LL-L "Signs" 2004.05.19 (12) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 19.MAY.2004 (12) * 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: Ben J. Bloomgren <godsquad at cox.net>
Subject: LL-L "Signs" 2004.05.19 (08) [E]

Ron, I had a friend of a friend tell me that when he was in Norway, he came
upon a sign that said fart. His Norwegian driver told him that it meant
bump, and they went over what we call a speed bump.

----------

From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Signs" 2004.05.19 (08) [E]

At 12:16 PM 05/19/04 -0700, Ron wrote:

  In Australia (and many other places outside North American) a bump in the
  road (designed to slow down vehicles) can be referred to as a "hump" in
the
  road.  Imagine the amazement an American visitor experienced when we drove
  up a driveway into a park in Fremantle, Western Australia, and saw a sign
  saying "HUMP!"  I was quick to explain that it was a warning rather than
an
  invitation or a command ...

When I went to school in Vermont, I quickly learned that the winter "bumps"
in the road were marked with signs announcing "Frost Heaves".  In those
days, the famous American poet Robert Frost was living in Vermont and taught
at Middlebury's Breadloaf Campus in the summer.  There was kind of standing
joke about these being places where Frost didn't quite make it home from a
night of heavy drinking at the local inn, and "stopped by the woods in
winter." [to regurgitate, for those not familiar with the slang meaning of
"heave"] [_Stopping By The Woods In Winter_ is the title of perhaps his best
known poem].

Ed Alexander

----------

From: Kevin Caldwell <kcaldwell31 at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Signs" 2004.05.19 (08) [E]

> From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
> Subject: LL-L "Names" 2004.05.19 (05) [D/E]
>
> O.K. Lowlanders,
>
>     Just wandering a leeetle off the subject, something from the edge of
> the
> Highlands. Long ago, now, I took a trip through Scotland in a borrowed
car.
> There, along the side of Loch Ness (that is a body of water with a
> powerful
> presence), on a tarmac road just above the shore, every few hundred yards,
> is a road sign just ahead of a narrow gravel path crossing the road. They
> read, "Caution: Heavy plant crossing."
>
>     I can just see one of those huge Douglas Firs wading down through the
> shadows and mists to the water to drink---.

OK, so what does the sign mean?

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Signs
>
> Mark, Lowlanders,
>
> In Australia (and many other places outside North American) a bump in the
> road (designed to slow down vehicles) can be referred to as a "hump" in
> the
> road.  Imagine the amazement an American visitor experienced when we drove
> up a driveway into a park in Fremantle, Western Australia, and saw a sign
> saying "HUMP!"  I was quick to explain that it was a warning rather than
> an
> invitation or a command ...

We call some of them humps in the US as well, the ones that are gently
rounded and simply used to slow down traffic, as opposed to the more jarring
ones in parking lots.  Of course, you are just as likely to see them labeled
"traffic calming devices" (that's what the signs at each end of our street
say).

Kevin Caldwell (kcaldwell31 at comcast.net)

==============================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.
=======================================================================