Otto Waalkes with his Ottifant Photo: picture alliance / Sven Simon
From BZ/dpa
Holdrio – the Ottifant is now in the dictionary. Anyone who has always wanted to know how to correctly pronounce the animal created by Otto Waalkes can now do so online. And the comedian even learned something new about his elephant in Duden.
Ottifanten have always been one of the trademarks of comedian and actor Otto Waalkes (74). 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 of the German Press Agency 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.”
By the way, the Duden describes the Ottifant in the online text as follows: “Ottifant, der. Character of an elephant with human characteristics created by the German comedian Otto Waalkes. Artificial word formed from the first name Otto and “Elephant”.