LL-L 'Funny foreign' 2007.01.18 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 18 January 2007 - Volume 01

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From: Ronald Veenker <veenker at atmc.net>
Subject: LL-L 'Funny foreign' 2007.01.17 (02) [E]

Bryan,

"Whoopie" John  used to tour the upper midwest of the US including
Sioux Falls SD's Arkota Ballroom.  My younger brother Stephen was an
announcer for KSOO radio and read the following announcement one time:
" 'Whoopie' John Wilfahrt and his band will play for you Sat night at
the Arkota."  Depending on just where one places the stress in that
sentence... try it out.   wil-FAHRT

Ron Veenker

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From: Arthur Jones <arthurobin2002 at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L 'Funny foreign' 2007.01.17 (02) [E]

Subject: LL-L 'Funny foreign' (Formerly Etymology) 2007.01.17 (05) [E]

Lieve Legglanners,

Over the past several days, we have enjoyed some rich ---but naturally low
--- humour about coincidental and irrelevant wordgame sandwiches made with
someone else's tongue. Still, the only funny thing about
Butzfletherbutendiek is that it forms a sort of tongue twister for
Anglo-Saxons (and shame on 'em, I say!), and it also illustrates how far
removed that particular compound noun is from any Hochdeutsch equivalent.
I've never yet heard it in High German, although plenty of folks in the
Altes Land can speak that Pannonian Mutation of
Visigothic/Langobardic/Alemannic, I am told. What would be the official
Berlin/Munich term? Aussendeich am Buetzerkanal?

But there is another class of funny foreign placenames, including one I used
to love for photo-op purposes, the village of "Hongrige Wolf" in Northern
Flanders (I believe: or was it across the border in Noord Brabant?). Once I
took my two Norwegian Elkhounds along to pose at the town border signpost to
smile at the camera: two genuine hungry wolves!

Also, I have seen Swiss travelers stand at the signpost to Zurich, NL
(Zeeland? I don't remember any more, alas!): But that Zurich lies below sea
level. The fried fish was delicious, I recall. But my two Elkhounds ate most
of it. Siehe "Hungrige Woelfe", oben.

And then, there is the town of F--king, Austria, just east of the Inn river.
Brits and Yanks still line up to pose for their 15 seconds of fame at the
town Ortsschild.

And talk of relevance: In 1969, I bought a used car there. Nie wieder.

mith frijandeleikse goljans,

Arthur A. Jones
arthurobin2002 at yahoo.com

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From: Aleta Turner <aletamosquito at gmail.com>
Subject: humorous word similarities Re: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.17 (01)
[E/LS]

I basically agree with Paul here.  I don't think there's anything
wrong in being amused at sounds that produce unintended
meanings in another language from their own.  It's how
you react to that humor that makes a difference.  If
someone's name in hypothetical language X sounds
like "stupid jerk" in English, that's funny.  But that
doesn't mean to make fun of it.  I see a significant
difference there - taking pleasure in the coincidence,
not being malicious about it.

Aleta

> From: Paul Tatum <ptatum at blueyonder.co.uk>
> Subject: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.16 (05) [E]
>
> Hello everyone
>
> Sandy wrote:
> > From: Sandy Fleming < sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk
>
> > Ausfahrt doesn't make me laugh because I know very well that the
> > similarity to English words is coincidental and irrelevant. Similarly
> > Chinese names that sound coincidentally rude in English - I think there
> > has to be a certain bigotry involved with people who laugh at this sort
> > of thing, as if the English context was significant in interpreting
> > Chinese names.
>
> I don't know if I entirely agree: I do voluntary work in our local Books
> for Amnesty International bookshop (second-hand books, donated by public
>  for charity), and when I first started working there, there was a copy
> of 'De Fuke' by Rink van der Velde, which my co-worker, an "older" lady
> (i.e. not a teenager, not a schoolboy), found funny. The similarity _is_
> coincidental and irrelevant but it is still a similarity for all that,
> and the word(s) have an emotional impact in your native language which I
> think initially carries over to the foreign word and so we tend to have
> the same emotional reaction to it which tends to manifest as humour
> because their is a conflict. I think it's natural to associate exotic
> words with words you already know, but the 'humour' side of it gets a
> bit stale if you still find it funny the second time around IMO. The
> same can happen when products have meaningless names in one language,
> but which in other parts of the world have unfortunate meanings such as
> the car named the Nova, which didn't sell particularly well in Latin
> America, due to the similarity to 'no va' = 'it doesn't go'!
>
> Yours, Paul Tatum

----------

From: Aleta Turner <aletamosquito at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.16 (05) [E]

I've been curious about your two names.  Is Ron something you
adopted for simplicity?  Are Ronald and Reinhard related?

Aleta

> As I've related earlier, some people "embellish" the spelling of my German
> first name, this being "Rheinhardt" to its farthest extent.  I have been
> told that the actual spelling is somewhat short of "satisfyingly" German.
> So there's an expectation (stereotyping) angle there as well.
>
> Cheers!
> Reinhard/Ron

----------

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

Hi, Aleta!

When, a long time ago, I was registered for an intensive Hebrew course in
Israel, my local friends and the instructor thought that Reinhard wasn't
quite kosher.  Aside of the obvious reason, among the participants all but
one apart from me were Jewish, and they were supposed to use their Hebrew
names given as children if those didn't already coincide with their legal
names in their respective countries.  (So, for instance, Deborah, Susan and
Joel were Dvorah, Shoshana and Ya'el respectively, but, say, Alexandr
(Sasha) and Yvette were Avraham and Khava respectively.)  Those that didn't
have such names were given new ones, typically more fashionable ones.  In my
case they decided on Ron, which has nothing to do with Ronald but is Hebrew
for "ode," "song," "poetry," etc.  After a while everyone called me Ron, and
this is how my British, American and Australian friends knew me.  When I
visited them in their countries they'd introduce me to others as Ron, and
the name stuck for good after I moved to Australia.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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