LL-L "Vocabulary" 2001.11.25 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 25.NOV.2001 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Vocabulary"

> From: Holger Weigelt <platt at HOLGER-WEIGELT.DE>
> Subject: LL-L "Vocabulary" 2001.10.31 (02) [E]
>
> An old lady who was  well known to my grandma had made a journey to the
> United States visiting her relatives. When she was back again she went
> round telling all the people about her adventures. And this started:
> "Do:
> ik dor up di e:erpo:rt kwam..."
> Spontaneously she had created a striking Platt neologism basing on the
> English word "airport" understanding it this way: "e:er" is earth
> and "po:rt" is gate or entrance in Eastern Friesland Platt (You often
> hear
> the diminutive "po:rtje" for the entrance to a house-site). Thus
> e:erpo:rt
> is the gate to earth.

When I read this I was sure I'd heard this sort of phenomenon
in Scots, though it's not been easy thinking of examples, and
I don't know if there's anything quite as striking as the one
given above.

However, the following occurs to me:

pockmantie [pok'mQ:n?I]: this is Scots for "portmanteau" but has
become corrupted by analogy with the Scots words "poke" (a little
bag) and "mantie" (mantle). In this case "mantie" is from the
the French "manteau" but "poke" has nothing to do with "port",
even though it's still appropriately descriptive of the object.

Petticoat tails: seems a perfect description of the little wedges
of shortbread broken from a fancily-imprinted round, but is at
least suspected to come from the French "petit galettes" (I think
this exact phrase was suggested by Ron, and can be found somewhere
in the Lowlands-L archives).

There are some less striking corruptions of French in
Scots, eg pinchneb (pincenez), ombongpong (en bon point).

I'm sure I've heard some Scots speakers - particularly older
ones not too spoiled by education - using other quite striking
transliterations (perhaps even from English?), but I can't seem
to bring them to mind.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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