LL-L "Words" 2008.03.29 (03) [E]

Sat Mar 29 16:57:37 UTC 2008

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 29 March 2008 - Volume 03
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Words" 2008.03.28 (06) [E]

Yes, the examples from Drentse Taol I gave are homonyms, not real faux
amis. So: words that are pronounced and spelt the same in Low Saxon and
Dutch, but have a different meaning. But it is still fun, I think.
And isn't a word like "grommen" = "to snow softly" just wonderful? I mean,
you wouldn't expect that directly in a non Inuit language.
Ingmar

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

Hi, busy word gatherers!

Here's a thought or disclaimer regarding the False Friends section of the
new site (http://lowlands-l.net/beyondthepale/friends.php).

Some of the supposed false friends in Low Saxon and Dutch our Ingmar kindly
gave us are really no false friends, and I'm not sure about some:

Aal - all ; eel*
Beun - attic ; interloper ??
Duren - to dare ; to last ??
Grommen - to snow softly ; to growl ??
Heil - whole ; hail/welfare ??
Loos - smart/intelligent ; wrong ??
Lief - body ; sweet/lovely
Maal - ugly/annoying ; meal (*maal* < Fr. *mal* 'bad', 'ill', cf. NLS
*mall*'insane')*
Motten - to mess/spill over ; moths
Sang - purple ; zang = song
Schieten - to shit ; to shoot
Slikken - to snoop ; to swallow ??
Stoet - bread ; procession, row ??

*(Low Saxon lengthens short vowels before sonorants by rule, and in the
Netherlands this is written as though it were genuinely long; e.g. *aal* =
*
al* 'all', *laand* = *land* 'land', 'country'.)

Anyway, the unmarked examples are not false friends but unrelated
sound-alikes. I strongly vote against including those, because that would
open us up for a flood of such words, and I find it more educational if we
limited it to genuine false friends. So, for now at least I've added this
disclaimer:

First popularized under the French name *faux amis*, "false friends" are
expressions that are *clearly related* but have different meanings in two
languages. (This does not include words that sound alike without being
related, the type for which Teresa Dowlatshahi coined the term
"*shoecabbage<http://www.gocomics.com/shoecabbage/>
*.")

The cases with ?? are those about which I am not sure and need help with.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Words" 2008.03.28 (06) [E]

 Hi, Ron!

> Heil - whole ; hail/welfare ??
In our Low Saxon we say 'de heile (heyle, heele) Dag', meaning 'the whole
day', whilst in German the word 'Heil' as a noun primarily means
'salvation', and the verb 'heilen' is 'to cure'. So I would like to see the
pair as False Friends between e.g. Low Saxon and Standard German.

And additional English 'hail' (for German 'Hagel') could have been another
pair- but no longer, after your definition:
> This does not include words that sound alike without being related,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

But there's another constellation I'd like to suggest to add to 'False
Friends':

English *'pregnant':* "carrying developing offspring within the body or
being about to produce new life" (WorldWeb)
German *'praegnant'*: 'concise'

---------------------------------------

And what about these?

Category: 'Words to Confuse'

(and now Sandy might cry ;-))

*Scots*(1): inhabitants of Scotland
*Scots*(2): a language, 'Lowland Scots'
*Scots*(3): Scottish English
*Scots*(4): the Scottish Gaelic language
---------------------------------

Category: 'Words to Confuse'

English *'slave'*: a person deprived of personal freedom and human rights,
mainly preyed for heavy labor or service
English '*Slav'*: a member of Slavic peoples, an ethnical and etymological
group mainly living in Eastern Europe

----------------------------------

(Perhaps any native speakers could add their endorsements.)

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm

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

Thanks, Ingmar and Jonny!

Ingmar, I totally agree that cases like *grommen* are really neat. I'm
trying to come up with a way, a category, that allows us to include them
without being open to a flood of shoecabbages. Any idea, anyone?

Thanks for your submissions also, Jonny. I particularly like the "pregnant"
one.

English "slave" and "Slav" are not pronounced alike. But Low Saxon
*Slaav'*denotes either. So it a word to confuse in Low Saxon then,
isn't it?

*Scots*(1): inhabitants of Scotland
*Scots*(2): a language, 'Lowland Scots'
*Scots*(3): Scottish English
*Scots*(4): the Scottish Gaelic language

I say, "Nah!" (1) is a plural form. Gaelic is referred to as "Scots Gaelic,"
hardly as "Scots." And the confusion between Scots the language and Scottish
English has more to do with education and attitude. At least this is *my*take.

By the way, our Sandy doesn't strike me as being the crying type. If he
can't blow stuff out of the water in one fell swoop he'll invite you to
dance the tango, and he dances no mean tango, as I know from earlier days.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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