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OT: Looking for Dutch children's song

From:Chris Peters <beta_leonis@...>
Date:Sunday, June 1, 2008, 17:25
Greetings to all! I'm looking for assistance from any Dutch or Frisian speakers on the
list. Because it's off-topic to the list, I'd like to invite anyone to respond
to my personal email instead of the entire list ... I'm not a fluent Dutch
speaker (in fact, I know very little Dutch at all beyond the basics). But my
grandmother is the daughter of a Dutch immigrant, and she was raised as an
"American Dutch girl" in Iowa. She just celebrated her 94th birthday, and we've
seen a decline in her mental faculties over the last decade or so. But one
thing she still remembers -- are the old children's songs that she heard as a
girl from her father. She remembered one song well enough that she could even
sing it to my two-month-old daughter when we came to visit recently -- both in
Dutch and English! Unfortunately, because of her mental condition, she wasn't
able to write the song down. But she dictated the original words (along with
what I think is a non-literal English translation) to my mother, who did her
best to write down the Dutch sounds phonetically. We have no idea if her
phonetic guesses are even close to the original Dutch words. Another
complication: the language might not actually be Dutch, but Frisian, since her
father came to Iowa from Ternaard, in Friesland. But whichever language it is,
I'd like to find the original words to the song, as well as a more literal
English translation. Here goes our best attempt at writing down the song. (I'm
mostly going with the phonetic spelling from my mother's transcription, rather
than guessing what the true words were. I have a basic clue about Dutch
spelling, but I don't know a wit about Frisian, so I'd rather not even try.)
Original Dutch(?): Suza nona Popkin -- (popkje?)Kelta lyin gropka --
(gropkje?)Mam in huis Sofear van hoosSee caneet verrupke(Zij kan niet?)
English gloss: Just a little calf,thereLying in the straw thereMother and father so
far from the houseThey can't hear him crying Thanks in advance for any
direction anyone can provide! Best regards, :Chris
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Chris Peters <beta_leonis@...>