Re: CHAT: Our opinions of what can be called 'winter' (was: OT: Merry Christmas!)

I'm sure I'm running out of quota, so:

J. 'Mach' Wust:
> I've experienced this as well, in Argentine. I also wondered first
> whether
> they'd use the words summer/winter for the weather or for the time,
> but I
> noticed very quickly they were used for the weather.
Do you mean you wondered if they would call the hotter part of the year
'winter'? My---knowledge of southern hemispheric seasons must be much
more limited than I supposed! I assumed that just as I was taught they
reverse in the north 'so that it's summer there when it's winter here',
the rest of would be taught they reverse in the south 'so that it's
winter there when it's summer here'.

On 29 Dec 2004, at 1.41 am, taliesin the storyteller wrote:

> * Tristan McLeay said on 2004-12-28 15:33:45 +0100
>> Cold strong winds do of course exist, and are probably stronger than
>> hot strong winds, but they are mostly at night, when you're protected
>> by your walls and doona (duvet, I think, is the standard word, but I
>> make no promises).
Maybe I should've said 'international', it's standard enough for Oz! :)

> Doona, neat! Where's it from?
*Apparently* a trademark. If a particular company/product is cited it
is 'Feduna' which was a German company that imported doonas into
Melbourne I believe, but usually it is phrased conjecturally or none at
all is given. Doona is most certainly not treated as a trademark or a
usurped trademark, and so contrasted with things like 'bandaid' or
'coke'. I think it dates from the 19th century, but take that with a
grain of salt.

The word is used to exclusion of any other in Melbourne (I would never
have known of the word 'duvet' if I didn't have an interest in
linguistics); people from other states know it and perhaps a majority
use it in some areas. A non-representative sample suggests that is used
& understood to various degrees in other states, but commoner in
eastern states than Adelaide. The sample was much too small to be
sensitive to more precise differences (at around ten, it was too small
to bet a dollar on!).

It is occasionally spelt 'dooner' with no difference in pronunciation
intended. (Though as with most words ending in -a, I tend to think of
it as being /du\:na/ rather than /du\:n@/, even though there's never
any difference in pronunciation. This may be an idiosyncrasy, perhaps
used to help know when a word is spelt -er and when -a.)

> In Norway, we use "dyner"
The obvious question, then, is how is 'dyne' pronounced? Perhaps the
standard assumption is wrong and a Norwegian word somehow managed to
sneak into Australian English. Which would be quite a feat, unless it
was a Norwegian trademark.

> (dyne+indefinite
> plural) year round though sometimes one talks about "sommerdyne", which
> is slightly thinner for the summer (though of course sometimeds it's so
> hot one sleeps on top of it instead of hiding underneath), and
> "vinterdyne", which is slightly thicker for the winter (but sometimes
> it
> is necessary with extra woolen blankets on top, aka. "ullpledd").
Depending on exactly how much thinner it was, I might call it a
comforter, but I don't think of them as being in the same category as
doonas, more like non-itchy blanket replacements. Such things aren't
very common to my knowledge (but I don't go snooping into other
people's bedrooms, investigating their bedding). (When I was younger,
everyone else in my family had doonas and I was jealous of them (it
wasn't as if I was the youngest or anything!); for some reason I only
had blankets, sheets and a comforter. Eventually I'd complained enough
that I got a doona. Some time after that I realised I was better off
without a doona, but by then it had all magically disappeared, as good
things are wont to do. At any rate, this was by way of telling you I
might be conditioned abnormally with respect to such things.)

--
Tristan.

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