LL-L "Idiomatica" 2008.06.05 (04) [A/E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 05 June 2008 - Volume 04
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From: Diederik Masure <didimasure at hotmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.06.05 (02) [A]


Isn't this formulation used in a lot more of the Germanic languages? In
Dutch (at least in my idiom) one can say "wat voor een", as in "wa veur 'nen
hongd is da?" what kind of dog is that? (alternatively "hoe een", "how a",
hoe 'nen hongd is da? although this one isn't accepted as correct)
In Scandinavia they say "hvad for nogen"/hvad for en (Danmark), hva for noen
(Eastern Norwegian), ka for nokke (Bergen) = kva for nokon (in Nynorsk)
Gr,
Diederik

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

Elsie, Mark en almal,

Terloops, in Nedersaksies en Duits gebruik ons ook daardie uitdrukking.

Nedersaksies: *wat voer 'n ...* (*wat för 'n ...*)
Duits: *was für ein ...*

Kan dit wees dat dit een van die gelene Nedersaksiese uitdrukkings in Duits
is?

Groete,
Reinhard/Ron

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

Hi Diederik!

Yes, I think it's a widespread expression. However, it's rather peculiar:
literally "what for one/a {noun}?" I would find it more "natural" if it
where "what one/a {noun}?" (and English "what kind of {noun}?"). In other
words, the "for" is rather weird here and leads me to suspect that it began
as a peculiarity that spread from a single source variety. It is not as old
as to occur in very old writing, and it did not make it to Britain.

Of course, any of the older Lowlands varieties could be the original donor.
However, as you know, Middle Saxon strongly influenced the Scandinavian
languages (and some of this filtered into Faroese and Icelandic due to
Danish dominance). Furthermore, Middle Saxon and Early Modern (Low) Saxon
also influenced the development of Standard German, especially on the
colloquially spoken level, and in the Netherlands it influenced the
development of Standard Dutch. It's in the middle, linking Scandinavia with
Germany proper and with the Low Franconian areas. This is not to exclude the
possibility that Saxon got it from Low Franconian or German and passed it on
to Scandinavia.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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