Non-native linguistic detachment

[Mark Mandel]

The name of the beer is "Yuengling", with a "Y", not a "J", as Damien
unconsciously korrektierte it. That's why his German friend didn't spot it
and thought it looked Chinese... as I think I did, the first time I saw it
when new to the area.

m a m

On Dec 24, 2007 11:27 AM, Damien Hall <halldj at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:

> dInIs said:
>
> ==================
>
> I always remember sitting in a basement beer bar drinking beer with
> Polish friends when it struck me that one of the Polish words for
> basement (piwnica) must have been connected to beer (piwo) - beer
> storing place? It is, of course, but none of the native speakers with
> me (all linguists!) had ever noticed the connection, and the phonetic
> modification in the case was minimal.
>
> ==================
>
> Sometimes it takes a bit of detachment from a case to notice stuff like
> this.  I
> remember once being at a party with other linguists in Philadelphia where
> the
> local lager Juengling was being served.  The question came up as to where
> the
> name had come from;  I was surprised that anyone should even be asking the
> question, since it seemed very likely to me (especially given the
> partially
> German settlement history of the area) that it was simply the German word
> *Jüngling* 'young man'.  A German friend among us didn't spot it, though;
>  her
> first thought was that it looked like something Chinese.
>
> Damien Hall
> University of Pennsylvania
>
>

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