Hi Wolfgang, thanks for clarifying things! I hope you don't get the impression that I'm making fun of the German language, or the people who speak it ... well, maybe I am, but only gentle fun, and I can take it just as well as dish it out. If any offence was taken, I apologise - but don't get mad, get even!

I actually got Hottentot.. from a guy called Fritz Spiegel, who was German before the war, but hurriedly became British just before it started. He's written a good many humorous books (in English!), including one called (if memory serves) "Funny peculiar and funny ha-ha". (Hottentot.. was in the introduction.) It comprised newspaper cuttings in the nature of "General flies back to front" (ha-ha) and "Folksinger killed by transvestite" (peculiar).

Now French - there's a language where it's almost impossible not to sound pompous. We can say "the king of England's hat", which may be silly to a foreigner, but "the hat of the king of England", while unambiguous, sounds ... well, silly.

Steve