LL-L "Etymology" 2005.09.28 (09) [D/E]

[Lowlands-L]

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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: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2005.09.28 (04) [A/E]

Ron wrote:
> > But that's exactly what a German "Handvoll" is, no? Despite its name,
it's
> > actually two cupped hands full
>
> Not in *my* book, at least not by default.

Well, in that case, I guess I'm simply greedier than you! :-)

Peter Snepvangers wondered:
> When I was a kid here in Australia we used to buy a bubble gum called
> "Gobschmackers". You had to puff your cheeks out and then cupped your
hands
> and pushed your cheeks in to inflate the gum into as big a ballon as you
> could manage. We also colloquially referred to amounts of berries, cookies
> etc as "a gob full" which is how much you could push in your mouth. I
guess
> it isn't really related to gopsch but do you know where the word gob
> originated? Is it used in the UK at all?

Actually, it is even used twice in the traditional Irish song "Finnegan's
Wake", which James Joyce also used as the title of one of his books. By the
way, in America they're gobstoppers...

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street,
A gentle Irishman mighty odd
He had a brogue both rich and sweet,
An' to rise in the world he carried a hod
You see he'd a sort of a tipplers way
but for the love for the liquor poor Tim was born
To help him on his way each day,
he'd a drop of the craythur every morn

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner
round the flure yer trotters shake
Bend an ear to the truth they tell ye,
we had lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

One morning Tim got rather full,
his head felt heavy which made him shake
Fell from a ladder and he broke his skull, and
they carried him home his corpse to wake
Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet,
and laid him out upon the bed
A bottle of whiskey at his feet
and a barrel of porter at his head

His friends assembled at the wake,
and Widow Finnegan called for lunch
First she brought in tay and cake,
then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch
Biddy O'Brien began to cry,
"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see,
Tim, auvreem! O, why did you die?",
"Will ye hould your gob?" said Paddy McGee

Then Maggie O'Connor took up the cry,
"O Biddy" says she "you're wrong, I'm sure"
Biddy gave her a belt in the gob
and sent her sprawling on the floor
Then the war did soon engage,
t'was woman to woman and man to man
Shillelagh law was all the rage
and a row and a ruction soon began

Mickey Maloney ducked his head
when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed,
the liquor scattered over Tim
Now the spirits new life gave the corpse, my joy!
Tim jumped like a Trojan from the bed
Cryin will ye walup each girl and boy,
t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"

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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2005.09.28 (04) [A/E]

Hoi Mark

Nee, Afrikaans 'gap' komt van het Nederlands 'gappen', dat is stelen,
wegnemen, afpakken enzovoort. En NL 'gappen' komt uit het
Jiddisch 'chappen', en dat heeft het weer geleend uit het Pools.
Maar het heeft dus niets met Nedersaksisch 'göpse' = tweehandenvol
te maken...

No, Afrikaans 'gap' is from Dutch 'gappen', i.e. steal, take away etc.
And Dutch 'gappen' is from Yiddish 'chappen', and that has borrowed it
from Polish again. NB: both Dutch 'gappen', Afr. 'gap' and Yid. 'chappen'
are pronounced with an initial [x]: ["xap@], [xap], [xap=m], and the
Polish word, which I don't recall exactly, too.

So it has nothing to do with Low Saxon 'göpse' = two hands full...

Groetjes
Ingmar

>From: Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
>Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2005.09.27 (03) [E]
>Slightly off the subject: Is this 'göpsch' related to our 'gaps' -
>alternative 'gap' = to grab, pinch, steal, filch, snitch or sieze?
>(Kritzinger, Steyn, Schoonees & Cronjé); wegraap, steel, handvol (Boshoff
en
>Nienaber). Bestaan daar enige verwantskap met Afr. 'gaap' = yawn, gape;
>ginnegaap = natter, gossip?
>
>Groetnis,
>Mark

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