LL-L "Lexicon" 2005.03.02 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

======================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L * 02.MAR.2005 (07) * 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
Commands ("signoff lowlands-l" etc.): listserv at listserv.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:  "Gavin Falconer" <Gavin.Falconer at gmx.net>
Subject: Lexicon

Apologies for the subject matter of this mail. I was recently commissioned
to write an article on explicit vocabulary in Scots, which has had the
unfortunate side-effect of setting me thinking about it in my spare time
too.

Many of you will be familiar with the traditional Scots song "Cam ye o'er
frae France?", the first verse of which goes as follows.

Cam ye o'er frae France?
Cam ye down by Lunnon?
Saw ye Geordie Whelps
And his bonny woman?
Were ye at the place
Ca'd the Kittle Housie?
Saw ye Geordie's grace
Riding on a goosie?

The song is from the time of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion and a satirical
attack on the House of Hannover and its scion, "Geordie Whelps". The first
verse refers to his mistress in London. A net search shows that "Kittle
Housie" is variously glossed as "a brothel", Parliament and St. James's
Palace. It occurs to me from my knowledge of German that using the term for
a brothel might also be a pun on the female sex. If so, the question would
arise of whether this phrase or a similar one was used in Scots or whether
it was based on Low Saxon. According to the Dictionary of the Scots
Language, "kittle" can mean "to touch up" and "to excite pleasurably". I
assume that the House of Hannover, regardless of the written language used,
would have spoken Low Saxon at the beginning of the eighteenth century
rather than Hochdeutsch or Polabian (perhaps they would also have spoken
French). I am guessing that the Low Saxon realisation of the Hochdeutsch
word would be "Kittler". Is there also a word *Kittelhusken (apologies if my
attempt at reconstruction offends not only the proprieties of decency but
the linguistic propriety of native users of Low Saxon)? And does anyone know
of any similar Scots usages. Explicit vocabulary, because of its
"underground" nature, might not always make it into the dictionary.

-- All the best,

 Gavin

Gavin Falconer

"Tharfor wordly happe es ay in dout Whilles dam fortune turnes hir whele
about."

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Gavin,

Low Saxon (Low German) _kitteln_ is the cognate of Dutch _kietelen_, German
_kitzeln_ and Yiddish קיצלן _kicln_ 'to tickle'.  I diplomatically leave it
with that.  The rest is pretty much correct, but of a *_kittelhuus_ I do not
know.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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