the German Armies were elsewhere but the card did end up in British hands.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 05, 2019 9:46 pm
by Arneb
That's mostly what I got with few minor and one majorr differences.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:57 am
by Lianachan
For those on Facebook, the post about it is HERE. It has the other side of the card, some background info and related photos.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 08, 2019 8:18 pm
by Arneb
hmmph. Not on facebook, and missed my chance to help with the card.

Re: Sütterlin?

PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2019 9:55 am
by Heid the Ba
To be honest it was probably done by the time we found out about it. Jack Sheldon is this guy, Uwe Schellinger is an author as well but doesn't specialise in that area.