NYT on Daniel Cassidy

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:46 PM -0500 11/8/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Not to mention that "speal" is pronounced [spjael] or [Spjael].
>"Speal" merely _appears_ to be something that is pronounced the same
>as "spiel" or "shpiel" only on the basis of _English_ spelling! Does
>this guy even know _Irish_?!
>
>-Wilson

Ah, but let us not forget that Ger. _spielen_, 'play, perform
(theatr.), gamble', whence the nominalization _Spiel_ (later borrowed
into Yiddish in the palatalized version), *must* have been borrowed
from Irish, since as is well known, the Irish are celebrated for
their love of theater, performance, and gambling.  QED.

LH

>
>On 11/8/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>  Subject:      Re: NYT on Daniel Cassidy
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  At 11/8/2007 11:29 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>>  >This is from the events list of NYU's Ireland
>>  >House, where Cassidy appeared last year, for a book-signing.
>>  >
>>  >"Tuesday, November 6th at 7:30pm: How the Irish
>>  >Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the
>>  >Crossroads - A reading and performance by Daniel
>>  >Cassidy.  Venue: The Donaghy Theatre at the
>>  >Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st Street.  In a
>>  >fast-paced spiel (speal, cutting, sharp speech) [snip]
>>
>>  "spiel" from the Irish?!!  I presume one could
>>  argue more cogently from the Yiddish.
>>
>>  Joel
>>
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>
>
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