LL-L 'Morphology' 2006.07.07 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 07 July 2006 * Volume 02
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From: 'Global Moose Translations' <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Nautica' 2006.07.06 (10) [E]

> My youngest is part Cherokee, too, she'll be happy
> to hear she's "related" to Johnny Depp!

>I hope I didn't help to create a monster. Not to mention the likes of
Kevin
>Costner, Carmen Electra, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Val Kilmer, Eartha
Kitt,
>Demi Moore, Chuck Norris, Elvis Presley, Burt Reynolds and Tina Turner.
But she
>may think they're old fogeys' stars.

Of course they are, that's why I didn't have the heart to tell her about the
others... she's almost 13, that's enough of a burden to bear.

At least, for the nine months of my last pregnancy, I got to boast that I
had Native American blood in me, too! It's so boring when you live in
America and everybody rattles off their interesting ancestry, and you get to
say, "German." "Ah, great, and what else?" "Nothing, just plain German!"

Gabriele Kahn

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From: Obiter Dictum <obiterdictum at mail.ru> 
Subject: LL-L 'Nautica' 2006.07.06 (05) [E]

Great stuff, Mark, as usual! Kumplementen (c) :)

Another piece of my old puzzle seems to have fallen into place.
Speaking of... naughty ka...:) (nostalgically rolling up me eyes), as a matter of
fact, I happened to sail as 'n markonis aboard a trawler in the Pacific for five
years or so before university:)

I thought then that eight or nine out of ten Russian nautical terms came from
Dutch. Now, try to guess what these Russian words may mean: мачта, трос, каюта,
камбуз, нок, галс, штурвал, кноп, трюм, гордень, дюйм, ваÑ
та, крюйс,
крюйт-камера. For the benefit of those of you who can’t see or read my Cyrillics,
I use German-like spelling: matschta, tros, kajuta, kambuzz ("zz" stands here for
the voiced "s"), nok, gals (OK, "ghals" :) ), sturwal, knop, truem, gorden',
duejm, wachta, kruejs, kruejt-kamera. :)

All these terms came with who I thought were Dutch skippers and bos'ns Russian
tsar Peter the Great recruited/hired in Holland to handle his ships in the late
17th and early 18th century.

OK, what puzzled me slightly then was this: how come that Russians pronounce "the
ship's hold" as "trUEm”, "powder" as "krUEJT," "cross" as "krUEJS," etc.,whereas
Dutch pronounce "t'rOEJm," "krOEJT" and "krOEJs," respectively? OK, "j" may
occasionally have dropped out. But it never did in "duim," "kruis" or "kruit."
Still, why "UI" instead of "OE"? Could the standard Duch pronunciation have gone
that far from its initial spelling (so as ui has come to read as "OEJ")? I
dismissed the idea that the Dutch "UE(j)" entered the Russian nautical jargon via
writings. How many literate AB seamen were there in the early 17th century? In
Russia or wherever?

Now the explanation:
Mark wrote:
> single international seaman's dialect covering all nautical terminology &
> activity, & it could be taken for granted that all able seamen understood
> it.

and especially this:

> nudge it just a teenzy bit coastward & westward & slightly to my tin ear
> more Friesish,

Thanks Mark :)
Doesn't it solve it? To finally dispel my doubts, do any Lowlanders—apart from
the Dutch—pronounce (or pronounced in the 17th century) "duim," "kruis," "ruim,"
etc. exactly as spelled? I mean, with "UEJ" ("ue" standing for ü, or u umlaut)?

One more warm, sweet reminiscence. It was exactly abord that trawler then that I
read--robbing myself of precious time for sleep between watches--my first whole
book in German. The book was... ja, Die Schatzinsel, natuerlich! A 70 or so page
adapted German school reader translation (evidently made from the Russian
version!) of RLS's kids' jewel! :) I happened to know the Russian version almost
by heart by the time. Now just imagine my warm sense of achiement as I felt I
could _understand_ those strange, outlandish words I would have never recognized
in any other context!!

I would have gladly that feeling back. If any of you Lowlanders happen to know
where I could find the full German translation of Treasure Island on the
Internet, could you please let me know? (I'd appreciate an e-mail (i) not to miss
the message and (ii) not to litter the list). Thanks a lot in advance.

Mark, a question for you, if you don't mind
You know my weakness for dictionaries ;)

I simply could'n let this one go unnoticed:
> a Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en
> Kuns 'Seevaartwoordeboek' for verisimilitude.

When did the Academy pulbish that dictionary? Mark, I'm TRIPLE interested!! As a
sailor (once a sailor, always a sailor, you know), as a student of Afrikaans, and
as a dictionary collector :)

I researched for 'Seevaartwoordeboek' on the Interned but couldn't find any.
(Instead, I found a short Afrikaans-English paramedical glossary on the SAAWK
dictionary page and copied it--for good measure :).
Now, If you happen to have it, or know its publishing details, could you let me
know, please?

By the way, you don't seem to have received my mail (in reply to yours)?

Thanks Mark and all in advance,

Groete,
Vlad Lee

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

Ahoy, Vlad, me bucko!  Arrr, shiver me timbers! What a treat to see you take the
speakers' corner for a longer while!

> Speaking of... naughty ka...:) (nostalgically rolling up me eyes)

Begad!  So it's *that* Vlad again!  ;-)

Let me add another ingredient to your Salmagundi (a pirate's name for Lobscouse).
 Before the Dutch shipbuilding craze in 17th-century Russia there was a quite a
bit of contact with Hanseatic sailors and merchants in Western Russia, and
consequently with the Middle Saxon language, which was the lingua franca of the
Hanseatic Trading League.  In fact, the earliest record of conversational Middle
Saxon is found in a traveler's language guide to conversational Russian
("survival Russian" we'd say these days).  (I don't have the details at the
moment, but let me just say it's a lovely text that would interest you and others.)

I am not suggesting that this is the answer to your remaining questions.  What I
want to remind you of, if reminding is required, is that 17th-century Russians
encountered a type of Dutch that was pronounced differently, and I want to
suggest that they were not unwritten leaves in terms of Lowlands exposure at the
time but surely connected Dutch with closely related Saxon encountered earlier. 
And then there is what appears to be the beginning of an international sailors'
jargon taking shape.  I'm fairly sure Russians had encounters or at least brushes
with that too.  

Furthermore, I believe that already at that time Russian traders, whalers and
fishermen passed on knowledge of Russenorsk, a heavily Russified Norwegian-based
trading pidgin used among Russians and Norwegians.  It was used by Kola
Norwegians in Russia as well (who had fought in the Red Army and were then not
allowed to return to their homes on the Kola Peninsula).  This was at a time when
Norwegian, like Danish and Swedish, had already been heavily influenced, if not
transformed, by Middle Saxon, and many Norwegian terms were of Saxon origin.  

For instance, Russenorsk has _junka_ and Russian has юнга _yunga_ for 'shipboy',
derived from Middle Saxon _junge_ 'boy', 'lad'.  Besides Middle-Saxon-derived
_junker_ 'young gentleman', I find no related Norwegian word, and I assume that
_junka_ is derived from Russian юнга _yunga_ which is derived from Middle Saxon.

Let's keep stirring the Salmagundi, me hearties!

Reinhard/Ron

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