The tradition of watching “Dinner for One,” the brilliant and obscure 18-minute short film based on a book by Lauri Wylie that depicts the story of Miss Sophie Warden, an upper-class woman who is celebrating her 90th birthday, being served alone at a table for 5 on her birthday, on Silvester, or New Year’s Eve, is quite entrenched in many parts of the world, especially in Germany and Austria, where an estimated 50% of the population watches it before heading out to more substantial activities . The sketch itself is deliberately repetitive, using what have become classic catchphrases as a kind of chorus, spoken when Miss Sophie makes a request of her butler, James.
What’s truly interesting to your humble scrivener is how some of the English-language dialogue has moved over into German as loanwords and loan phrases.
Just as in the past, Miss Sophie has invited her four closest friends – Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pomeroy, and Mr. Winterbottom – to a celebratory dinner. There is, however, a small wrinkle: Miss Sophie has outlived them all. Unperturbed, the wealthy spinster has not allowed this small detail to slow down the festivities: Her solution? She has butler James stand in for all.
Part of James’ duties as a stand-in for the guests is to toast Miss Sophie with each course. As a result, he becomes more and more inebriated. As the evening progresses, Miss Sophie maintains her upper-class stoicism, despite having imbibbed one glass of wine per course, while James completely loses control of his physical self and his use of language.
Hilarity ensues.
Before each course, James hesitatingly asks his mistress, “The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?” an utterance that becomes increasingly slurred to the point of incomprehensibility, to which the lady of the house inevitably replies, “The same procedure as every year, James.”
These particular phrases have effectively become loanwords in Germany and Austria. Most Austrians and Germans can quote from the sketch quite freely. Indeed, the phrase “the same procedure as every year” has entered the German vernacular sufficiently to be used in German and Austrian newspaper headlines on topics that are unrelated to the viewing of “Dinner for One” or any Silvester activities.
Meanwhile, “Dinner for One” has – since its first New Year’s Even broadcast in 1972 – become a true cult classic and it is estimated that upwards of 80% of the population of Germany and 65% of Austria watch the short before heading out to more substantial activities.
As for the show‘s effect on the language, German can only benefit from new loanwords, including the catchphrases from “Dinner for One.”
English, incidentally, is replete with loanwords if the reader were to stop to think about it. Take, for exmaple, “shampoo,” which which is Hindi for “massage,” and “safari.” For the reader’s enjoyment, here is a list of what we believe to be the top ten German words borrowed by the notoriously light-fingered English:
1.) Kindergarten [Kinder = children; Garten = garden]
2.) Iceberg [Eis = Ice; Berg = mountain]
.3.) Wunderkind [Wunder = wonder or miracle; Kind = child]
4.) Angst [Angst = fear]
5.) Weltschmerz [Welt = world; Schmerz = pain]
6.) Zeitgeist [Zeit = time; Geist = spirit]
7.) Doppelganger or Doppelgänger [Doppel = double; Gänger = walker]
8.) Blitzkrieg [Blitz = lightnuing; Krieg = war]
9.) Strudel (as in Apfelstrudel or Applestrudel) [Swirl]
10.) Schadenfreude [Schaden = damage, harm, loss; Freude = joy]
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
