LL-L: "Mutual comprehension" 21.JUN.2000 (03) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 21.JUN.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Mutual incomprehension"

I've just remembered that this sort of thing can be found in one of the
stories on ScotsteXt (ScotsteXt - Short Stories - Jeems Kaye - Oor Scotch
Tongue). The misunderstandings portrayed are probably deliberate, but
depressing though the scene may be it's hearting to think that even
although this is a nineteenth century story, every single phrase ridiculed
(indeed, probably everything in the whole story) is still in current use in
Scots.

A sample:

The ither nicht I daunered intae Mr Carmichael’s tae hae a bit crack, and
hesays tae me, "Drink up yer gless, Mr Kaye." His son started up at this,
andgaein' his moustache a bit curl, cries oot—
"Oh! gracious, papa! how could he do that? You ought to say ‘drink up yer
toddy.’"
I lookit at him a wee and then — I drank my gless.
By and by Mr Carmichael remarks: "It’s an extror’nar’ cauld nicht, Mr
Kaye,sit intae the fire," and I wis drawin’ my chair in when Miss
Carmichael laughs and says, "You surely don’t want Mr Kaye to actually sit
into the fire, do you?" and here they a’ laughed.
Heth, BAILIE, I thocht they were makin’ a fule o’ me, and I began tae get
awee crabbit. Hooever, tae keep doon my anger I took a moothfu’ or twa
o’toddy — I notice that toddy has a vera beneficial effect when you’re put
aboot, or no in yer ornar — and I began tae tell aboot a freen o’ mine that
had gane intae a coach office tae get a horse the length o’ Paisley, when
there wis a great roar frae a’ the young folk. I wis dum’foonered. I didna
see onything tae laugh at till Maister Carmichael time Second says, "By
Jove, that was a long horse," and then they a’ laughed again.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Mutual comprehension

Georg, I think I've found a way of slightly adjusting your joke in such a
way that it works for everyone, including North Germans:

(1) Take out the auxiliary verb 'can'

(2) Change the language from (supposed) Low Saxon (Low German) to Northern
German or to Missingsch (both of which would apply here and have no
definite borderline between them anyway), i.e., German with a Low Saxon
"accent."  Apart from what I said about the /g/ in my previous posting,
please note that in most Northern Low Saxon dialects the drink is _Rum_
while '(all) about' is _rüm_; so that wouldn't work here.  Most
importantly, I don't think that within the last two centuries or so any Low
Saxon speaker in his/her right mind would go to Vienna and use their native
language there, given that bilingualism goes back quite some time, given
also that Low Saxon was forbidden in German schools.  He or she may not
speak "High" German well, but he would definitely try, even in the old days
when people spoke it truly as a foreign language.  (My father, who never
truly cracked the German language code beyond Missingsch, would try to use
Low Saxon where ever he went to work in Northern Germany and the
Netherlands, and he would always muster up his best German where ever he
went to work south of the Harz Mountains. It seemed to have worked for
him.)

Here is the revision:

A German from Hamburg comes to a shop in Vienna and asks at the entrance:
"Kriech ich hier Rum?"
 The shop keeper looks surprised, shrugs his shoulders and says:
"Von mir aus kraeuln'S umanand was woin!"

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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