LL-L "Idiomatica" 2008.04.14 (04) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 14 April 2008 - Volume 04
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Idiomatica"

Beste Ron, Roland and others,

Ron wrote:

*En hé je gie mo twi oogn? Nin'k!*
"And do you have [but/just] two eyes. No I!"

 *En hét hen hie mo tien joengers. Nainhen! Twi knéchtjoengers én acht
méjsjoengers!*
"And does he have [but/just] ten children. No-they! Two boys and eight
girls!"

 *En zie je giender mo gister gewist? Nainme!*
"And were you over there [but/just] yesterday? No-we!"

 The answer to all of these would be "yes" in our terms.

Crucial here seems to be the use of *mo*, the seeming equivalent of Standard
Dutch *maar*, Afrikaans *maar*, Low Saxon *maor*, *maar*, *man*, etc.
(cognate of English "mere," I believe), which can serves as "but", "just",
"only" etc. The replies sound as though they negate the *mo* aspect. I can't
profess to grasp this entirely yet.

Just a guess. The "mo" in the question wants to minimize, to depreciate a
situation:

"mo twi oogn" = hardly two eyes
"mo tien joengers" = hardly ten kids
"mo gister gewist" = been there only yesterday

The respondent then wants to counter this attempt to belittle his situation
and does this through denial; he's actually making an exact statement in
order to enhance the accuracy, replying:

No, I do not have hardly two eyes, I have exactly two eyes.
No, I do not have hardly ten kids, more precisely, I have two boys and eight
girls.
No, I didn't go there only yesterday (as if I couldn't go any earlier), I
deliberately went there yesterday (on purpose and not any other day).

In short, the "no" wants to counter/negate the minimizing aspect of the
"mo".

Psychologically speaking, this feature of Western Flemish doesn't really
surprise me, it sort of reflects the very high sensitivity for being
addressed in a disparaging way.

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx
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