LL-L "What does it mean?" 2008.01.11 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  10 January 2008 - Volume 04
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From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Honors" 2008.01.10 (09) [LS]

Marlou wrote: Blangenbi, .....

Translation of this lovely looking word, please  (??? By the by????)

Many thanks

Heather

PS Thanks also for "Küss die Hand, der Herr!. I shall drop this into
Wichenford dialect at the earliest opportunity and if in later years it is
found to be current still, some linguist historian can suppose a direct
Germanic influence in the neighbourhood. It was a great ring about it.

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: What does it mean?

Not bad, Heather! You figured it out. "By the way," etc.

"Alle Ehre(n)!" to put it into old-fashioned German whence comes "Küss die
Hand."

(*Blangenbi*, "Alle Ehre(n)" has been translated, perhaps via another
language (cf. French *tout honneur* "all honor"), to become a frequently
used Modern Hebrew phrase: כל הכבד *kol hakavod* ("all the honor").)

Low Saxon *blangen*, *blangs*, etc., means "alongside" from *bi
lang-s/en*("by long-..."). However, in most northern dialects it has
come to be used
in the sense of "next to" as well, where other dialects would use
*neven*(cf. German
*neben*), probably via the meaning "by the side of ..." (Say, trees that
stand alongside a road stand next to the road.) So in these dialects *
blangenbi* (in AS spelling *blangen by*) is the exact equivalent of German *
nebenbei*, which is used in the sense of both "on the side" (such as doing
something on the side) and "by the by," "by the way."

To do something on the side and in extension to do something frivolously or
for fun, is called *passlatant* in Low Saxon, supposedly a French loan. You
can use this one also in the context of saying something "by the by."

So ...

*blangen by (segd) ...
passlatant (segd) ...*

"(said) by the way ..."

*Küss die Hand, die Dame!*

Reinhard/Ron

*Passlatant*: The German greeting *Küss die Hand* ("(I) kiss the hand") is
widely associated with old-time Vienna, perhaps not unjustifiably so,
thinking of the old Austro-Hungarian empire in which especially German and
Hungarian made interesting bed-fellows. Hungarian *kézet csókolom* (I kiss
the hand") is old and survived communist rule! But I don't know which of the
two versions came first.
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