Brought to you this hour by

Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org!

Doublereed Archive - Posting 000036.txt from 2004/07

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Jon=20Halvor=20Lund?= <jonhalvorlund@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [DR-L] languages continuing
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2004 14:25:52 -0400

I guess we can continue language and dialect
absurdities infinitely. We all know that "bassoon" is
"fagott" or something similar in most other languages
than English, and we have all heard bad jokes about
that word. However, the word "basun", pronounced quite
like "bassoon" in Norwegian and Danish means
"trombone". And the odds for confusion between the
terms "piano", "flügel" and "klavier" or similarities
while travelling across Europe are also quite high.

I know that when you order a "tinto" in most
Spanish-speaking countries, you get a glass of red
wine. I heard that if you order a "tinto" in Cuba
however, they'll serve you a cup of coffee!

And then it's the ever famous "Berliner" which means
everything between a pancake and a Danish Pastry
depending on where you are in Germany, but in Denmark
the Danish Pastry is called "Viennese bread"... and
the sausage known as "Frankfurter" in Spain is the
same as the "Wiener" in Norway and "American Hot Dog"
in Germany. And in Argentina it's called "Pancho",
which is slang for "retired" in Norwegian. I'll stop
here.

It's a wonderful colourful world!
Have a nice winter, everybody in the southern
hemisphere. (And a nice summer for the rest of us).

Jon Halvor Lund
Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra
Norway

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org