Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 17:31:26 -0500

From: Gerald Cohen gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UMR.EDU

Subject: "The Donald"



About six months ago this website contained some messages about Ivana

Trump's reference to her husband as "The Donald," a reference that produced

instant hilarity among journalists and others. But I don't remember an

answer given to the question as to why she said this.



I have a hypothesis. Ivana is a native of Czechoslovakia, and I assume

(but do not know) that as an educated European she also knows German. In

German the presence of a definite article before a proper name is optional.

So a boy or man named Hans can be referred to simply as "Hans" or

optionally as "der Hans." Similarly Erika can be "Erika" or "die Erika."

And Donald can be "Donald" or "der Donald."



So Ivana might have simply translated "der Donald" into English as "the

Donald." Can anyone confirm whether Ivana knows German? Is there any

other explanation? I doubt she intentionally said "the Donald" as a way

of conveying a heroic stature to him (as "The Mick" for the great Yankee

slugger Mickey Mantle).



--Gerald Cohen



gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]umr.edu