LL-L: "Help needed" LOWLANDS-L, 05.OCT.2000 (07) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.OCT.2000 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Help needed" LOWLANDS-L, 04.OCT.2000 (06) [E]

From: Sandy Fleemin [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Help needed"

> From: Thomas [t.mcrae at uq.net.au]
> Subject: LL-L: "Help needed" LOWLANDS-L, 04.OCT.2000 (03) [E]
>
> 'Heh dinnae boather mi'
> 'Fur peeties sake leave mi alane'
> 'Dae mi a fayvur an stoap fashun mi'

Thir seems a bittie ower colloquial ti me for a hotel door!

It isna aye aesy ti think what the Scots equeevalents o thae formal
catchphrases micht be, gien that even in English an siclike major
langages the uisual phrase can be gey faur fae what onybody wad acually say if
they wisna uised wi seein them.

A wad suggest:

"Please dinna steer"

or (a bittie strang but mair specific):

"Please dinna upsteer".

A hae ti say tho, that this uise o "please" disna seem ti sit richt
comfortable in Scots. No that "please" isna a Scots wird - it is - but
A'm no uised wi hearin it uised this wey. A wad be happier wi plain "Dinna
steer" or "Dinna upsteer".

A example o the uise o this wird (fae Burns) is:

Greensleeves an tartan ties
Marks ma true love whaur she lies,
A'll upsteer her afore she ryce,
    Ma fiddle an me thegither.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
"Shooglt, no steered."
                - Ian Fleemin,
              'Bond. James Bond.'

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Help needed

Sandy wrote:

> No that "please" isna a Scots wird - it is - but
> A'm no uised wi hearin it uised this wey.

I feel that's similar to _bitte_ 'please' in Low Saxon (Low German) of
Germany, except that in this case I suspect we are dealing with a German loan,
namely _bitte_ < _ich bitte_ "I request", from _bitten_ 'to request'.  If it
were native, it would be something like _(ick) beed'_ [bEI(d)] (or _(ick)
bede_ ['bEI(d)@_] in some dialects) in Low Saxon.

_Bitte_ is more and more used in LS of Germany, though, and I noticed that
Eldo used it in Plautdietsch also: _Bitte nich steare_.  It still feels quite
foreign, i.e. Germanized, to me.  Originally, speakers of these varieties
would not have used this kind of phrase when making a request, would only have
requested straightforwardly and in a nice tone, e.g., 'Please pass (me) the
butter': _Do mie maal de Botter her_ ("Do me once the butter here"), _Wees' so
good un do mie (maal) de Botter her_ ("Be so good and do me (once) the butter
here"), or particularly pleading _Do mie dat toleev' un do mie (maal) de
Botter her_ ("Do me that/it to-love and do me (once) the butter here").

I'm quite taken by the Scots verb _(up)steer_ (cf. LS/German _stören_ 'to
disturb', 'to bother').

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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