Re: phonology of borrowed words

> "French toast" is another example, but apparently
> the term is unknown
> in Greater Leftpondia: it's day-old bread soaked in
> scrambled egg and sauteed,
> usually with cinnamon and sometimes sugar, and eaten
> for breakfast.
> Evidently this is a variant of pain perdu, which is
> probably why it's
> called "French" in English.
"Lost bread"? And we got "Texas toast", which is a big thick slice of
toasted buttered bread.

Other false nationalities applied to things include English horn (the alto
oboe), which is a translation of French _cor anglais_, itself a corruption
of _cor anglé_, that is, angled horn. A reference to the bent bocal joint
which is straight in the soprano oboe. Also, there is an instrument known as
"viola d'amore", a viol-type bowed instrument with sympathetic strings much
like an Indian sitar. The name has nothing to do with love; the instrument
came from the Moors.

And weren't French fries (potatoes, _pommes frites_) invented in Germany
actually? And didn't hamburger come from the Tatars?

~Danny~

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