LL-L "Idiomatica" 2004.07.06 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 06.JUL.2004 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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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)
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Idiomatica

Folks,

With regard to words for "hill" and "mountain" we have been discussing under
"Lexicon" and "Etymology" I ought to mention that in many Lowlands Saxon
(Low German) dialects, certainly those in the Northern range, _barg_ [ba:x]
'hill/mountain' is frequently used to denote 'many' or 'much', much like
English 'a bunch of'.  This is not necessarily used with nouns that denote
items that can be heaped up.

The usual way of using it is with _'n_ (or "formally" _eyn_) 'a', but in
some dialects you can omit this; thus for example

_('n) barg böyker_ 'many books'*
_('n) barg minschen_ 'lots of people'
_('n) barg saken_ 'many matters', 'many things'
_('n) barg tüyg_ 'a lot of fabric', 'lots of clothes'
_('n) barg tüynkraam_ 'a bunch of nonsense'
_('n) barg spraken_ 'many languages'
_('n) barg arbayd_ 'loads of work'

* different from _'n stapel böyker_ 'a stack of books'

However, there seem to be some restrictions of use.  It does not work with
most uncountable nouns, in which case the first choice would be _veel_
[fe:l] ~ [fE:l] 'much', 'many'; for instance

_veel water_ 'much water', 'a lot of water' (not *_('n) barg water_)
_veel sand_ 'a lot of sand' (vs _('n) barg sand_ 'a mound/heap of sand')

This includes most temporal expressions; for instance

_veel tyd_ 'a lot of time' (not *_('n) barg tyd_)
_veel~vele daag'_ 'many days' (not *('n) barg daag'_)
_veel ogenblikken_ 'many moments' (_('n) barg ogenblikken_?)

But the following sound somewhat acceptable to me:

_('n) barg jaren_ ~ _veel jaren_ 'many years'
_('n) barg maanden_ ~ _veel maanden_ 'many months'
_('n) barg weken_ ~ _veel weken_ 'many years'
_('n) barg jaarhunderden~ewen_ ~ _veel jaren~ewen_ 'many centuries'

Perhaps this is because these are definitely countable.

_('n) barg ogenblikken_ 'many moments' sounds marginal to me but may be all
right.

Theoretically, this _('n) barg_ ought not work with _arbayd_ 'work'
mentioned above, but I guess _('n) barg arbayd_ implies the sense of
countable jobs.

Incidentally, _veel_ can be used with all countable nouns as well; e.g.,
_veel böyker_ 'many books', etc.

I believe there are similar devices in the dialects of Eastern Friesland,
using _bült_ 'hill', 'mound'.  Is that correct?

How about similar expressions in other Lowlands varieties?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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