The Ottifant is ennobled by the Duden: The creation of East Friesland’s stupid bard Otto Waalkes is in the digital version of Germany’s most important language reference work. Waalkes is delighted.
Ottifanten have always been one of the trademarks of comedian and actor Otto Waalkes. Now the humanized elephants drawn by Waalkes have made it into the Duden – at least in the online version of the standard work on German spelling. “The Ottifant has been available online in Duden for a day or two,” said the head of the Duden editorial team at Cornelsen Verlag in Hamburg.
It remains to be seen whether the famous figure will also be included in the next printed Duden, she explained. “That will be decided in a complex editorial process in the months before the next edition is published.” However, it is not yet certain when this will be published.
Waalkes spoke up with an Instagram post and was happy about the Duden entry. “Staaark – my Ottifant is now in the dictionary!” Posted the East Frisian. He can now always read how to spell and pronounce the word correctly and even look up the genitive of it. “I didn’t even know he had a genitive – he never showed me that.”
Incidentally, the Duden describes Ottifant in the online text as follows: “Ottifant, the figure of an elephant designed by the German comedian Otto Waalkes, which has human characteristics. Artificial word, formed from the first name Otto and ‘elephant'”.
