<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 04 May 2008 - Volume 01<br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">
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<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);">Elsie Zinsser</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:ezinsser@icon.co.za">ezinsser@icon.co.za</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Idiomatica" 2008.05.03 (02) [E]<br></span>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><b><font color="black" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-weight: bold;">Hi all, <span></span><br><br>And welcome to the world, Lorenzo!<br>
<br>I've heard another meaning for "Vom Storch
gebissen" when my niece had her baby son<br>five months ago:<br><br>Willem Fritz was born with a red V-mark on his
forehead, which his paternal family in<br>Pennsylvania immediately referred to as a 'bite
from the stork'. </span></font></b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><b><font color="black" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-weight: bold;">Is this a typical American saying for a non-permanent
birth mark or only a regional thing<br>originating from the German expression but with
a different meaning?</span></font></b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><b><font color="black" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-weight: bold;">Cheers,<br>Elsie</span></font></b></span></p><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888">
</font><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><div class="Ih2E3d"><font color="black" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-style: italic;">From: </span></font><span><font color="#00681c"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Tom Carty</span></font></span><span><font color="black"><span style="color: black;"> </span></font></span><span><font color="black"><span style="color: black;"><<a href="mailto:cartyweb@hotmail.com" target="_blank">cartyweb@hotmail.com</a>></span></font></span></div>
<font color="black"><span style="color: black;"><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
Subject: <span>The Way We Say Things...</span><br></div><div class="Ih2E3d">
The stork myth is also found in many European cultures, including in Germany,
where the bird bites the mum-to-be to fertilise her: <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">von Storch gebissen</span></b> . </div></span></font></i><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span><a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Traditions<br><br>There are several Low Saxon expressions referring to pregnancy. I consider the two mentioned below somewhat more interesting, put into whole sentences:<br>
</span><ol style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><li><i>Sey het wat ünner dey schört.</i> (Se hett wat ünner de Schört.)<br>"She's got something under the apron."</li><li><i>By er bargt sik dat.</i> (<i>Bi ehr bargt sik dat.</i>)<br>
"It's bulging on her."</li></ol><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The reflexive verb </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">barg-</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> (</span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">bargen</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">) is derived from the noun </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">barg</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> (</span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Barg</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">) 'mountain', 'hill', but it also has the connotation of German </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">sich (ver)bergen</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> 'to take shelter', 'to hide'.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">I believe the apparently Germanic-specific stork mythology grew from a confluence of two traditions:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<ol style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><li>Storks are monogamous, tend to return to and raise their annual offspring in the same nests and seem to attach themselves to the same houses or villages year after year, thus symbolizing traditional human ideals of home, family, fertility, faithfulness and constancy.</li>
<li>In many Continental Lowlands language varieties, one of the early words, probably a by-name, for "stork" is *<i>udafaro</i> "wetlands traveler" (*<i>uda</i> being related to the "water" group, and *<i>faro</i> being related to the "fare" and "-farer" group). Apparently, this came to be reanalyzed as <i>*ōdaboro</i> ~ <i>*ādabaro</i> "fortune-bearer", hence for instance Dutch and Afrikaans <i>ooievaar</i>, W. Frisian <i>earrebarre</i>, and Low Saxon <i>adebaar</i> > <i>aadbaar</i>, <i>aabaar</i>, <i>ebeer</i>, etc. (> German <i>Adebar</i>).<br>
</li></ol><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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