Re: phonology of borrowed words

On Nov/21/2002, Jan van Steenbergen wrote:

> Same thing in Dutch. Of course, we have "Engelse hoorn", "Vlaamse gaai" (a
> bird), "Vlaamse frites", "Pruisisch blauw", but those are rather regular names
> than expressions.
        Hmmm. I can't resist the tempation to contribute a few
nationalistic items in spanish :-)

        "Despedirse a la francesa" ("to say bye the french way"), is,
IIRC, not to say bye at all :-) BTW, the "french way" sexually related
in other post is also a usual meaning here (though it's more "hacer un
francés", "to make a french") :-)

        "Ensaladilla rusa" ("little russian salad", so to speak) is a
dish made with mahonaisse (sp?), boilt vegetables and potatoes, and
maybe some other things. You serve it cold, and I personally love it %-)
I guess the serving it cold is what makes it "russian" :-)

        "Hacerse el sueco" ("to act like a swedish") is to act as if you
knew nothing about something. There was a funny ad in TV a few months
ago just exploiting this expression :-)

        I'm sure there are more, but I remember these right from the top
of my head.

> Engelse sleutel ("English key") = monkey-wrench
        Same thing here :-) Though I didn't know what was its name in
english O:-)

--
        Roberto Suarez Soto

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