The greatest – and I do mean greatest – quote by any non native in a second language has to be that belonging to US President, J. F. Kennedy. On June 26th 1963 he declared ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. Here comes the shocking part: he did not categorise himself as a jelly filled doughnut in saying those words, as the whole world, it seems, thinks he did.
In fact, according to the nuances of German, his translation of ‘I am a person of Berlin’ was perfect, as should any translation be. And that includes the punctuation, and brings me nicely to the topic of this entry: foreign quotation marks.
Not only do words and meaning vary from language to language (as well as region to region) but punctuation, and its use, does too.
So, there follows a brief overview of the different methods employed on this planet of ours for displaying quotations. Thanks to a French translator of ours, Philippe Maillard, for the information.
[EDIT: Thanks for the comments highlighting the inaccuracies in my post, which I have amended accordingly!]| Language | Level 1 | Level 2 | Alt codes | |
| Bulgarian | „ … “ | „ … “ | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | |
| Czech | „ … “ | , … ‘ | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | |
| Danish | Any marks are allowed! | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | ||
| Dutch | „…” | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | No spaces around the quotes | |
| English | “ … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | |
| Estonian | „ … ” | „ … ” | Alt&0132 Alt&0148 | |
| Finnish | ” … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0148 | |
| French | « … » | ‹ … › | Alt&0171 Alt&0187 | Spaces around the guillemets |
| Gaelic | “ … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | |
| German | „ … “ | , … ‘ | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | |
| Greek | « … » | ‹ … › | Alt&0171 Alt&0187 | |
| Hungarian | „ … ” | » … « | Alt&0132 Alt&0148 | |
| Italian | “ … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | |
| Latvian | „ … ” | „ … ” | Alt&0132 Alt&0148 | |
| Lithuanian | „ … “ | „ … “ | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | |
| Maltese | “ … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | |
| Norwegian | « … » | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0171 Alt&0187 | |
| Polish | „ … ” | » … « | Alt&0132 Alt&0148 | |
| Portuguese | “ … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | |
| Romanian | „ … ” | « … » | Alt&0132 Alt&0148 | |
| Slovak | „ … “ | , … ‘ | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | |
| Slovene | „ … “ | , … ‘ | Alt&0132 Alt&0147 | |
| Spanish | “ … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0147 Alt&0148 | |
| Swedish | ” … ” | ‘ … ‘ | Alt&0148 |
23 October 2008 09:46