"Murphy's Laws" and Polish puns

[Mai Kuha]

The ones I could bother have been neglecting their e-mail lately
(incomprehensible, I know) so I'll check, but you might get an answer
faster.

Interesting that the song "Jokohama Humahuta" that George Cole just
brought to our attention was recorded by Markku Karjalainen ("Karelian").
Maybe that gives us a clue?

-Mai

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> 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
>

.....................................................
Mai Kuha
mkuha at indiana.edu