LL-L "Lexicon" 2003.07.09 (06) [E]

Lowlands-L sassisch at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 9 20:13:11 UTC 2003


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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Lexicon"

It's a long time since I've played card games (they went
out when television came in, I think!), but I was trying
to think back on the peculiarly Scots words used to describe
cards and their games. I wonder if there are any blanks
that anyone could fill in in the following list?

English            Scots

card               caird    /ke:rd/
jack/knave         jock     /dZok/
hearts             herts    /hIr?s/
court card         face caird  /fe:s ke:rd/
unable to play     chappin  /'tSa:pIn/ (term borrowed from dominoes)
three of a kind    pryle    /pr at Il/
Switch             Birlie   /'bIrlI/
turn               shot     /So?/

"Pryle" is a conflation of "pair ryle" (pair royal).

In the game of Pontoon (I've never played this in English
so I'm not sure of the English terms):

fold?              stick   /stIk/
play?              twist   /twIst/
?                  burst   /bVrst/
five card trick    five caird trick  /faiv ke:rd trIk/

Any variants or further terms in Scots? What about other
Lowland languages?

The usual card games amongst my relatives were Pontoon
when playing with children, Nap for competition, and
Birlie for relaxation. In Birlie the rules were as in
Switch but the cards had this effect:

card     value     effect

ace      1         direction of play reverses.
twa     20         only another two can be played, or
                   the whole hand if it totals twenty
                   points; if the player can't play,
                   he has to lift two cards from the
                   pack.
three    3         none.
fower    4         none.
five     5         none.
six      6         none.
seeven   7         seven of hearts stops the game.
aicht    8         next player misses turn.
nine     9         none.
ten     10         none.
jock    15         any card can be played on it.
queen    3         none.
king     2         none.

The first player plays any card, then each player takes
turns to put down a card or cards to the sum of the value
of the card showing, or in the same suite as the one showing.
If a player can't or doesn't want to play, he must lift a card
from the pack instead.

The first player to get rid of all his cards wins. If the
seven of hearts is played, the player with the fewest points
in his hand wins. The rules seem random, but they're designed
so that a clever player can plan ahead to play all his cards
off very quickly.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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

Good one, Sandy!  Thanks.

I'm not a card player, but I can add a few Lowlands Saxon (Low German,
North Saxon dialects) data:

card               kaart (Kaart ~ Koort) [k_h@:3`t]
jack/knave         buer (Buer ~ Buur) [bu:3`] (? "peasant")
hearts             hart ~ hat (Hart ~ Hatt) [ha(:)t]
court card         bildkaart (Bildkaart ~ Bildkoort) ['bIltkQ:3`t]
                   ("picture card")
unable to play     ?
three of a kind    ?
Switch             ?
turn               ?

queen..............daam (Daam ~ Dom) [dQ:m] ("dame", "lady")
king...............könig (König ~ Koenig) ['kø:nIC] ("king")
                   köning (Köning ~ Koening) ['kø:nINk] ("king")
ace................as (As ~ Ass) ['?as]
                   duus (Duus ~ Dus) [du:s]
trump..............truv ~ truf (Truff) [trUf]
                   truuv ~ truuf (Truuf) [tru:f]
to trump...........truven ['tru:v=m]
                   trüyven ['try:v=m]
                   trüyfen ['try:f=m]
                   truffen ['trUf=m]
spades.............pyk (Pik) [pi:k] ("pike")
                   schüppen (Schüppen) ['Syp=m] ( "spades")
clubs..............kleyver (Klever) ['kle.Iv3`] ("clover")
                   krüyts (Krüüts) [kry:ts] ("cross")
diamonds...........ruten (Ruten) ['ru:t=n] ("panes")
to pass............passen ['pas=n] ("to pass")

And some Dutch equivalents (with remarkable similarities):

card               kaart
jack/knave         boer
hearts             harten
court card         ?
unable to play     ?
three of a kind    ?
Switch             ?
turn               ?

queen..............dame
                   vrouw
king...............koning
                   heer
ace................aas
trump..............troef
to trump...........troeven
spades.............schoppen
clubs..............klaveren
diamonds...........ruiten
to pass............?

The most popular card game in Northern Germany is "Ska(a)t" [skQ:t]
(German _Skat_ [ska:t]).

Descriptions:
German: http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~skoch/or/node10.html
English: http://home.att.net/~elinker/skat.html

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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