On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Olin Lathrop wr= ote: > So what did Kennedy actually say? The alternate interpretation claim is > that since he said "ein Berliner" (a Berliner) as apposed to dropping the > "ein", that specified the pastry as apposed to a person from Berlin. > Saying > "ich bin Berliner" is valid in german and removes the possibility that > Berliner can be interpreted as the pastry, but frankly this alternate cla= im > is just a bunch of rubbish. > Just asked my father who's mother tongue is German, and he confirmed that 'ein' is no need if you say you are from Berlin. In fact, if you say 'ein Berliner' then you rather say that you are 'something' - in this case that pastry. People may understand the intention perfectly, but might sounds quite funny. My grandma as a German spoke Hungarian like this, doing such mistakes many times making me laugh very often :-) Tamas --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .