LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.05 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 05 March 2009 - Volume 03
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From: James Wilson <jawi2300 at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.04 (04) [E]

Take a peek at at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagpipes

James
København

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From: clarkedavid8 at aol.com
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.04 (01) [E

From: clarkedavid8 at aol.com
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.03 (04) [E

There has been quite a lot in the British press this last week about how
cricket was originally a game played by Flemish weavers, who brought it to
England in the Middle Ages. In fact, there is also evidence of golf and
bagpipes (commonly supposed to be Scottish inventions) in Flemish paintings.
I suspect that all these games and pastimes were present in some form
throughout Europe at one time, but were forgotten and then reintroduced.
Surely football and rugby are English inventions, though (although I once
heard of a Russian who thought that football must be Russian because the
Russian word "futbol" is declined like a normal Russian noun, unlike
obviously foreign imports such as "vino", which is indeclinable)?

Fish and chips, too, are apparently a Belgian invention that was introduced
to the British Isles in the 19th century.

David Clarke


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From: Mike Morgan <mwmosaka at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2009.03.04 (01) [E]

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 9:25 PM, Lowlands-L List <lowlands.list at gmail.com>
wrote:

I once heard of a Russian who thought that football must be Russian because
the Russian word "futbol" is declined like a normal Russian noun, unlike
obviously foreign imports such as "vino", which is indeclinable)?

Actually vino IS delinable... grammatically speakign at least! (If it is
good Georgianwine then it is certainly much harder to decline).

Although Modern Standard Russina DOES have a large number of indeclinable
borrowed words, mots of which end in sounds that don't readily fit into the
Russian scheme of things (i.e. masculaine nouns end in consonants, feminines
in -a and Neuters in -o or unstressed -e). /Vino/ is a MUCH older borrowing,
and fits perfectly with the system so is declined. in older Russian (for
example if you read soem of the classics from the nineteenth century) or in
dialects, some indeclinables do in fact alos decline, being MADE o fit in
(for example standard /kofe/ 'coffee' mhich is masculine was (is) often
/kofej/ (with the /j/ being IPA /j/ NOT English 'j').

But of course there ARe enough examples of borrowings being indeclinable to
make soemone believe that declineables MUST be native perhaps ... at least
if one didn't stop to think about it too long ...

Mike Morgan

Mumbai/Bombay *|* मुंबई *|* ムンバイ/ボンベイ (インド)
www.ishara.org
+++++++++++++++
Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen. (Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe)

•

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