The “Brezel-Rätsel”:
How Sign Language Linguistics Can Solve Real-World Problems

Fabian Bross

The Problem

Everyday life presents us with many puzzling questions. One famous example of such a question is the correct way to hang toilet paper (either with the loose end hanging next to the wall or the reverse). Another, similarly fascinating question is the correct orientation of a pretzel. I call this problem the “Brezel-Rätsel” which is German for ‘pretzel puzzle’. The “Brezel-Rätsel” is illustrated in Figure 1 showing the four possible orientations of a Pretzel (ignoring intermediate stages of rotation). What is clear is that the orientations shown in Figure 1a and 1b are completely odd. Comparable to the intuitions evoked with the Bouba/Kiki effect, everyone seems to feel that these first two orientations are wrong and there is probably no bakery in the world which would present their pretzels in this way. For this reason, they are marked with an asterisk in the Figure.

Figure 1: The “Brezel-Rätsel”: Which of the two orientations in the bottom row are the correct ones? Is the belly the top part of a pretzel, or is it the arms?

Intuitions are, however, far less clear when it comes to the orientations shown in Figure 1c and 1d. The fact that it is unclear whether a pretzel’s “belly” (i.e., the thicker part where the dough typically bursts and where most of the salt is located) belongs on the bottom or on the top is further illustrated by the observation that we find pretzel-shaped bakery signs with both orientations. This is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Pretzel-shaped bakery signs from Germany with different orientations

The Solution

Obviously, not even German bakers, who should be considered the absolute experts when it comes to pretzels, know the correct orientation of a pretzel. Gladly, sign languages can provide us with interesting insights into this problem due to their high degree of iconicity. Figure 3 shows the sign for pretzel from the southern variant of German Sign Language (the same sign is used in Austrian Sign Language). Figure 3a shows the starting configuration of the sign. The index fingers of both hands touch each other. Then, the index fingers iconically trace the shape of a pretzel. Figure 3b shows the end configuration. As can be seen, the palm orientation changes during the execution of the sign.

Figure 3: The iconic sign for pretzel in the southern variant of German Sign Language

In the end configuration, the index fingers represent a pretzel’s “arms” suggesting that the arms are at the bottom as the end configuration is signed in a lower position than the starting configuration. There is another variant of the sign for pretzel from German Sign Language shown in Figure 4. The sign is performed with the index finger and the thumb (called “Baby-C handshape”) drawing two arcs, a larger and a smaller one. The larger arc represents the general form of a pretzel while the smaller arc indicates a pretzel’s arms which are, again, at the bottom.

Figure 4: Another variant of the sign for pretzel from German Sign Language

Note that the word pretzel derives from Latin bracchiola, ‘little arms’. We thus find that the spoken modality makes reference to the same visual characteristics but the signed modality additionally provides us with interesting spatial information—and, crucially, an insight into the mental representation of pretzels. The signs depicted in Figure 3 and Figure 4 present clear evidence that the arms of a pretzel are at the bottom and the belly of a pretzel is, consequently, the top part. Thus, the correct orientation of a pretzel, is the one in Figure 1d (see also the bottom row of Figure 2). This illustrates nicely how sign languages and their unique properties can help us to answer otherwise hard-to-tackle questions.

Photo credits: The pretzel-shaped bakery signs are all licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 except as noted. Aichach-Schild Bäckerei, ©2012 by Franzfoto. Ulm Kohlgasse 21 Ladenschild, ©2013 by Andreas Praefcke (CC BY 3.0). Illerbeuren - Bäckerei-Schild Brezel, ©2013 by Franzfoto. Bad Wildbad - König-Karl-Straße 07 ies, ©2015 by Frank Vincentz. Calw - Biergasse 07 ies, ©2015 by Frank Vincentz. Lüneburg - Grapengießerstraße 06 ies, ©2009 by Frank Vincentz. Pretzel-shaped bakery signs from Germany with different orientations, which contains cropped versions of the above images, is ©2021 by Fabian Bross and the authors listed above, and is also licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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