GERMANGLISH

From the Battle For Brüttelburg Kickstarter. When I was a kid in the 80s my dad went to Japan on tour (he's a Musician) & came back with reports of the Japanese use of English. In 1993 Dave Barry Does Japan came out & cemented the use of English in this way for me. By this time I had been collecting all sorts of Japanese things & had become very used to how Japan used Western things. I loved the unexpected twist that using English in this way created. So, I decided to use German in the same way!

My initial use of German was directly inspired by an issue of White Dwarf with a Chaos Warrior with A "Blut Fer Den Blut Gott" banner (maybe issue 104). Something about giving the Chaos Warrior a German banner added so much to me that it was permanently etched in my mind. I was probably 12 when I saw this, & my knowledge of the language grew a little bit from listening to Kraftwerk & Laibach, but I was still largely ignorant. It was with this enthusiasm & energy that I decided to make German a pillar of DUNGEON DEGENERATES. It's why the Die is pronounced "dye" instead of "dee" in Die Wurst. I know it's wrong but art is more than being right!

My last name is Swedish, which branched off from the Indo European language core, then old German. I use a Heavy Metal umlaut in the name even though the pre-Americanized version would be Åberg not Äaberg. The Heavy Metal umlaut is just an easier way to explain the fact that I actually got the Ä from Nausicaä by Hayao Miyazaki (a key influence on DUNGEON DEGENERATES). Ultimately, I'm an American & I use language how I want.

I've become less ignorant of the German Language over time as I've been studying it for the last three years, but I still hold that you can find innovation & a new twist in doing things wrong.