Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2010 October 25

= October 25 =

Dem Deutschen Volke
Is this correctly translated to "For the German people" or "To the German people"? Could you imagine it being translated as "of the german people", or would that require genitive? Aaadddaaammm (talk) 17:33, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * This is just "The German people", isn't it? I'm not seeing a preposition. Lexicografía (talk) 17:52, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * It doesn't require a preposition as it's in dative case. Whether the correct translation is "For" or "To the German people" is a matter of interpretation - the German phrase is elliptic, its exact meaning depends on how you fill in the empty part of the ellipsis (it might mean "dedicated to the German people", "presented to...", "made for...", or something similar) -- Ferkelparade &pi; 18:04, 25 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. For the record, it's on the German parliament in Berlin, and this article translates it as the first 2 options I mentioned, but I was unhappy with them for some reason. But there's really nothing better? Aaadddaaammm (talk) 19:21, 26 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, German does occasionally use the dative of possession, so I wouldn't say "of the German people" can be completely ruled out, but it's probably not most people's initial interpretation. I think "[built] for the German people" or "[dedicated] to the German people" is how it's generally understood. —Angr (talk) 21:14, 26 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I dunno. My German is a bit rusty, but I'd say "of the German people" would be "des Deutschen Volkes" (as clumsy as that sounds...). As for the original question, I think this is one of those cases where you'd need a bit more context (in this case, at least the verb that goes with it) to be able to do an exact translation. Basically, what Angr just said :) TomorrowTime (talk) 12:24, 27 October 2010 (UTC)
 * de:Dem deutschen Volke says it's a dedication, [dedicated] to the German people. -- 78.43.71.155 (talk) 12:40, 27 October 2010 (UTC)