Hi Arnon,

Not that it really matters that much, but the lady misinformed you. My mother tongue is German and I contradict, as does the Duden, the bible of German spelling. The accent is on the first syllable. Loved your reading. Thanks for signing my copy of Fantoompijn.

Nike

Damned, so I'm fooled.
Once again this shows how easy it is to tell lies. Thanks!

For accents, till now, I got my comfort from Nico (ex Velvet Underground): “She spoke English very bad, but then she spoke every language bad”. Now I can have comfort from the fabulous Joseph Conrad too. Thank you.

Cameleon

If I speak English with someone that has a terrible accent, I will have the same terrible accent.
If I speak English with a native American, I will have his or her accent.

I am a cameleon when it comes to accents.

@Lila. I speak English/Dutch with a heavy South African accent and I hate it when people do what you do (ie: use my accent whe taling to me). To me, it comes across as being very condescending.

Lila

I meant accent as in emphasis (stress, emphasis, accentuation, force, prominence; beat; technical ictus.) but your contribution is valuable as well.

Joseph Conrad

With the famous Preface of Conrad to The Nigger of the Narcissus do you consider yourself to be an artist in that you seek the truth about the Human Mind? Do you also believe that truth is universal and lies within each of us?
Do you consider yourself a Taoist?

Just wondering,
Kind regards,
Joram

Arnon,Nike

Arnon,you haven´t been fooled.The lady was right:the accent on the word Kakerlake is on the third syllable: KakerLAke
Nike, you haven´t read carefully enough.DER Kakerlak is stressed on the first syllable.DIE Kakerlake is stressed on the third syllable.
I´m glad I could make this clear.

Joram

I’m not sure what it means exactly to seek the truth about the human mind while writing a novel, (the claim can be easily made) but as I have stated before I believe that the concept of truth is important when it comes to the art of the novel. (I would hesitate to call myself an artist or to try to proof that I’m worth being called an artist.)
I’m not sure what the value is of a local truth. So I guess when the word truth is used it implies universality. (See also my article, which was published a few weeks ago in NRC Handelsblad about George Steiner and why thinking makes unhappy.)
I’m only a Taoist when I’m extremely unhappy and/or when I just return from China.

Dear Arnon,
Thank you for your reply. I will check the article.

today I received a letter from my grandmother. She just found out that I live in Turkey for the moment, and she wondered why I didn't tell her.
I'm about to tell the truth. I'm about to telling the truth more often.

I had a little chat about cockroaches today.

Hello, Mr. Grünberg, you are in Germany again. You know my question: Will you visit Berlin too for a reading?
By the way: the right way to speak out Kakerlake depends on the region, where you are. In Berlin we say "Kaaaaakerlake".

Susann

Unfortunately I won't come to Berlin this summer.

Manon,
As I already said, I don’t think that it's big deal, but according to my Duden both, the male Kakerlak as the female Kakerlake, have the accent on the first syllable, it might be a printing mistake, and it would be kind of nice to spot one in the Duden. Regardless if it's KAkerlake or KakerlAke, they are somehow fascinating while at the same time rather unpleasant creatures, and I am quite happy the last time I saw about a dozen of them was in a friend’s apartment above a bakery in Amsterdam’s Radhuisstraat about ten years ago…

It starts with a syllable, ends with either a child or a few years down the gutter.

Tirza

Hello Arnon,

I enjoyed reading Tirza this week. As a variation on the theme translated to today: 'Eitle kurzweil Rasmussiger Menschen!
greetings,
Hans Pels

Nike

Perhaps you need glasses.

Lexical stress

Arnon, in theories of prosodic structure, the type of prominence that you were trying to refer to as "accent" is called "lexical stress". In German, the final syllable of a tetrasyllabic monomorphemic word such as "Kakerlaken" is usually unstressed.

DEar Arnon,

as your German translator let me tell you that the stres in "Kakerlaken" is neither on the first nor on the the lats but one syllable: "Kakerlá-ken /ke". Very best wishes,

Rainer