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OT: Norwegian Phrases

From:Doug Ball <db001i@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 4:40
I know this a bit tangential, but I can't resist using the list's
international flavor to get these questions answered.

My mother's side of the family migrated from Norway to America in the 1860s
(Her father's family was working on farm near Trondheim).  Apparently
Norwegian was spoken in the family until my great-grandfather's time--my
grandfather remembers it being used when he was a child, but has no
competency in it whatsoever.  But, there are a couple of phrases of
Norwegian that my family has somehow continued to use.  What I'm curious
about is how badly they've been warped in the game of "telephone" over the
years.

One phrase equivalent to the English "I'll hit you on the nose till the
blood spurts" is pronounced by my family something like [E sk@ slA du pA
nAsIn tIl blVd sp@rt@] which I'm guessing should be something like "Eg skal
slå deg på nasen til blod spurter" in Norwegian (I am assuming my ancestors
spoke something more like Nynorsk rather than Bokmål). What should this be
in present-day Norwegian?

The other phrases is similar to "This Little Piggy Went to Market"--a
children's game used on toes.
You grab the littlest toe, say [lIS tO@], then move towards the big toe
saying, [dOitIl@, tIl@lus@, umflu@], and then you jiggle the big toe saying
[stO skrVbIn].  How off is this for the Norwegian? (Sorry about the word
boundaries, I can only guess where they are) Is this game even still used in
Norway, or is it some relic of the 19th century?

ObConlang: There currently is no equivalent to the toe game in Skerre, but
here's a translation of "I'll hit you on the nose till the blood spurts."
    Vo-ha tut-na va jæren nak u risa otasir
    PROSP=1SG hit=2SG LOC nose when IMPF spew blood
    "I'm going to hit you on the nose until the blood spews."
Kinda violent for the Skerre, but it did generate some potentially useful
vocabulary.

Doug Ball
http://tsketar.tripod.com/skerre/
CLI !l§ cN:R:S:H a++ y n2d:7 B? A-- E L* N1 Is/m/p k-- ia+ p+ s++ m-- o+ P-
S Skerre

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