O'Brian's Imagination

[Wallace Chafe]

Just to second what Blair said, there's no possible way in which this could
be Iroquoian.
--Wally

> On Thu, 22 Apr 2004, Bruce Ingham wrote:
>> I don't know if any of you read the novels of Patrick O'Brian,
>> particularly the Jack Aubrey novels, but in the last one I read the hero
>> Jack Aubrey is captured by the Americans (could it be worse?) I imagine
>> in the war of 1812. And someone in Boston informs another character that
>> the phrase 'it cuts no ice with me' is from the Iroquois (it)katsno
>> aissvizmi meaning 'I am not impressed'.  It seemed amusing. Anyone know
>> if this is true?
>
> My impression when I read it was that O'Brian made it up, and that part of
> the humor, whether for him or for us, was to foist this misinformation
> with, as it were, a straight face.  A principle O'Brian employed to some
> extent in life as well as art.  For example, he wasn't Irish as he claimed
> to be.
>
> I don't think the phonology works for Iroquoian, anyway, though v is
> sometimes used for a nasal vowel.