LL-L "Idiomatica" 2004.07.26 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 26.JUL.2004 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Glenn Simpson <westwylam at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: language use

Ron,

'Canny' is a word that has a multitude of meanings. It
can mean 'alright', 'good', 'nice', 'easy-going',
'steady-on/take it easy there'. It provides emphasis
when the occasion demands - 'Gan Canny', 'Go easy/look
out for yourself', 'canny bad', 'quite or very bad',
canny good (likewise), 'canny chep/blowk' 'nice chap
or bloke'  etc, etc.

'Aalreet' is 'alright' but it is also employed as a
greeting, so if you pass someone in the street you
know, you'd say: "Aalreet" and they'd say: "Aalreet or
aalreet thare".  In other words it's shorthand for
'How are you?". Some older people often say: "Whet
Cheor", directly translated as 'What Cheer', although
it is more of a statement than a question.

Gan canny,
Glenn

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Idiomatica" 2004.07.23 (02) [E]

Dear Ron,

Subject: Idiomatica

> Which takes me (not so elegantly) over to the widely used versatile
> Australian expression "struth"

> Some say this expression started off as "(this/it is) God's truth," namely
> as a type of oath emphasizing the veracity of one's story.

On to South African English, they use it pretty well unminced in the old
rural English communities, like around Grahamstown or Settlers, as in,
"God's Truth, Man: Can't you leave a gate closed when you find it closed?"

Yrs,
Mark

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Idiomatica" 2004.07.23 (02) [E]

Beste Luc en Ron

Subject: Idiomatica

> Re "negation", I would like to add that in 1958 Dr. J. L. Pauwels
published
> a very fine article titled "De expletieve ontkenning nie(t) aan het einde
> van de zin in het Zuidnederlands en het Afrikaans"

Baie dankie hiervoor, Luc. U inset het ongetwyveld kol getref!

> Afrikaners (or is that "Afrikaansers" these days?),

Well, we say (& have fore some time) ' Afrikaan - Afrikane' for an African
or Africans, covering any nation from Nama to Amazig, 'Afrikaner -
Afrikaners' for ourselves, & 'Afrikander - Afrikanders' for a local breed of
draught cattle. The difference between 'Afrikaner' & 'Afrikander' can stir
up quite as much heat here as the difference between 'Scots' & 'Scotch' (I
duck). The word 'Afrikaanses' (Afrikaans ones) would be an appropriate
extrapolation needed on the spur of the moment to differentiate, for
example, in a party, between those who speak Afrikaans & those who do not.

> Don't you also use the tag _... nê?_ or _... nè?_ where English uses tag
> questions ("..., isn't it?", "..., don't you?" etc.)

Yes we do. Thanks for the term 'tag'. I remember hearing a television
interview of an Austrian forester who made it his business to smuggle people
out of Hungary those years ago. He used 'nê' (& I would spell it exactly so)
quite a lot. His dialect was also rather easy to understand, which niggled a
bit, since I had long decided Austrians were High Germans, & I was more
partisan to the Low Germans myself.

Standard German uses
> _..., nicht wahr?_ (dialectal _..., net?_, _..., gell(e)?_, etc.) and
French
> uses _..., n'est pas?_?

I would rather deem the 'nê!' or 'nê?' to be an interpolation asking if the
conversant follows so far - irrespective of whether he agrees. One would use
it freely in a convoluted argument, but with someone with whom you seek
agreement, you interpolate your statements in exactly the same place, in
exactly the same way, with 'nie waar nie?'

Ja; I would read all these interpolations as 'nê'.

> Does this ring familiar to Afrikaans ears?  How about the ears of the Low
> Franconian areas?

But in the places I would use 'huh' in English, I would use 'waaaat?' in
Afrikaans.

> In some contexts it's similar to "..., huh?_ in some English dialects, I
> suppose.

Groete,
Mark

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