Re: [tied] Re: big-mouth 'brbljiv' or crazy 'brljiv' Milosevic

From: alex
Message: 33838
Date: 2004-08-23

Daniel J. Milton wrote:
> **************
> "The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
> Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
> And burbled as it came!"
>
> I thought that "burble" was a Lewis Caroll invention, but I find
> in the American Heritage Dictionary:
> burble
> NOUN: 1. A gurgling or bubbling sound, as of running water.
> 2. A rapid, excited flow of speech.
> 3. A separation in the boundary layer of fluid about a moving
> streamlined body, such as the wing of an airplane, causing a
> breakdown in the smooth flow of fluid and resulting in turbulence.
> INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: bur�bled, bur�bling, bur�bles
> 1. To bubble; gurgle.
> 2. To speak quickly and excitedly; gush.
> ETYMOLOGY: Middle English burblen, to bubble.
>
> I'm not sure exactly what the Jabberwock was doing, but I have a
> feeling that it could match what I gather from this
> exchange "brbljiv" might cover in Serbo-Croatian.
> The point (if any) is that "brbljiv" and "burble" seem to be
> expressive, or even onomatopoeic, words, and may not have a clearcut
> etymologies.
> Dan Milton
>


I guess we have here to deal with another root Dan, ultimatively of
onomatopeic origin but one which is not cognate with the meaning of
"br�llen". For "burblen" there is Rom. "bolborosi" from on older
"*borlborosi" (with rl > ll in the same syllable) and it has the same
meaning as english "to bubble"; I suspect German "brabbeln" belongs here
too.

Alex