Talk:Inselaffe

I'm German from Frankfurt area and only ever heard this word from Britons living in Germany and never from other Germans.

Never saw it in publication and it only seems to be known in former areas of the British Occupation Zone.

Most likely associations are "affektiert" and "Lackaffe" reflecting the cliches of rather snobbish "gentlemen" talking and acting in an affected and artificial way. This coincides with the image transported in Edgar Wallace films from the 60s. (like Higgins from Magnum p.i. or Jacob Rees-Mogg )

So probably it's rather more colloquial and ironic than pejorative.


 * The first time I heard it was about 10 years ago, i.e. 2008. I am from southern Germany and almost 60. I regard it as derogatory, maybe it was introduced in response of frequent abuse of Germans in British tabloids.


 * I lived in Wolfenbüttel, Niedersachsen, from 1976 to 1980. There was a British garrison there, stationed at the Northampton Barracks near the outskirts of town. Inselaffen was common there, back then, and it was not necessarily derogatory, depending on who was using it in what situation—sometimes it was used jocularly or affectionately. Another sometimes-heard term that referenced the English was englisch einkaufen, which meant to swipe things, usually fruit from orchards.YMMV. --Jim_Lockhart (talk) 06:49, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Inselaffe "is rarely used"
I was surprised to see someone claim that the "island apes" comment was rarely used. ZDF did a skit during the "heute show" on Brexit, during which it derided the British flag, the Prime Minister and the biggest laugh was for "The Planet of the Island Apes", maybe everyone else in Germany has heard it except the author?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxJOXNyihA0

As for claims that it might have been used rarely and only in retaliation that's the sort of cowardly excuse that really does the author no credit.


 * Dwds.de has a large corpus from various kinds of texts (books, newspapers, blogs, etc.). The word is found as rarely as 8 times: 5 times in blogs and 3 times in film subtitles. The earliest attestation of these attestations is from 1999. Google Ngrams also finds exclusively in the 21st century. Moreover it's not even certain whether all of these uses actually mean "Brit". So the word is a neologism and is probably true that it came up as a comeback for the various nicknames used by the British. 2003:E5:EF0F:9B38:B4BE:BC11:F976:A11E 12:54, 8 April 2021 (UTC)
 * In google books, there is one clear attestation from 1996. With another from 1990, I couldn't ascertain whether it referred to Brits, but it may have. I haven't found anything before that. 2003:E5:EF0F:9B38:B4BE:BC11:F976:A11E 13:05, 8 April 2021 (UTC)


 * See my comment above. I heard the term often 1976–1980. Can’t speak for after that since I didn’t live in the area anymore. --Jim_Lockhart (talk) 06:49, 27 January 2024 (UTC)