Barbaric languages

skh · Post by **skh** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 1:34 pm

claudine wrote:How about "Blechflöte" or "Blechpfeife"?

Yes, I am aware of the literal translation, but nobody says that

Sonja

pthouron · Post by **pthouron** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 1:36 pm

claudine wrote:But do you think a vegetarian could play the crayfishllet?

Only if they promise not to inhale!

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 2:01 pm

http://usuarios.lycos.es/kakhen/2/inicio.html

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 2:25 pm

Walden wrote:http://usuarios.lycos.es/kakhen/2/inicio.html

Everybody is making pictures of El Terminador holding my grande whistles these days.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 2:50 pm

El Silbato de Irlanda.... I like that! or just Irlandesa I guess.

kabili · Post by **kabili** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 3:23 pm

avanutria wrote:Somewhat understandably, my American Sign Language dictionary doesn't mention it. But I'm sure there's a sign for it.

in ASL, it would also depend on the type of whistling you were talking about. so you could express "the referee blew his whistle," "the man whistled at the pretty lady," or "i played my pennywhistle" just as easily and clearly as you could in spoken English. To sign that someone was playing a pennywhistle would be roughly equivalent of saying "that person made music" (or really awful noises, depending on your skill level), and then using your hands to demonstrate how the instrument is held and played. so really, ASL could even differentiate between playing whistles of different keys! (by indicating the size of the whistle/spacing of holes, that is.)

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Oct 07, 2003 3:30 pm

The Froonch story

Claudine and Patrick speak better French than I ever could, and they're both at least bilingual.

However, in common-French, I'd reject the uppety (?) pick of flageolet (more often used for those beans we also refer to as "musicians"--we're of a daylicatering culture), and vote for:
pipeau [pee-poh] --please note the kinship with "pipe"

In the Breton (aka ARmorican) culture, there used to be "pif" [peef'] describing precisely our beloved tin whistle, rolled out of metal, plugged with lead, sorta tuned in C [doh], and so common in the fairs at the turn of the centuries, yes including Scarborough would I wager.

In my lower (i.e. southernmost) regions of Brittany (aka ARmorica), there used to be a low whistle intended to harmonize with our lower-pitched, one octave deeper, variation of the one-drone bagpipe called a "Veuze"; this seems to have been called the "pibole" [pee-bohl].

Both words of "pif" and "pibole" are out of common use, replaced in musicians' circles by the words of "whistle" (as aptly transcribed by pthouron) or low-whistle [loh-wheessell].

Now, you know what?--that's answering what you didn't ask--I resent this, er... uniformization.

Oops--I forgot the obvious

Part Two: the Slavic side

Haar, haar, why did you think I'm "Zubivka"?

In central Ukraine--let's say Poltava, without getting into details--the name "zubívka" stood for a sort of tenor whistle, with the window facing down under so the drool gets on your feet.

Aka "dentsívka", "frílka" in other areas, or just "dúdka" in most Northern Slavic regions. Note that "dúdka" is the diminutive form of "dudá" i.e. low whistle, so you can interpret dúdka as meaning "small low whistle"...

But don't take my word for it: in all of Ukraine (and largely Russia, too) a tall story is also "dúdki". I.e., pennywhistles...

Edited to fit the tonal accents, as appropiately suggested by Avanutria.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 2:47 am

I suppose 'fluitje van een cent' is a literal translation of 'pennywhistle' into Dutch. The same is also a regular expression for something very easy, an effortless job.

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 3:43 am

avanutria wrote:Russian: cbeectók, masculine, where "ee" represents the letter that looks like a backwards capital N. Pronounced roughly "sveestohk"

Same remark as for the French sifflet: in Russian, svistók means an alarm/cop/referee whistle. "Svistún" would mean whistler, but of the Roger Whittaker kind, yucch.
For the pipe-whistle, you could use the derived (feminine) noun svistúl'ka.
The whistle player could be called "dudák" but he might resent this odd-sounding mix of "durák" (idjut) and "mudák", the latter term missing in all but the most modern and specialized dictionaries...

Not that I'm really a specialist of this dialect known as great-Russian (though low-Ukrainian seems more appropriate

)

illuminatus99 · Post by **illuminatus99** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 5:53 am

in german I believe it would be blokflöte or something like that, it's the official name for a recorder or "block flute", the word flöte is usually used for transverse flutes and pfeife is a fife

pipingturtle · Post by **pipingturtle** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:05 am

aderyn_du wrote:If I've translated correctly, "whistle" in Welsh is chwibanogl...

~Andrea

Also, chwiban or pib (which literally means pipe).

skh · Post by **skh** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:20 am

illuminatus99 wrote:in german I believe it would be blokflöte or something like that, it's the official name for a recorder or "block flute", the word flöte is usually used for transverse flutes and pfeife is a fife

A "Blockfloete" in german is no more a "Tin Whistle" than a recorder is a tin whistle. Really, if you ask the native speakers, why don't you believe them instead of your dictionaries?

Sonja

StevieJ · Post by **StevieJ** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:04 pm

In French I've heard "pipeau", "flageolet" and "flûte à six trous", but none of these really pins things down to the instrument we're all talking about.

Sylvain M, the very industrious and meticulous board member who translated <a href="http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/b ... dexfr.html" target="_blank">Brother Steve's entire site into French</a> (it was his idea!) used "le tin-whistle".

"La flûte irlandaise" is quite commonly used, witness this page: http://musica.stnazaire.online.fr/celtique.htm. This risks confusion with the wooden concert flute, so when talking to people around here or in France who wouldn't know what "le tin-whistle" was, I'm in the habit of referring to it as "la petite flûte irlandaise".

Post by **Nanohedron** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:03 pm

I can't take it anymore. I don't speak German, but I get the impression that Blechflöte anf Blechpfeife are humorous usages, yes? Considering the use of the word "blech" in English, I'm intrigued. Care to let us in on it, or is it not for a family-oriented site?

Brigitte · Post by **Brigitte** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:46 pm

Nanohedron wrote:I can't take it anymore. I don't speak German, but I get the impression that Blechflöte anf Blechpfeife are humorous usages, yes? Considering the use of the word "blech" in English, I'm intrigued. Care to let us in on it, or is it not for a family-oriented site?

Blech ist "tin".... I personally would call it Blechpfeife and not Blechflöte. This because of the similarity between the referee whistle and the already mentioned "Trillerpfeife". But even in German conversation I usually stick to "whistle".

On the other hand if you would ask a "typical" German when showing them a "not-plastik-headed-whistle" but a "two-piece-whistle" from woods or metal then 98% would ask you "is this a Blockflöte? (recorder) as that is the instrument they are used to. They will also ask you why it is missing 2 holes

Brigitte

P.S. It is not humorous taken. You have the saying though "red' kein Blech" (talk no tin) but in connection here it is a serious word.