LL-L "Remedies" (was "Lexicon") 2002.01.29 (01) [E]

Tue Jan 29 15:40:13 UTC 2002

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 29.JAN.2002 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "Pepijn Hendriks" <pepijnh at gmx.net>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2002.01.28 (07) [E/German]

Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org] wrote:

> I've been coming across the expression "sugarally water"
> in various texts in Scots recently. I can remember my
> grandmother talking about this (she called it "sugarelly
> water", of course), and I think she said it involved
> dissolving liquorice in water somehow. Does anyone know
> the recipe?

Ron subsequently referred to it as being licorice 'tea' or 'tincture'.
It reminded me of something that my grandmother called _schommeldrop_, a
licorice drink obtained by swinging or swaying (_schommelen_) a stick of
 _laurierdrop_ in a certain amount of water. The webiste
<http://www.licorice.org/LicoriceFinder/Laurierdrop/laurierdrop.htm>
gives 'licorice laurel' as a translation for _laurierdrop_.

Preferably the bottle you used for preparing this drink was dark, so a
brown medicine bottle was usually what we used. You put a small piece of
a stick in the water, put the cap on and started turning the bottle over
and over again. When the licorice was completely dissolved, the drink
had to be stored away from the light and could be drunk the next day.
The renewed shaking of the drink caused foam to appear on top of it.

My grandmother always allowed us to make this whenever we had a cold.

Google finds only three occurences of this word, the most interesting
one is at <http://members-2.nl.home.com/jpesebregts/dialecten.htm>. This
list gives the word _zjapke_ as being 'juice of schommeldrop'. It
doesn't explain the word _schommeldrop_ any further.

The author of this website gives a list of words used in the southwest
corner of Brabant. Numerous words in this list can however hardly be
called regional; they occur in the standard as well. Unfortunately he
doesn't say where he grew up. But both the designation 'zuidwesthoek',
the phonetics of the dialectal words and several placenames he does
refer to (_Barege_ for 'Bergen op Zoom', _Ostrecht_ for Ossendrecht),
lead me to believe that the dialectal words come from an area around
Bergen op Zoom. This is somewhat further west than where I grew up
(Etten-Leur, with my father being from Breda, 15 kilometres east of
that; there are noticeable dialectal difference between the two places).

Another site which mentions this word _schommeldrop_ is
<http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/stadium/9165/divo.html>,
maintained by an 18-year-old boy from Dinteloord, a good few kilometres
north, bordering almost on the _Volkerak_, the water dividing the
province Noord-Brabant with the island of Goeree-Overflakkee, belonging
to the province Zuid-Holland.

Those interested in the geography of the places mentioned, can look them
up at the following URLs:
* Bergen op Zoom:
<http://www.zoekplaats.nl/zoekplaats/cgi/waar.pl?actie=plaats&zoek=bergen
+op+zoom>
* Ossendrecht:
<http://www.zoekplaats.nl/zoekplaats/cgi/waar.pl?actie=plaats&zoek=ossend
recht>
* Etten-Leur:
<http://www.zoekplaats.nl/zoekplaats/cgi/waar.pl?actie=plaats&zoek=etten-
leur>
* Breda:
<http://www.zoekplaats.nl/zoekplaats/cgi/waar.pl?actie=plaats&zoek=breda>
* Dinteloord:
<http://www.zoekplaats.nl/zoekplaats/cgi/waar.pl?actie=plaats&zoek=dintel
oord>

-Pepijn

----------

From: "Pepijn Hendriks" <pepijnh at gmx.net>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2002.01.28 (07) [E/German]

I wrote:

> Google finds only three occurences of this word, the most interesting one
> is at <http://members-2.nl.home.com/jpesebregts/dialecten.htm>. This list
> gives the word _zjapke_ as being 'juice of schommeldrop'. It doesn't
> explain the word _schommeldrop_ any further.

I didn't look carefully enough. He does explain it, though not under the
lemma _schommeldrop_, but under _kluziesjap_:

-----
Kluziesjap
Ook "kliesiesjap". Aftreksel van "pijpdrop", "laurierdrop". Een stukje
pijpdrop wordt in een flesje water gedaan, een stop erop en dan flink
schudden, de drank gaat dan erg schuimen. Dit schuim kan worden
opgezogen, dan gaat de stop er weer op en wéér kan er geschud worden.
Dit kan steeds doorgaan, het werd ook wel "schommeldrop" genoemd. Het is
een lekkere zoete drank. Bij verkoudhied maar ook bij dorstig weer werd
dit wel gebruikt. De kinderen zijn er dol op.
-----

Rough translation into English:

-----
Kluziesjap
Also "kliesiesjap". Extract of "pijpdrop", "laurierdrop". A piece of
licorice laurel is put in a bottle of water, a plug in it and then shake
it vigorously, the drink will then foam very much. This foam can be
sucked up, put the plug back in and again you can shake it. This can
continue; another name was "schommeldrop". It is a delicious, sweet
drink. It was used against colds, but also in thirsty weather. Kids love
it.)
-----

-Pepijn

----------

Hopefully my last contribution for the day on this topic. I searched the
web some more with the help of Google. Another word for _schommeldrop_,
less regional, appears to be _dropwater_.

A carnaval's orchestra from the Limburgian municipality of Tegelen
(close to Venlo) is called 'Sôkkerpáek', which in their dialect means
_dropwater_. See <http://home.plex.nl/~gottm/sokkerpaek/kepel.html>.
They claim that the procedure of making this drink and sucking up the
foam is archaic and not widely used anymore.

I don't know what the Limburgian word _sôkkerpáek_ means, but the first
part of it seems to be the equivalent of Dutch _suiker_, English
_sugar_, which reminds us again of the _sugarally water_ Sandy used in
his original posting.

-Pepijn

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Remedies

Sandy,

Perhaps we're getting closer now:

http://www.electricscotland.com/food/charlotte/other_things.htm
===start quote===
Sugarelly Water
I love licorice, as in Bassett's Licorice Allsorts, but I can't imagine doing
this again: Our little gang of kids, right up until we were about 12 or 13, I
think, would go on this binge where we would want Sugarelly Water.
   We would get a lemonade bottle (lemonade is what we called pop - and hardly
ever got - so those bottles were hard to find, especially since your mum got
money back when they were returned) and put in about 3 or 4 sticks of pure
licorice - that you could only get from the chemist, or pharmacist. With the
licorice in the bottom of the bottle, we would fill the bottle with ordinary
tap water and put in a dark place for about a week for it to dissolve. (I
realize now it was probably also fermenting). I liked to put mine under the
kitchen sink - we called that "the cubby hole" - where it was nice and dark
and cold. After a week you had Sugarelly Water - nice and black and thick. I
don't know if we ever really connected all that rhubarb and licorice with the
bodily function results!
===end quote===

http://leithmemories.homestead.com/Boyswillbeboys.html
===start quote===
Often we would make our own drink refreshment.  A bottle with some liquorice
stick and water would be left in some dark corner of the house to mature.  We
called this `sugarelly water`.  Each day it would be examined to see how it
was coming along.  While waiting on it to mature, a bottle of vantas could be
bought from the local shop.  This was just flavoured water aerated with some
bottled gas of some sort.
===end quote===

Licorice plant (_Süßholz_, _Glycyrrhiza glabra_) in liquid in Germany:
http://www.illernet.de/heilpflanzen/seite22.htm
===start quote===
Tinktur aus der Wurzel als entzündungshemmendes Mittel bei Arthritis oder
Allergien, als verdauungsförderndes Heilmittel, sowie bei Lungenleiden. Absud
zur Behandlungen von Magenübersäuerung bei Geschwüren. Der eingedickte Extrakt
in Stangenform (Lakritze) in Wasser aufgelöst wirkt abführend und fördert den
Gallenfluss, außerdem löst er Schleim bei Erkrankung der oberen Atemwege. Bei
Bluthochdruck sollte Süßholz vermieden werden.
===end quote===

===start my translation===
Tinkture from the root as an anti-inflammatory in cases of arthritis or
allergies, as digestion-promoting remedy, as well as as in cases of
respiratory ailments.  Decoction used to treat gastric hyperacidity in cases
of ulcers.  The thickened extract in the shape of bars (licorice) dissolved in
water acts as a laxative and promotes biliary drainage.  Furthermore, it
dissolves mucus in cases of upper respiratory problems.  Licorice ought to be
avoided in cases of hypertension.
===end my translation===

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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