On Thursday, November 4, 2004, at 02:09  PM, Michael Grant wrote:

> Just curious--what's the general Czech perception of the Bush regime,
> excuse me, administration? Do they take more of an "Old Europe" or
> "New Europe" view? Or somewhere in between, or do they not really
> care?

I can't tell you the answer to that, of course, but you brought back an
interesting memory.  A friend of mine who graduated from the gymnazium
around 1988 told me a few years ago that a downward age gap of just
three years or so was enough to wash away the memory of communist
tyranny and turn kids into standard MTV Euro-lefties.  Or as he put it,
"All it takes is an age difference of three years, and the kids think
like real idiots, just like in Germany."

If you're interested, I can also tell you that my many Iraqi friends
here -- who still have close family in Baghdad -- were rooting for Bush
and called me to say how ecstatic they were when he won.  In the
Detroit area, with its famously huge Arab population, I have met many
Syrians, Lebanese, Yemenis, etc., who are angry about the war and hate
Bush, but virtually every Iraqi I've ever met claims to be grateful for
the intervention and thinks that the bloodshed is a necessary tradeoff,
even if their own family member gets killed.  I even see pro-Bush,
anti-Saddam bumper stickers on the cars of veiled Muslim women.  (Make
any conjecture you want.)  The only thing they claim was done wrong was
that the borders were not sealed after the takeover.  (I personally
believe that that was a deliberate strategy, but who knows.)

And, if it comes back on, be sure to watch the History Channel
documentary "Nazi Guerillas", about the Allied occupation from 1945 to
1948.  It's very pertinent to what's happening now.

Jamie


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Thursday, November 4, 2004, at 03:33  PM, Helga Listen wrote:

> Has there no one seen 9/11 in those states????? 

Do you mean the terrorist attacks on 9/11 or the movie "Fahrenheit
9/11"?  If you mean the latter, plenty of people here have seen it, but
the Europeans probably have not seen the video "Fahrenhype 9/11", in
which a former Clinton adviser and other commentators dissect the lies
and cinematic tricks Michael Moore used in that movie (which are
similar to the ones he used in other films).  After the movie came out,
the film was deconstructed lie for lie and trick for trick on news
shows and in books that the Europeans either don't have access to or
(in many cases) can't understand.  It's the usual problem I often
complain about, which is that masses of nutty media are translated and
circulated in Europe, whether the teachings of the Baghwan Sri
Razhneesh or the political comedies of Michael Moore, but the media
that refute them are never translated.  Europeans therefore don't have
the ability to judge things that go on in the US based on balanced
input.

Example:  Moore does an ambush interview with a member of Congress and
asks him if he would send his own child to fight in Iraq.  The senator
thought for a little while and then gave a very thoughtful response
that mentioned that his own chlidren were now too old to be sent, but
that members of the next generation of his family were there fighting.
After answering the question, the legislator had to get into the
capital because there was some important vote going on, so he excused
himself and ran into the building.  This is what was witnessed by
people who were there.  Moore cut the scene up, so that he showed
himself asking the question, then the legislator thinking and running
into the capitol building.  The viewer was obviously supposed to get
the phony impression that the man couldn't answer the question and just
ran away.  Moore uses this type of deceptive editing frequently.

Moore does this in other films.  In Bowling for Columbine, he gives the
world the impression that in the US you can go to a bank and get a free
shotgun just for opening an account.  That scene is actually completely
fictional -- it was staged with "actors".    It couldn't happen.  Any
bank just handing over shotguns like that would be shut down very
quickly, because the legal acquisition of a gun here requires a
criminal background check and a 45-day waiting period before delivery.

> Do they really think Mr. Bushes moral is that high and honest????

Some people do, and some people don't.  I saw this election this way:
It was mainly an ideological battle between people who were imprinted
in the '60s hippie era (which is where I think many Czechs' brains are
also stuck), and those who think the economic, social and moral beliefs
of that time have not worked (which they haven't).  There was more to
it than just the war in Iraq.  Kerry offered solutions to social issues
that were basically retreads of the failed ideas of the 1960s, and he
never enunciated workable plans for anything.

Example:  The education system has completely degenerated in many parts
of the US.  A European who came into my classrooms would be stunned at
the simple things that American 18-year-olds don't know.  (I frequently
run into kids who don't know where Ontario is, even though it's only 20
minutes away from their house.  And forget expecting them to recognize
what a noun is.)  Bush has tried to work out a strategy to fix the
problem (Senator Ted Kennedy helped write the bill).  It's very
imperfect, and it's not funded right, but even a lot of people who
complain about it claim it's at least a better alternative than the
Democrats' former strategy of just pumping more and more money into
corrupt schools without demanding any accountability.  Kerry was pretty
much offering the old strategy.

Another thing that appealed to many Americans about Bush's plan was
that he wanted to reform the system that allows those crazy lawsuits
that Europeans think are so funny.  They now take up 2.5% of GNP, and
are massively increasing the cost of healthcare and often of running a
business.  In some states the problem is so bad that they have trouble
getting obstetricians and other specialists to practice there.  Kerry
offered a government health plan without reform of this system of tort
lawsuits, and he even chose a tort lawyer as his running mate.  This
promised that the problem was never going to change.

So, you see, it wasn't all the war or moral issues, but as the European
press would like people to think.

And I doubt it helped when Osama bin Laden popped up on TV to endorse
John Kerry and was basically saying all the same things that John Kerry
and Michael Moore had been saying for months.

You should also know that when Americans have a choice between a
president they're not crazy about but can predict, and a challenger
they're also not crazy about and can't predict, they'll take the
predictable guy.

> When are you going to move to civilization???

Civilization???  In the past 100 years, Europe has had several
genocidal dictators who, combined, massacred at least 30 million
people.  Usually the "civilized" powers discuss with the despots and
act like gentlemen until it's too late, and then they ask the US to get
their guys killed to fix a problem Europe didn't do anything about.
Europe is not as civilized it would appear in the self-flattering minds
of many Europeans.

Jamie


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Has any of you read Zeme pod sochou svobody (Dejiny USA, jak je nezname)
by Joachim Fernau (for Helga: Halleluja, Die Geschichte der USA).
Some opinions of that guy are a bit extremistic but give rather
interesting background information (the perception of the U.S. all over
the world, reasons for "americanism" and "anti-americanism"). It is
worth reading it!
best regards
Hana

Ahoj,

Titulek (bez kontextu) zni Lorem Ipsum. Da se to nejak prelozit do cestiny?

Sarka

On Friday, November 5, 2004, at 02:46  AM, Petr Jarolím wrote:

> Has any of you read Zeme pod sochou svobody (Dejiny USA, jak je
> nezname)
> by Joachim Fernau (for Helga: Halleluja, Die Geschichte der USA).
> Some opinions of that guy are a bit extremistic but give rather
> interesting background information (the perception of the U.S. all over
> the world, reasons for "americanism" and "anti-americanism"). It is
> worth reading it!

It can help also to read a history of the US by someone who understands
how most Americans really think.  One I would suggest is "A History of
the American People" by Paul Johnson.  He also wrote a very interesting
book called "Intellectuals", which does a fascinating job of
introducing intellectuals of the past few centuries who claimed to be
working for the benefit of all humanity but were extremely destructive
to the actual flesh-and-blood humans in their lives.

Jamie


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Friday, November 5, 2004, at 07:42  AM, ing.Sarka Rubkova wrote:

> Ahoj,
>
> Titulek (bez kontextu) zni Lorem Ipsum. Da se to nejak prelozit do
> cestiny?

I think you translate it Lorem Ipsum.  These are the first two words of
the standard phony text used in sample layouts when the real text to be
used is not available yet.  It can be called "placeholder text", and in
the ad agencies, if I remember correctly, we called it "Greek type",
leading to the verb "to greek in".  If you "greek a column in", that
means to fill it with that placeholder text.  This text is frequently
included in standard page layout programs now, but in the days of
cardboard and glue, you used to be able to buy sheets of it for dummy
layouts.

For more information, see this site:  http://www.lipsum.com/

Jamie


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tomu, o cem tady mluvi Jamie, se myslim rika "slepy text".
Jarda

-----Original Message-----
From: James Kirchner [mailto:jpklists@...]
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 1:57 PM
To: Czechlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Czechlist] RE: [Lorem ipsum



On Friday, November 5, 2004, at 07:42  AM, ing.Sarka Rubkova wrote:

> Ahoj,
>
> Titulek (bez kontextu) zni Lorem Ipsum. Da se to nejak prelozit do
> cestiny?

I think you translate it Lorem Ipsum.  These are the first two words of
the standard phony text used in sample layouts when the real text to be
used is not available yet.  It can be called "placeholder text", and in
the ad agencies, if I remember correctly, we called it "Greek type",
leading to the verb "to greek in".  If you "greek a column in", that
means to fill it with that placeholder text.  This text is frequently
included in standard page layout programs now, but in the days of
cardboard and glue, you used to be able to buy sheets of it for dummy
layouts.

For more information, see this site:  http://www.lipsum.com/

Jamie


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




Czechlist resources:
http://www.bohemica.com/czechtranslation

Obcasnik:
http://zehrovak.bloguje.cz
Yahoo! Groups Links

--- In Czechlist@yahoogroups.com, Michael Grant <mgrant@g...> wrote:

> Just curious--what's the general Czech perception of the Bush
regime,
> excuse me, administration? Do they take more of an "Old Europe" or
> "New Europe" view? Or somewhere in between, or do they not really
> care?

Trying to keep as ontopic as possible (so I WON'T post a great
argument about a question discussed here before :-), I'd put it Old
Europe / inbetween / do not care. In my limited experience, you will
of course find all types in online flamewars, but the pro-Bush part
seems smaller in absolute numbers and containing bigger proportion of
outright cranks.

There is an overview of various Czech polls I wasn't even aware of at
http://stealthisurl.blogspot.com/2004/11/of-course-hell-lose-
electoral-college.html

--
Jan Vanek jr.

Vazeni,
jak se opravdu hezky a spolehlive rekne anglicky jednatel?
Diky, Honza

People overseas who think that the north went for Kerry and that the
south voted for Bush might find this map interesting.  It gives a
county-by-county breakdown of the election results.  The map is
practically all red, indicating that, at least geographically, most
localities voted for Bush, while certain, mostly urban areas went for
Kerry.  My own state is depicted on most maps as having "gone for
Kerry", but in fact only a tiny geographic portion of the state showed
a majority for him.  You can click and compare the map to the 2000
results, which show a similar, but not as complete pattern.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

Jamie

Nazdar Honzo,

prekládat názvy podnikových funkcí je vetsinou tak trochu alchymie. Co se
týká jednatale, rekl bych, ze vhodnost zvoleného výrazu v anglictine zálezí
na tom, zda se jedná o spolecnost s rucením omezeným nebo akciovou
spolecnost, prípadne jak je ta firma velká. Já pouzívám u malých s.r.o.
zpravidla 'executive officer'. U vetsích akciovek by snad mel dávat smysl
'acting secretary'. Pak jsou samozrejme i jiné druhy jednatelu nez u
firem...

Jirka Bolech

Díky, to vypadá dobre.
Honza


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jirka Bolech" <jirka.bolech@...>
To: <Czechlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 4:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Czechlist] RE: Jednatel


>
> Nazdar Honzo,
>
> prekládat názvy podnikových funkcí je vetsinou tak trochu alchymie. Co se
> týká jednatale, rekl bych, ze vhodnost zvoleného výrazu v anglictine
zálezí
> na tom, zda se jedná o spolecnost s rucením omezeným nebo akciovou
> spolecnost, prípadne jak je ta firma velká. Já pouzívám u malých s.r.o.
> zpravidla 'executive officer'. U vetsích akciovek by snad mel dávat smysl
> 'acting secretary'. Pak jsou samozrejme i jiné druhy jednatelu nez u
> firem...
>
> Jirka Bolech
>
>
>
>
>
> Czechlist resources:
> http://www.bohemica.com/czechtranslation
>
> Obcasnik:
> http://zehrovak.bloguje.cz
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Jamie

That's one depressing picture!

Petr

--- James Kirchner <jpklists@...> wrote:

> People overseas who think that the north went for
> Kerry and that the
> south voted for Bush might find this map
> interesting.  It gives a
> county-by-county breakdown of the election results.
> The map is
> practically all red, indicating that, at least
> geographically, most
> localities voted for Bush, while certain, mostly
> urban areas went for
> Kerry.  My own state is depicted on most maps as
> having "gone for
> Kerry", but in fact only a tiny geographic portion
> of the state showed
> a majority for him.  You can click and compare the
> map to the 2000
> results, which show a similar, but not as complete
> pattern.
>
>
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm
>
> Jamie
>
>




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page.
www.yahoo.com

On Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:19:13 -0800 (PST), batoun@...
<batoun@...> wrote:
>
> That's one depressing picture!

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "red scare", doesn't it? The
thing to remember is that, although the blue flecks (we're the one
sitting there by itself in the middle of Texas) may make up only a
small fraction of the land area, they do represent 48% of the voting
population.

Michael

--
"Aber ja! Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung. Nur nicht für uns."
- Franz Kafka

>>>
    From: "Helga Listen" <listen@...>
Subject: RE: Off-topic: Czech view of Bush

Hallo Michael,
Well, my view may not be entirely Czech, but I can tell you that I've been
watching CNN until 2:30 in the morning, hoping and praying - with no
success.<<<<


ConvolutedNotrelevantNonsense - give me a break (-:
This is the problem, you watch absolutely biased news, which are worse than
communist propaganda was.
With communists you knew you were fed shit, because it tasted like shit.
With liberal media you are fed shit which makes you feel good, so you think its
good, but it is still shit.
I know what I am talking about - I have PhD in journalism from communist
university.
One of old professors told us once:
Z hovna bic neupletes
A kdyz upletes, tak nezapraskas
A i kdybys zapraskal, tak te to posere.
If you Czech is not good enough to get this, ask for translation - somebody here
can do that well, I am sure.
There is no unbiased news source about US in the whole Europe, unles you are
able to listen to US talk radio.
British BBC is as biased bunch of liberals as anybody else.
So listen to both for some time, make an independent, unbiased opinion and than
you will see that 51% of Americans may be like Busch - much smarter than
everybody else and media think (-:
Unles you like the taste of shit, which feels good, which seems to be European
favored flavor of the month for many years now (-:
In this case please delete this shit (-:

I haven't been this depressed since 9/11, and I didn't
even vote (though in the US since 1986, I am still
just Czech citizen). But people of this great place -
New York hadn't voted s. Bush back in anyway.


--- Michael Grant <mgrant@...> wrote:

> On Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:19:13 -0800 (PST),
> batoun@...
> <batoun@...> wrote:
> >
> > That's one depressing picture!
>
> Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "red scare",
> doesn't it? The
> thing to remember is that, although the blue flecks
> (we're the one
> sitting there by itself in the middle of Texas) may
> make up only a
> small fraction of the land area, they do represent
> 48% of the voting
> population.
>
> Michael
>
> --
> "Aber ja! Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung. Nur nicht
> für uns."
> - Franz Kafka
>




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page.
www.yahoo.com

What does a rooster say in Czech? If I ever knew, I've forgotten.

Thanks,
Michael

--
"Aber ja! Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung. Nur nicht für uns."
- Franz Kafka

Hi Michael.

> What does a rooster say in Czech?

"Kykyryky" (kykyryky')

Jirka Bolech

Dear listmates,

Does anybody know how to translate the following string into Czech please?

"Installing Provision Date."

- This message appears on the mobile phone during some settings installation
procedure. Unfortunately, there is no more context :-(

Thank you!

Best regards,

Tropen

Hi all,
I have two questions today.
One - I´m  looking for a verb which indicates what Gypsies have always done -
travel from place to place without a fixed place to live. What I´ve found so far
carries the meaning (have a transient/nomadic lifestyle) but what I need is a
verb ("Romove kocuji").
Two - I had an American friend over and she, thinking I was the expert in
everything concerning English language + history, asked what the origin of the
southern drawl was. She found it strange as it so much differs from the original
accent of those who first inhabited those parts. Any insights on this?

Thanks a lot
Hanka


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This relates to a message I posted a minute ago.

What do I do to make a search engine return words with a certain syllable in
them - or words with the same root? I wanted to see if there was a verb derived
from TRANSIENT or NOMAD (though MIGRATE certainly offers itself) so I tried
TRANS with a hyphen or an asterisk, thinking this should be it but probably
isn´t. Can you help?
Thank you
Hanka


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:46:56 +0100, Hana Viansová <bebeebeee@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I have two questions today.
> One - I´m  looking for a verb which indicates what Gypsies have always done -
travel from place to place without a fixed place to live. What I´ve found so far
carries the meaning (have a transient/nomadic lifestyle) but what I need is a
verb ("Romove kocuji").

To roam or to rove?


> Two - I had an American friend over and she, thinking I was the expert in
everything concerning English language + history, asked what the origin of the
southern drawl was. She found it strange as it so much differs from the original
accent of those who first inhabited those parts. Any insights on this?

I assume you're referring to the American South, not southern England?
I've read that it has to do with African influence, though I'm
skeptical since Black English has quite a few distinguishing features
of its own. Jamie probably knows something about this.

Michael

--
"Aber ja! Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung. Nur nicht für uns."
- Franz Kafka

Thank you Michael, I¨ll see what Jamie or other people have to say. I
promised the friend to find out and don´t want to look unreliable as well as
ignorant:-)).
Thanks again
Hanka

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Grant" <mgrant@...>
To: <czechlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Czechlist] nomad + southern accent



On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:46:56 +0100, Hana Viansová <bebeebeee@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I have two questions today.
> One - I´m  looking for a verb which indicates what Gypsies have always
done - travel from place to place without a fixed place to live. What I´ve
found so far carries the meaning (have a transient/nomadic lifestyle) but
what I need is a verb ("Romove kocuji").

To roam or to rove?


> Two - I had an American friend over and she, thinking I was the expert in
everything concerning English language + history, asked what the origin of
the southern drawl was. She found it strange as it so much differs from the
original accent of those who first inhabited those parts. Any insights on
this?

I assume you're referring to the American South, not southern England?
I've read that it has to do with African influence, though I'm
skeptical since Black English has quite a few distinguishing features
of its own. Jamie probably knows something about this.

Michael

--
"Aber ja! Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung. Nur nicht für uns."
- Franz Kafka



Czechlist resources:
http://www.bohemica.com/czechtranslation

Obcasnik:
http://zehrovak.bloguje.cz
Yahoo! Groups Links

Ahoj Hanko,
Slovo ktere hledas je v NJ (herum)zigeunern a kdyz jsem se trochu rozhlidla,
jsem nasla 11 odkazu na googlu podle kterych, bys mozna mohla pouzivat "to
gypsy around".
H.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hana Viansová [mailto:bebeebeee@...]
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 6:47 PM
To: Czechlist
Subject: [Czechlist] nomad + southern accent


Hi all,
I have two questions today.
One - I´m  looking for a verb which indicates what Gypsies have always done
- travel from place to place without a fixed place to live. What I´ve found
so far carries the meaning (have a transient/nomadic lifestyle) but what I
need is a verb ("Romove kocuji").
Two - I had an American friend over and she, thinking I was the expert in
everything concerning English language + history, asked what the origin of
the southern drawl was. She found it strange as it so much differs from the
original accent of those who first inhabited those parts. Any insights on
this?

Thanks a lot
Hanka

On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:12:37 -0500, James Kirchner
<jpklists@...> wrote:
>
> I can't tell you the answer to that, of course, but you brought back an
> interesting memory.  A friend of mine who graduated from the gymnazium
> around 1988 told me a few years ago that a downward age gap of just
> three years or so was enough to wash away the memory of communist
> tyranny and turn kids into standard MTV Euro-lefties.

Sure, and everyone knows what Stalinists those MTV people are. Please.

Michael


--
"Aber ja! Es gibt unendlich viel Hoffnung. Nur nicht für uns."
- Franz Kafka

Diky, to je zajimave, jen by asi znelo divne rict "Gypsies have gypsied
around for centuries" :-))). Stejne diky moc. Nevis nahodou jak s temi
vyhledavaci (psala jsem o tom hned v nasledujicim mailu?)
Zdravim
Hanka


----- Original Message -----
From: "Helga Listen" <listen@...>
To: <Czechlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 8:59 PM
Subject: RE: [Czechlist] nomad + southern accent



Ahoj Hanko,
Slovo ktere hledas je v NJ (herum)zigeunern a kdyz jsem se trochu rozhlidla,
jsem nasla 11 odkazu na googlu podle kterych, bys mozna mohla pouzivat "to
gypsy around".
H.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hana Viansová [mailto:bebeebeee@...]
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 6:47 PM
To: Czechlist
Subject: [Czechlist] nomad + southern accent


Hi all,
I have two questions today.
One - I´m  looking for a verb which indicates what Gypsies have always done
- travel from place to place without a fixed place to live. What I´ve found
so far carries the meaning (have a transient/nomadic lifestyle) but what I
need is a verb ("Romove kocuji").
Two - I had an American friend over and she, thinking I was the expert in
everything concerning English language + history, asked what the origin of
the southern drawl was. She found it strange as it so much differs from the
original accent of those who first inhabited those parts. Any insights on
this?

Thanks a lot
Hanka





Czechlist resources:
http://www.bohemica.com/czechtranslation

Obcasnik:
http://zehrovak.bloguje.cz
Yahoo! Groups Links








__________ Informace od NOD32 1.916 (20041103) __________

Tato zprava byla proverena antivirovym systemem NOD32.
http://www.nod32.cz

--- In Czechlist@yahoogroups.com, "Tropen" <yoschin@c...> wrote:
> Dear listmates,
>
> Does anybody know how to translate the following string into Czech
please?
>
> "Installing Provision Date."
>
> - This message appears on the mobile phone during some settings
installation
> procedure. Unfortunately, there is no more context :-(
>
> Thank you!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tropen

Datum instalace?

K.

> What do I do to make a search engine return words with a certain
> syllable in them - or words with the same root? I wanted to see if there

I am afraid this is something you cannot get from search engines nowadays.
As far as I know web pages and documents are dissected and indexed word by
word and no wildcards (asterisks) can be used to search for parts of
indexed words. The only linguistic manipulation words undergo before
indexation is lemmatization, or stemming maybe. Also, your search on
Google is done on indexes (which are invisible, immaterial huge in-memory
sorted lists) rather than on real documents so you cannot expect Google
lets you search on web pages as if you search on MS Word or OpenOffice
documents using the Find function.

The smallest unit for Google (Yahoo, Jyxo,...) search is a word, not a
syllable.


ASTERISK
> offers itself) so I tried TRANS with a hyphen or an asterisk, thinking
> this should be it but probably isn´t. Can you help?

The only reasonable use of an asterisk in Google searching I know is
something like

"cup of * and * tea" (with quotation marks)

Each asterisk gets replaced with some WORD. This query string yields some
nice adjectives to be used for tea, like
cup of delectable and soothing tea
cup of fragrant and healthy tea
cup of hot and rejuvenating tea etc.



Ota

I did not know until yesterday that Alan Levy had passed away this
April. I was really sad when I found out.


I read The PP less (and less) frequently, then the German who bought
the Globe, closed the place for me entirely starting to close at
8:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and the result? I missed by half
year that Alan Levy had passed away.

K.

Hana wrote:
> I´m  looking for a verb which indicates what Gypsies have always done
> - travel from place to place without a fixed place to live. What I´ve found
> so far carries the meaning (have a transient/nomadic lifestyle) but what I
> need is a verb ("Romove kocuji").


I think you'll find this idea is conveyed more often by a phrase (or at least a
phrasal verb) than a single word. Fronek's suggestion 'lead a nomadic life'
might be good for describing the big picture, while 'lead an itinerant
life/lifestyle' might be heard in more mundane bureaucratic and journalistic
language. If you really insist on a single word (but why??), Michael's 'rove'
and 'roam' are fine, or you might simply consider 'travel' (groups of itinerants
are often referred to in the British press as 'travellers', whether they are
Roma, tinkers, hippies or whatever, and your phrase 'travel [about] from place
to place' sounds to me like a perfectly natural way of rendering 'kocovat') or
how about 'wander' ('wander from place to place' sounds fine to me) or Fronek's
'migrate'?


> Two - I had an American friend over and she, thinking I was the expert in
> everything concerning English language + history,

Well, you are.

>asked what the origin of
> the southern drawl was. She found it strange as it so much differs from the
> original accent of those who first inhabited those parts. Any insights on
> this?
>

I am not very insightful when it comes to American dialects but in amongst all
the theories on the subject involving inbreeding and bad oral hygiene I found
the following interesting ideas:


http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htm

From 1642-1675 the Royalists, also called Cavaliers, fled from the south and
southwest England with their indentured servants and settled in Virginia when
the English Civil War against Charles I began. They brought with them their
south England drawl (a drawing out of the vowels);

NOT VERY ACCURATE HISTORICALLY (THE DATING IS WAY OUT)BUT OTHERWISE NOT A
TOTALLY BAD THEORY IMHO - SOUTHERN ENGLISH UPPER CLASS ACCENTS DO HAVE SOME
SIMILAR VOWELS - BUT THEN A LITTLE FURTHER DOWN I READ:

Most linguists today believe these features derive from the influence of the
speech patterns of the Africans brought to the 13 colonies as slaves between
1619 and 1808, when the slave trade was prohibited. This would include the
southern drawl.

BUT:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0007a&L=ads-l&D=1&F=&S=&P=7553

I find it interesting that the first explanation that is suggested is
"African-American slave influence." Caribbean English varieties don't have a
drawl, nor do West African varieties. Ah! the "black nanny myth" again.

Salikoko S. Mufwene
University of Chicago
Department of Linguistics

In any case, 'drawl' is probably a contentious description amongst linguists.


BR

Melvyn
---
We used to sing this song at primary school:

Three gypsies stood at the castle gate. They sang so high, they sang so low.
The lady sate in her chamber late. Her heart it melted away as snow.

They sang so sweet, they sang so shrill. That fast her tears began to flow
And she lay down her silken gown, her golden rings and all her show.

She took it off her high-heeled shoes, a-made of Spanish leather-O
She would in the street in her bare, bare feet, all out in the wind and
weather-O.

Saddle to me my milk white steed and go and fetch me my pony-O
That I may ride and seek my bride who's gone with the wraggle taggle gypsies-O!

He rode high and he rode low, he rode through woods and copses too
Until he came to an open field and there he espied his a-lady-O.

"What makes you leave your house and land, your golden treasures for to go?
What makes you leave your new wedded lord, to follow the wraggle taggle
gypsies-O?"

"What care I for my house and land? What care I for my treasures-O?
What care I for my new wedded lord? I'm off with the wraggle taggle gypsies-O!"

"Last night you slept on a goose-feathered bed, with the sheet turned down so
bravely-O.
Tonight you sleep in a cold open field along with the wraggle taggle gypsies-O!"

"What care I for the goose-feathered bed with the sheet turned down so
bravely-O?
Tonight I shall sleep in a cold open field along with the wraggle taggle
gypsies-O!"