"Murphy's Laws" and Polish puns

[Dennis R. Preston]

Mai,

Let's find out. Shall I bother a Finn or will you?

Dennis

>Well, this is going to be more impressionistic than accurate, because I
>know next to nothing about variation (or anything else) in this attriting
>first language of mine, but my sense is that "humahuttaa" for "punch" is a
>word you'd only use in joking; I actually can't say whether it's archaic,
>or from a rural dialect, or both. It did make the joke funnier, though
>(maybe the meaning is better rendered as "I reckon I'll whomp him now").
>
>-Mai
>
>On Tue, 22 Jun 1999, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>
>> OK Mai. What's the quaint regional twist? After all, this is a dialect
>> society list. My Finno-Ugric capacities are limited to my mother tongue.
>>
>> dInIs
>>
>> >In my family of origin, we used to joke about the famous Japanese boxer
>> >Yokohama Humahuta, which is Finnish (with a quaint regional twist) for
>> >"shall I punch [the opponent] now?"
>> >
>> >-Mai
>> >.....................................................
>> >Mai Kuha
>> >mkuha at indiana.edu
>>
>> Dennis R. Preston
>> Department of Linguistics and Languages
>> Michigan State University
>> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
>> preston at pilot.msu.edu
>> Office: (517)353-0740
>> Fax: (517)432-2736
>>
>
>.....................................................
>Mai Kuha
>mkuha at indiana.edu

Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736