LL-L 'Nautica' 2006.07.06 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 06 July 2006 * Volume 05
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From: 'Mark Dreyer' <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L 'Morphology' 2006.07.05 (04) [E]

Dear Ron:

Subject: LL-L Morphology - Songs

(Following yours on Morphology)

Alle Mann an Deck!
Wir waren vier Mann hoch.
Fünfzehn Mann auf des toten Mannes Kiste...

"Since this usage is found mainly in nautical surroundings, it should be
assumed that it is Lowlandic in origin," vidé Gabriele Kahn.

And you, "I concur with all of that (and it ain't hurting too much).

So we seem to have a "Saxon-wide" tendency to leave _man_ unmarked after
numerals.

Isn't that the case in English also, at least when in adjectival position?
"A
three man crew" (but "a crew of three men")? referring to the
"Morphology" -> "Songs" crossover (for which I blame Gabriele
of course, because she made me do it with her "Fünfzehn Mann auf des toten
Mannes
Kiste" [Fifteen men on a dead man's box])!

Ron, I'm horrribly afraid to infer (from your presentation) that you missed
out on a germinal work of literature in your linguistically enriched
childhood! Gabriele has snapped up the same titbit that Robert Louis
Stevenson did some two centuries ago, but in English, & he wrote it in his
adventure tale of the Seas, 'Treasure Island'. All Long John Silver's
piratical shipmates knew & sang snatches of it, to the deluctation of young
readers:
"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest,
Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum.
Drink and the Devil have done for the rest
Yo Ho Ho etc.

While we're on the subject, the sailor & scholar of sailing, Royce of
'Royce's Sailing Illustrated' had a spine-tingling point to make in the same
book, I must quote from (parlous) memory...

"In 1880 a ship sailing from Liverpool to New York met another from Rio to
Bremen in mid-Atlantic. About half the crew in the Liverpool brig changed
places with men from the German barque & they sailed on. Later that night a
squall blew up, & notwithsanding the diverse origins of the crew, they all
understood each other & the bos'n & manned their posts without fault." or
words to that effect. He then made the point that there was at that time a
single international seaman's dialect covering all nautical terminology &
activity, & it could be taken for granted that all able seamen understood
it. When I look at a certain party's Mittelsprache I itch to tell her to
nudge it just a teenzy bit coastward & westward & slightly to my tin ear
more Friesish, & incorportate a Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en
Kuns 'Seevaartwoordeboek' for verisimilitude. I'd love to see - errr - hear
it.

Yrs, Ron & Gabriele,
Mark

PS In English you also say 'six man strong', calling for a fatigue-party of
six, for example.

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