LL-L: "Historical phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 05.MAY.2000 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.MAY.2000 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Johan van Es [johan at eisa.net.au]
Subject: LL-L: "Historical phonology" LOWLANDS-L, 03.MAY.2000 (07) [E]

>>From Johan van Es <johan at eisa.net.au>

> John feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk] wrote:
> Subject: Historical phonology
>
> >Words for lots of apparently ordinary creatures and objects get borrowed.
> Think for example of the English name _dandelion_ from Old French
> _dent-de-lion_ (< Latin _dens leonis_ 'lion's tooth') for a flower that has
> been growing in profusion in the British Isles since before contacts with
> the Normans.<
>
> But there's often a reason for things like this. If the French ate dandelion
> leaves as a salad then their "posh" name for it could have been copied by
> the middle class and gradually worked its way down the (food) chain. Did
> dandelions really grow in profusion in the good old days? I have heard that
> it (like other "weeds" such as chickweed) are actually found abundantly in
> our gardens nowadays because they were deliberately cultivated as vegetables
> in the past. I never heard that wasps were good eating (even for the
> French)!

Nowadays there is such a profusion of TV fill-in material involving expert
chefs.
We had a series recently of a local, Italian descended (who sometimes had his
family helping out making Italian dishes), who devoted one 30 minute programme
to
cooking with various weeds, and nothing but: we saw him pick them next to a
roadside, and all the way through to the finished dish!!

Groete,
Johan.

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