LL-L "Fun with words" 2008.04.13 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 13 April 2008 - Volume 01
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From: Tom Carty <cartyweb at hotmail.com>
Subject: Beyond the Pale: When No Means Yes

I love the new Beyond the Pale feature on the site. For those of you with
friends in Slovakia, you may be aware of two faux pas that can be made. I
enclose one here, and will send the rest by further messages.

*When No Means Yes*

My friend applied for a job, and speaks good English. His partner however
understands better than she speaks. My friend was out, and the phone rang,
and on answering it, she was asked was there someone there looking for a
job. She naid "No".

The man on the phone rang up, she rang her partner, he rang me, and I
hurried up to their house to sort it out.

I rang the guy back. He said the woman said no-one wanted a job.

Then the penny dropped: I explained the situation, all had a laugh, but the
job was gone.

You see, in Slovak, "No" is short for "Ano" which means "Yes". No means Yes,
quite literally, or to be more correct ti would mean "Yeah" or "Yah".

It must be hell getting a Slovak woman into bed!!! You dont know if shes
saying yes or no!!!

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From: Tom Carty <cartyweb at hotmail.com>
Subject: Beyond the Pale: When "Cool" means "Crap"

The last of this batch of Beyond the Pale, is the Slovak word which is
pronounced as our word "cool"

It means "crap"!

I was tod by a friend Lara Gandré that it comes from German, "cula", the
word for "sphere". It is used a lot, especially by Romanies from southern
Slovakia. Can any of you shed better light on this?

I am friends with a family of them who lived in our flats, and the landlady
was in the habit of saying "Cool" to everything, to the great merriment of
the children.

OK, it may not seem funny on first seeing, but consider the following
dialog.

Ondrej: Heres the Rent money
Landlady: Cool. (shit!!!)
Ondrej: I pay the rent Friday?
Landlady: Thats cool (shit!!!)
Child (who is showing her a drawing) Is this nice?
Landlady: Yes thats lovely. Its cool (shit!!!).

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From: Tom Carty <cartyweb at hotmail.com>
Subject: Beyond the Pail: When Devel Worshippers Are Good Christians

One of the Romany words for God is Devel, which is often confused with Devil
in English. It has a similar word in Sanskrit. Other words are Del and Dev.
(So Eamonn De Valera was God after all!!! Up Dev!!!)

So the next time a Rom tells you God is Devel, hes not a Satanist: ok?

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Fun with words

Thanks lots and lots, Tom!

I take it I can add them to the site (http://lowlands-l.net/beyondthepale/).
I'll let you know when they're up.

I guess "Words to Confuse" is the appropriate category because it
accommodates stories.

> it comes from German, "cula", the word for "sphere"

Hmmm ... *Kugel*? *Kuller*? I wonder how it's spelled in Slovak. *Kul*? *Kúl
*?

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron
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