Re: Another Essentialist Explanation

2006/11/21, Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:
> Quoting Benct Philip Jonsson <bpjonsson@...>:
>
> > Weld S Carter, Jr. skrev:
> > > I wonder how relevant we might consider the following
> > > comparison: In English we say 'It's Greek to me', but in
> > > German: 'es ist mir Spanish". And, in France, one
> > > dismisses a speaker of imperfect French with the insult:
> > > 'you speak French like a Spanish cow!' I don't try here to
> > > render it in French, since my grasp of that language
> > > probably warrants that description.
> > >
> > > Weld
> >
> > In Sweden we say "It's Chinese to me!"
>
> I sometimes hear _det är rena grekiskan_ "it's pure Greek", but that's likely an
> anglicism.
I hear that too, but I tend to view it as an Anglicism.
OTOH the 'Chinese' version may be a Germanicism I picked up from my mother.
Probably "rotvälska" is the one true Swedish expression of 'incomprehensible
language' -- although I have long wondered if it originally referred
to a Romance-
Germanic pidgin! :-)

> Oh, and I tend to dismiss south-Swedish dialects as "Danish". :D
In Iceland I met a guy from the west of Norway who dismissed East Norwegian
as Danish.  I wonder how Danes dismiss Scandinavian dialects they don't
understand? :-)

--
/BP