I remember the first time I read Tadellöser und Wolff being fascinated to discover that the Kempowskis spoke in their own language just like we used to, a mini-dialect, as it were, funny and cosy and irreverent. [...] Talk is laced with self-fabricated Latinisms reminiscent of schooldays [...], with nautical terms [...], with Low German dialect [...] and with snatches of hymns, rhymes and advertising jingles, depending on the context. The real sense of the Kempowski family conversation is almost impossible to translate adequately, and this is doubtless is true of all such homemade languages. After all, their purpose is the sharing of common humour and the expression of affection without the embarrassment of becoming too emotional, while at the same time excluding strangers from the conversation.