LL-L "Lexicon" 2008.05.03 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 03 May 2008 - Volume 03
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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon"

Beste Ron,

You wrote:

For speakers of German and Low Saxon that have a foundation in English it is
surprising to find certain Scots words that seem quite "Continental".

One example I can come up with right now is *owerset* for "translate." Cf.
German *übersetzen* (*übersetz-*), (Germany) Low Saxon *œversetten *(*
œverset-*, farwestern *vertaal-*), Danish *oversætte* (*oversæt-*),
Norwegian *oversette* (*overset-*), and Swedish *översätta* (*översät-*),
all* *with the same meaning. (This seems to be a widespread figure of
speech, considering also Russian *переводить*, Ukrainian *перекладати*,
Croatian *prevoditi*, Hungarian *elszállít* and *átszállít*, etc.)

Another example that I just stumbled across is Scots *yearhunner* for
"century." Cf. German *Jahrhundert*, (Germany) Low Saxon *Jahrhunnerd
*(farwestern
*Eeu*), Danish *århundrede*, Norwegian *århundre*, and Swedish *århundrade*,
all with the same meaning.

My basic question: Is there any historical justification, or have these
perhaps been made up, perhaps on the basis of other Germanic languages?

What about "to haul"? (~ Dutch "halen", German "holen")

"Haul down the flag" ~ neerhalen (D)
"Bruins fans haul in the prizes" ~ (b)in(nen) halen (D)
"It's time to haul out the snow boots" ~ uithalen (D)
"Naomi Campbell hauled off on someone again" ~ uithalen (D)
"Deep-Sea Explorers haul up $500 Million treasure" ~ ophalen (D)
"The Derby winner overhauled the rest of the field with remarkable ease" ~
inhalen (D), overtake (E)

"Halen" is a word that is frequently used and has a very general meaning in
Dutch (and in German), "to haul" on the other hand is much more specific,
and yet these combinations of "haul + preposition" have exactly the same
meaning both in (American) English and Dutch. Maybe in Scots too?

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

PS: Any word for "to translate" and "a century" would have been considered a
"boekenwoord" by my (grand)parents. Could "owerset" and "yearhunner" be
creations of a "Spracharchitekt"?

----------

From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2008.05.02 (11) [E]

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

> My basic question: Is there any historical justification, or have
> these perhaps been made up, perhaps on the basis of other Germanic
> languages?
>
> According to The Dictionary of The Scots Language, owerset can be
> traced back to the 18th century, at which time it used to mean 'to
> turn over' or 'to upset', as in He died in nae choleric pet, Nor was
> his stomach owerset. The earliest recorded occurrences of owerset in
> the sense of 'translate' are in 1994.
>
> The same dictionary does not list yearhunner at all.
>
> How do our Scots speakers and their cohorts feel about these?

These are what you might call inkhorn terms (terms made up
self-consciously by writers), or perhaps AngloSaxonics (terms made up to
avoid using Latin-sounding words).

Many of the writers who use these words do so only because they've
little feel for the spirit of the language. "Owerset" does mean "to turn
over" or "knock over", but the writers who borrowed the term to mean
"translate" were presumably ignorant of this.

In Scots, there's more use of phraseology to express things as opposed
to Romance borrowings, so this is more in the spirit of the language:

"I've translated that fae the German."
"I've pittin it ower fae the German."
"I pit it intae English fae the German."

As for "century", the natural way to say it in Scots (other than
"century") is "a hunder year".

Of course there's a long tradition of borrowing or making up words in
Scots and English for purposes of written expression. Shakespeare
introduced hundreds of new words into English, Spenser used many made-up
words which never caught on, Gavin Douglas admitted to doing the same as
a matter of principle for Scots.

You can do it with style and panache, or you can be a bit pathetic about
it. Shakespeare doesn't draw attention to his neologisms so they tend to
pass into the language unnoticed. Spenser's inkhorniness (well, I think
this neologism of mine really applies to him!) is more obvious and
people shy away from it.

Gavin Douglas talks of Scots being impoverished compared to the English,
Latin and so on that he borrows from. But it depends what you mean. I
think he's like the modern yearhunnerers who think that because a
language uses a phrase rather than a word for something, or that the
word is also used in the power language, then the word doesn't exist in
Scots and therefore has to be made up.

In modern days I think these words are symptomatic of writers who lack
confidence in the language and aren't sure of being able to compose
idiom like "pitten ower" without getting it wrong.

This isn't to say that better writers don't sneak stuff past us: if it's
done in the true spirit of the language, readers may not even notice. Or
if it's really useful (as "owerset" and "yearhunner" aren't) then they
may be accepted.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/
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