Mystery Language

[Brewer, Michael]

Stephen, 

My Serbian, sadly, is not strong (having not really used it since I was
an exchange student their in the early 1980s).  However, I can pull some
words out of this jumble.  Ti ga mi (a series of pronouns that one, I
think, only rarely finds in this order -- You [subject] it/him [direct
object] me [indirect object]) and nije (isn't) seem to be in there.
>From there it all breaks down for me.  There are several possible words,
but I don't know how they might all figure in the meaning.  There seem
to be Rus (Russian) or Ruza (with a zh - Rose). The Bornie, could also
be borni (military) or it could be some sort of colloquialism with bor
(pine) and nije (isn't).  

Perhaps this rather lame attempt can be built on by someone who actually
knows the language!

mb

Michael Brewer
Slavic Studies, German Studies & Media Arts Librarian
University of Arizona Library A210
1510 E. University
P.O. Box 210055
Tucson, AZ 85721
Voice: 520.307.2771
Fax: 520.621.9733
brewerm at u.library.arizona.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of STEPHEN PEARL
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 6:00 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Mystery Language

Dear SEELANGERS,
   
       In one of his books, "Over My Dead Body", Rex Stout, the creator 
of the master detective, Nero Wolfe, has a bogus Yugoslav Princess 
utter the following : "Teega mee Bornie Roosa". This expression is a 
phonetic representation of her words transcribed by Wolfe's assistant
and 
amanuensis, Archie Goodwin, a notorious and unrepentant monoglot. The 
meaning of the words was: "Over my dead body" and were understood by
Nero 
Wolfe, a native Montenegrin and speaker of what was then Serbo-Croatian,

as well as six or seven other languages.
   
      The reader is clearly intended to assume that the language in 
which these words were uttered was some kind of "Yugoslav"/
Balkan/Slavic 
language. Over the years I have asked speakers of pretty well every 
European language I can think of [ except for Romany, a language of
which 
I have never been able to find a speaker]  if they could identify the 
language in question, but have come up empty.
   
      It is possible that Rex Stout was fooling us all and simply 
concocted a non-existent language for the purpose, except that it is
hard to 
imagine what his motive could have been, since nearly all his readers 
would simply have assumed that it was "Yugoslavian" and the joke, if 
any, would have been lost on them.
   
     My quality of life would be minutely, but distinctly, improved if 
anyone out there could remove the fly from my ointment by recognising 
and identifying for me the language in which these words were uttered. 
Thank you.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------