Calimac's language lessons

[calimac]

I've spent more than minimal time in three countries where English is not the default language. In each country I found it especially useful to know one particular word in the native language.

Netherlands: gesloten. Means "closed." A really useful word to know the meaning of when you see it on a sign in the front door of a public building or museum just as you are about to climb a long flight of stairs to get there.

Germany: Bahnhof. Not much of a cognate for "train station." A really useful word to look for on little city maps when you're traveling around Germany by train.

Italy: basta. Means "enough." A really useful word to say politely to Italian street market vendors who are selling you groceries by weight. An even more useful word to say more sharply to people who without being asked grab your bags on trains and hoist them into the overheads and then expect 20 Euros tip when you're trying to offer them 5.

Of course, even in the United States one may find words that one doesn't encounter at home.

Hawaii: Aloha. Means ... just about anything, actually. Just say it a lot.

(Actually, Aloha was the answer to a riddle I learned when I first moved to Seattle. The riddle was: "How do people who live on Mercer Island say 'Merry Christmas'?")

Here's one that genuinely puzzled me when I first encountered it:

North Carolina: bah. Means "purchase." "Do you wanna bah that?" uttered by a store clerk required a couple reiterations before I could figure out what he was saying.

Comments

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains a couple of usages of "basta" that had puzzled me; I'd been used to hearing it exclusively in the context of political protest.

*snort* at the Aloha riddle.

How does Southern speech map onto the Great Vowel Shift? (I realize that "Southern speech" may be insufficiently specific, since Southern accents shift from state to state, but some general trends do exist.)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

basta is one of a few all-purpose words in Italian which get used all the time. Another is prego which literally means "to pray" but gets stuck on the ends of lots of sentences as a sort of helper word of the "if you don't mind / pardon me / you're welcome" sort. Or at least that's my understanding.

I don't believe the Southern accent has anything to do with the Great Vowel Shift, which occurred centuries earlier and went in different directions.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

The other thing you need to know in Italy are the various combinations of 'chiuso' and 'in restauro' on churches and monuments - I am so pleased as a tourist that the Italians devote so much time and money to preservation. Or maybe not.

My favourite encounter with Southern accents came when I talked to K.W.Jeter who remarked that he had been told that my (still) unpublished novel was very good. 'Is it a Hoar novel?' he asked.'Well yes,' I said, 'it's a novel in which most of the characters are prostitutes'. 'Yes,' he said,' I know that, but is it a Hoar novel?' This went round for several turns before I caught the bat squeak of an r in the middle of the word.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Luckily, I suppose, churches closed for restoration were not a major feature of my trip to Italy.

That's a good Southern accent story. I am reminded of another: I believe it was Gardner Dozois who told this one. He was once approached at an SF con by a man who said, "I'm hard." "Well, that's very interesting, sir," replied Gardner (if it was he), "but I lack the inclination to do anything about your condition." "No, no," replied the man. "I'm H'ard! H'ard Waldrop!" And that is how they met.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Some more regional American stuff:

In Southern Oregon (at least, around where my grandfather-in-law lives), they use "spendy" to mean both "expensive" and "willing to spend a lot."

When we lived in Connecticut in the early '60s, my mother decided to take up her old piano lessons to pass the time. (It was a really small town.) She asked the combination postmaster-general store guy if he knew any piano instructors. He recommended his wife. "I've had twelve years of lessons," she observed, "I need someone pretty good."

"Well," the guy said, "She was head a the Guvna's otts cancel."

"Otts cancel" is the best I can render it. It was an astonishing sound, and it took her several gorounds to figure out it meant "arts council."