LL-L "Etymology" 2004.08.14 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 14.AUG.2004 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
http://www.lowlands-l.net * lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Rules & Guidelines: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org or lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
Server Manual: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html
Archives: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8) [Please switch your view mode to it.]
=======================================================================
You have received this because you have been subscribed upon request.
To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l" as message
text from the same account to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or
sign off at http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
=======================================================================
A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
=======================================================================

From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2004.08.12 (01) [E]

Dear Ron, John & All:

Subject: Etymology

I hope I'm not too late with this one

> Having written the above it occurs to me that "Break a leg!" is the
example
> I've been looking for. It is commonly said to be a theatrical term, based
on
> the idea that it is bad luck to wish good luck and therefore one wishes
bad
> luck in the hope that it won't transpire. It comes proximately from "Hals-
> und Beinbruch" - "May you break your neck and your leg!" - which is used
in
> German (Yiddish?) in the same way. But that actually comes from a Hebrew
> blessing which I can't reproduce which means "May you have happiness and
> good fortune!"

I believe the phrase you have in mind is "H'tslakha ubr'kha! To a non-Hebrew
speaker it sounds like an incantation of grim portent. Once, on Kibbutz I
was of a party of foreign volunteers given this salutation, & an American,
one who loved languages as I do, gave this a little thought & said, "They
should send in forensic phoneticians with equipment to locate the vowels."
Not, quite fair, I think, for Hebrew.

By the way, is it fair to call this 'folk etymology'? It strikes me more as
a game most polyglottal people play, to patch homophonic or near-homophonic
phrases from one language into another, for effect, which can be hilarious.
I'd give some examples now, between English & Afrikaans, except that the
only ones that come to mind are rather crudely 'schoolboy'.

Yrs,
Mark

----------

From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Etymology

Kevin: thanks for your clarification of "video". Chambers Etymological
Dictionary attests the meaning television (1935) and in trying to make sense
of the Buggles' song I assumed this was the usage involved. But I don't
think it does make sense. I'd take "radio star" to be someone famous for
working on radio rather than someone who had made a reputation in sound
recording who couldn't compete in the new world of MTV.

Speaking of Hardy Kruger, in "Bachelor of Hearts" he played an Oxford
student who has to impersonate various English (and American ?) types. When
I was a Ferialpraktikant in a factory in Austria I foolishly tried to
explain the punning title to some of the Laboranten. This involved deriving
the word "bachelor" and then explaining the two meanings. I don't think they
really grasped it. Most people don't understand about how words arise and
change their meanings. Germans have told me that "Ferialpraktikant" is not a
real word. Considerations like this reinforce my doubts that ordinary
Frisian speakers can understand a text written in an archaic version of a
different and synthetic language using a poetic vocabulary chosen for its
alliterative properties and in an unfamiliar orthography. A linguist may
rise to the challenges: a non-linguist's mind shuts down.

Watching TV with a Polish friend who also knows Russian we saw "Chlab" in
Cyrillic over a Bulgarian baker's shop. She could not see that this was
related to the Polish and Russian words for "bread". For me it was also very
close to the OE "hlaf". I hope nobody has claimed that Bulgarians can read
Beowulf.

BTW, "Give us this day our daily bread" in the Paternoster must have had
particular resonances for Anglo-Saxons since "lord" is from "hlaford", from
"hlaf ward" meaning "keeper of the bread".

John Feather
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

================================END===================================
* Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
* Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.
* Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
* Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
  to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at
  http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.
======================================================================