Sea Pigs

[Judson Rosengrant]

I think Professor Dunn's point may simply have been that the answer to the
original question was readily available in the most authoritative resource
for 19th-century Russian: Vladimir Dahl's great dictionary.  There's even a
version of it (2nd edition) available on-line: <http://vidahl.agava.ru/> or
<http://dic.academic.ru/contents.nsf/enc2p/>.

If you read Dahl's article on 'свинья' you'll find 'морская свинка' glossed
as 'дельфин (Delphinus phocaena)'.  Since the alternative of 'Guinea pig' is
obviously inappropriate for geographical and historical reasons, you can
take Dahl's word for it and call it either 'dolphin' or 'porpoise'.

That last 'or' raises the interesting question of which species actually
pertains.  I would tend to think the first, since dolphins appear to be much
more common in the North Pacific than porpoises.  But I would want to
research the local conditions before making a final decision.  It
could be the text was talking about harbor porpoises.

The derivation of 'porpoise' is interesting too: it seems to come from the
French 'pourpois', which itself derives from the Latin 'porcopiscus' or
'pig-fish'.  Or as the the Russian has it, 'морская свинка' (the second word
probably not being a diminutive but a regional alternative with the simpler
declension, like 'морковка').  Or as a yet another old English alternative,
'mereswine' (ОЕД cites 725 - 1886).

In short, it all probably has less to do with Saussure or Bakhtin (as truly
wonderful as they are) and more with consulting the basic professional
resources available to us with the click of a mouse and then using a little
common sense in regard to geography and history.

 
Judson Rosengrant, PhD
PO Box 551 
Portland, OR 97207

503.880.9521 mobile
jrosengrant at earthlink.net

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