Re: USAGE: Yellow Charlie

> Date:         Fri, 17 Aug 2001 08:33:12 -0400
> From: John Cowan <cowan@...>
>
> Many years ago I read a novel by a Scandinavian author in which two
> characters are chatting.  One asks why the other (a woman) calls her horse
> "Yellow Charlie" when he is black.  The woman replies that his name is
> "Caligula" (presumably because of his temperament), and a translator's
> footnote explains that "Yellow Charlie" phonetically resembles "Caligula"
> in <source language>.
>
> Can anybody here straighten this out for me?  I recognize "g-l"
> as presumably meaning "yellow", and "Cali-" perhaps is to "Karl" as
> "Charlie" is to "Charles".  Bonus points for producing the names of
> author and novel.
The horse's name is probably Kalle Gula, and your guesses are correct.
The postposed adjective, inflected for definiteness, points to Swedish
or Norwegian.

The only hits I get when I search google for that name are on a
Swedish punk band that used the name for a short time, so I assume
that it's a reference to a Swedish novel.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)

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