"folk" with an L

[Wilson Gray]

Well, it does make sense that the name should come from elsewhere than other
than Poland. I once had an a Italian friend named "di Napoli" who was from
Siragusa. I found this hard to understand until it dawned on me that, when
Siragusa is the default location, why would anyone from Siragusa who lived
in Siragusa be known as being from Siragusa? OTOH, if my friend's ancestors
had moved from Napoli to Siragusa, then the fact that they weren't from
around those parts would have been worthy of note and been reflected in the
(new) surname of their descendents.

Why would the Poles call a Polish dance a "polka," when all Polish dances
are polkas?

-Wilson

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "folk" with an L
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I believe the Polka (dance) is originally from Czechloslovakia--more
> specifically Bohemia. What's very strange is that it is, I think, generally
> assumed to be Polish in origin.
>
> Two years ago, my young cousin, Magda, was visiting from Poland. People
> were
> trying to impress her with their collections of Polka music, to which she
> replied, "That's not even Polish."
>
> Eric
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 6:38 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "folk" with an L
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > FWIW, I've heard this cheer story for so long - ca. forty years - from so
> > many different people from Norfolk that *I* believe it.
> >
> > OTOH, that there are Northern-white speakers who don't pronounce the "l"
> in
> > the name of the dance is a real surprise!
> >
> > As for "polka-dot," I've never noticed anything special WRT the
> > pronunciation of it. It goes without out saying that the word "polka,"
> for
> > all practical purposes, doesn't exist in BE. My wife points out that she
> > just recently bought a new, po[l]ka-dot nightgown. "Polka-dot" is so rare
> > i=
> > n
> > my speech that I have no idea how it sounds unmonitored: po[l]ka-dot and
> > po[w]ka-dot both fall equally trippingly from the tongue.
> >
> > How can anyone tell what language "polka" is from, since the word is the
> > same in nearly every Slavic language? Historical dancistics, I suppose.
> ;-)
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> >
> >
>
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Wilson

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