Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Word play with the German words 'Stadt' and 'Statt'


The German word Stadt is a noun meaning town or city. The noun Statt means place or stead. Written in lower case, statt is a preposition with the meaning instead of. These words sound alike. The word stattstrand, here seen next to the Hunte Wendehafen in downtown Oldenburg in northwest Germany, is composed of the word statt and the noun Strand, meaning beach. The compositum Stattstrand can be understood as Stadtstrand (city beach) and also as alternative or atypical beach. In the extreme sense, it means no beach at all, but something different.

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