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Re: French and German (jara: An introduction)

From:Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Date:Sunday, June 8, 2003, 8:33
 --- John Cowan skrzypszy:

> > Well, "manch" isn't "many" as in a large number, but rather as > > in a significant number. > > > > I guess it's just one more of those delightful nuances of the > > German language that is flattened in the English translation. > > Now that you point this out, I think that "many a" may have precisely > this semantic; "a significant number of" rather than "many".
FWIW, the Dutch equivalent and cognate is "menig", and I think it has the same archaic feel as "many a" and "manch" (perhaps even more so). "Menig politicus heeft een slecht geweten." "Many a politician has a bad conscience." Normally it wouldn't be used with a plural. Jan ===== "Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus - For a better Internet experience http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/yplus/yoffer.html