What is this word? Is it a name? Is it a place?

[DavidWW]

OOOOps

This thread is veering (or should that be vacillating/) between 'Trivial Pursuit' and 'True Confessions'

....snipped.................

Russell

It's called "thread drift", and very often, it's when things can get really interesting

David

[emanday]

OOOOps

This thread is veering (or should that be vacillating/) between 'Trivial Pursuit' and 'True Confessions'

....snipped.................

Russell

It's called "thread drift", and very often, it's when things can get really interesting

David

I'm certainly fascinated. While working in Amsterdam I was made all too aware of the affinity the Dutch people have with the Scots. Maybe the Scotch Brigade can take credit for that. That article was really great and I see it's now a "Sticky" in the Armed Forces category.

[DavidWW]

I'm certainly fascinated. While working in Amsterdam I was made all too aware of the affinity the Dutch people have with the Scots. Maybe the Scotch Brigade can take credit for that. That article was really great and I see it's now a "Sticky" in the Armed Forces category.

Now there's a fascinating thought, - in the sense that, asked the question on the basis of your own Amsterdam experience, never mind my own similar experience from very many Dutch business visits, I'd have put it down primarily to centuries of trading between the nations, including Scotch merchants being based in Dutch ports; along with the common (strict!?) Presbyterian background.

The former is known to have led to many inter-marriages, but, despite my expertise in relation to the Scotch Brigade, I'd never added it all together in terms of the close historical links between the two nations .......

David

[emanday]

Believe me, David, there has got to be more to it than just the trading history. For the whole six months I was there, the minute I spoke to any Dutch person and my accent was recognised, I was their best friend.

All the other Scots contractors I worked with said the same thing.

On your visits did you ever wonder about the Dutch for church being Kerk? It was one of the things I noticed and couldn't help wondering if that's where our "Kirk" came from

[DavidWW]

Believe me, David, there has got to be more to it than just the trading history. For the whole six months I was there, the minute I spoke to any Dutch person and my accent was recognised, I was their best friend.

All the other Scots contractors I worked with said the same thing.

On your visits did you ever wonder about the Dutch for church being Kerk? It was one of the things I noticed and couldn't help wondering if that's where our "Kirk" came from

And the Swedish is kyrka, i.e, that, the Dutch kerk, and our kirk all have the same origin.............

Dutch is much closer to old German, and the Scandinavian languages than many folk realise, just a bit more than obscured by the gutteral nature of the Dutch accent (a throat operation needed to achieve the correct pronunciation - it's the same with Danish ).

Someone from the Netherlands has relatively little difficulty in interpreting written Norwegian, Danish or Swedish.

Which leads to another wee puzzle .............. just what could the Danish "far keeker" mean

David

[emanday]

Stumped

[DavidWW]

Stumped

Telescope, of course

David

[emanday]

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

The old ones are the best

[DavidWW]

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

The old ones are the best

In Scotland we "stot" a ball, - in Sweden the verb for to bounce is "stutsa", - there's an incredible number of such similarities between the languages, especially once pronunciation is taken into account.

The only problem for a Scot learning Swedish is that it can often be the case that the overlap in meaning between the Swedish and the Scots is now minimal, - leading to confusion if a link is assumed, - and that's on the basis of having lived and worked in Sverige/Sweden for 6 years and having become fully fluent, to the extent that, 20 years later, I can still flip the switch and give Swedes visiting Auld Scotia quite a surprise - the concept of a fully fluent Swedish speaking Scot comes most often as a complete surprise to most Swedes, never mind the fact that my Swedish accent is high quality, most often "heard" as Norwegian or Finland-Swedish ..... or, the absolute compliment as far as I'm concerned, from the southern Swedish province of Skåne !!

...in which province, incidentally, they have the Sweden wide reputation of being ultra careful with their money

David

[mallog]

The ones I liked were "bra" "hus" and "sten" pronounced braw, hoose and stane and meaning the same.

Mallog