vl cluster spotting

[Joel S. Berson]

It will certainly become more common in a few
weeks, after the Nov. 23 through 27 concerts of
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which in an
all-Smetana program will play the complete "Ma
Vlast".  Those of lesser musical ambition or
knowledge will recognize its second part, Vltava
(ah yes, another vl cluster), aka "Die
Moldau".  Coincidentally, the flyer for this BSO
program arrived after my posting on vl- words.

And I was being a bit facetious about the
commonness of "vlast" -- although it was in my
vocabulary.  I may even have encountered it in
its Russian sense of "(political) power".

Joel

At 11/10/2007 09:37 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>Hmm, I had never heard of the word until your posting. I find Má
>vlast on Wikipedia, where vlast is explained as meaning fatherland.
>It wasn't in my AHD3, which is the source I cited. I searched for
>English pages on Google using the following:
>
>-"Ma vlast" vlast -Smetana
>
>In the top 100 hits, I found zero in an English setting when I
>skipped music bands, song names and geographical names. I did find
>"Má vlast (My Homeland): The Jiraneks In Canada: General History" at
>about hit 90 or so, but no hits on the word within the three pages of
>text in the article.
>
>Is it used commonly by ADS members? BB
>
>On Nov 10, 2007, at 5:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>
>>At 11/10/2007 02:30 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>>Right. The interesting thing about "vlog", though, is the
>>>potential to
>>>become a common word. BB
>>
>>What, isn't "vlast" a common word?  569,000 Google hits, although
>>many are not in English or refer to Smetana.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org