Re: French and German (jara: An introduction)
| From: | Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, June 8, 2003, 8:33 |
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--- 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
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