tone-deaf

[John Dingley]

Hi,

In "medved'/slon na uxo nastupit'" ("to have no ear for music",
"to be tone-deaf"), the reference works I have consulted all give both
"medved'" and "slon" as possible in this expression. My questions are:

1. Are "medved'" and "slon" really interchangeable here?

2. Are there geographical and/or dialectal factors to be considered?

3. Are there generational factors at play?

and

4. How has this expression come about? Other than Russian, I have
found it only in Polish, i.e. "sLon' na ucho nadepna,c'", with just
the "elephant" word, which might suggest it has come from German.
But in German I know only "kein musikalisches Gehoer haben".

John Dingley

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http://dlll.yorku.ca/jding.html

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