Double Dutch (was: Zelandish)

 --- Steg Bielski skrzypszy:

> > That's why it is so funny to translate things literally. This kind
> > of humour gave birth to phenomena like "Double-Dutch", "Duitslands", etc.
> > Unfortunately, it is understandable only for those who know both languages.
> > A poem of John O'Mill would be probably incomprehendible for an Englishman
> > who doesn't know Dutch.
>
> Could you give examples of these phenomena?  The only "Double-Dutch" i
> know of is a type of jumprope game with two jumpropes.
Sure:

"Along the way to paradise
there blooms the flower cull.
Man stoops, but thinks himself too wise,
and culls it not, the lull."

(Du. "flauwe kul" = bullshit, "lull" = dick)

"A terrible infant called Peter
sprinkled his bed with a geeter.
His father got woost,
took hold of a knoost,
and gave him a pack on his meter."

(My English is too bad to be of assistance here)

Both are written by John O'Mill (pseudonym of Jan van der Molen). I don't have
them on paper here, so I could be wrong about the spelling of some words.

For more stuff, you can have a look at the following site:
http://home.planet.nl/~blade068/taalgein/ddutch.htm

It begins with a text full of Dutch idioms translated literally into English.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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