<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 05 February 2007 - Volume 06<br><br>=========================================================================<br><br>From: <span id="_user_globalmoose@t-online.de" style="color: rgb(91, 16, 148);">
Global Moose Translations <<a href="mailto:globalmoose@t-online.de">globalmoose@t-online.de</a>></span><br>Subject: LL-L 'Idiomatica' 2007.02.05 (03) [E]<br><br><span class="q">
<div><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial" size="2"><span>Karl
wrote:</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>>You and Gabriele
have within your arm's reach an English, a German, a Low Saxon, an
ABN Dutch, several Flemish (Gents, Antwerps, >etc.), a
Maastrichts, an Afrikaans, a Platt, a Frisian, a Gronings, and a few other
dictionaries! Oh yes, a Hawaiian one. My amazement >at the vast
knowledge you and your collaborators place before me continues, and
whatever can be done to help more of that trickle down >to little ole me
adds to the immense pleasure I derive from my daily messages, even when portions
are written in languages or dialects >I've never seen
before. </span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div></span>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>No no no, this all
goes for Reinhard, not me! He's our top linguist, an honour I would never
claim for myself; I am actually a biologist turned translator (the story of my
life is a complicated one), and I just happen to be fluent in a few languages
apart from my own, which also allows me to read and understand some others that
I never learned - something many of you have probably experienced as well.
</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>I rarely ever use a
dictionary at all, with only three exceptions. Two of them I use in my
work - the German Duden, ever since the spelling "reform" which left us
good spellers just as stranded as everybody else, and the fantastic online
dictionary <a href="http://dict.leo.org/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://dict.leo.org/</a>, which I
actually use more like a thesaurus. The third is good old Chambers, of
course, because it has all those cool words nobody has ever heard of, and it
helps me win every single game of Scrabble. :-)</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>Well, and I do have
a few other dictionaries and related works, just for the fun of it, most of them
English:<br>"They Have a Word For It"</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>"A Classical
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue"</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>"Mrs. Byrne's
Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words"</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>"Conversational
Tahitian" (this book is just a hoot!)</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>"Hannoversches
Wörterbuch" (which is to be kept from Karl-Heinz at all
costs)</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span>and a few others
along those lines.</span></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><span></span></font> </div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font><span>However,
what I could really use is a decent, modern German/Dutch od English/Dutch
dictionary (plus a good ABN one), but I do not believe such a thing is in
existence.</span></font> <span>Why will nobody
ever bother to compile one?</span></font></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span></span></font></font> </div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span>As to idioms -
well, I lived in the United States for eight years, and even before that time I
spoke English with complete "native" fluency. So I don't think much about the
expressions I use, I will just say what comes naturally. If you saw my
written German more often, you would notice that I simply prefer a very "dense"
and colourful language (no, not that kind of "dense", and not that kind of
"colourful"). As I don't want to "dumb myself down", i. e. not use the full
potential of the English language as I know it (see, I explained something!),
and I don't want to seem condescending by explaining figures of speech left and
right (thus really exasperating our native English speakers and others who are
very familiar with the language), I guess I will just go on as I always
have - there's nothing wrong with asking...</span></font></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span></span></font></font> </div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span>By the way,
one great way of finding out what an idiom means is a Google search, where you
can see it used in different contexts.</span></font></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span></span></font></font> </div>
<div><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span></span></font></font><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span>Gabriele
Kahn<br><br>----------<br><br>From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject: Resources<br><br>Gabriele:<br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">> </span></span></font>
</font><font face="Arial" size="2"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">No no no, this all
goes for Reinhard, not me! He's our top linguist, an honour I would never
claim for myself; </span><br><br></span></font>Nor would <span style="font-style: italic;">I</span>. I've never claimed it, nor do I remember being appointed to that station by others.<br><font size="2"><font face="Arial">
<span><br></span></font></font></div>Let's bury this red herring before the stink of it sends everyone packing!<br><br>Reinhard/Ron<br><br>