Re: Brugmann's Law

From: george knysh
Message: 51417
Date: 2008-01-18

Just as an aside to all this most interesting
discussion. I'm Ukrainian-speaking from birth (both
parents Western Ukrainians). I only found out about
the "y" word from the postings on this list... (Talk
about insulation...) The expression "Yab Tvoju
Mat'..." we all (my entourage) heard at some point
(described to us as "Russian-origin" "matyukannja"),
but it was never adequately explained. I thought it
meant "Ya b Tvoju Mat' etc.." translating as "I would
etc.. your mother", with the etc... being a silent
understanding. .....
--- Mate Kapoviæ <mkapovic@...> wrote:

> On Pet, sijeèanj 18, 2008 2:48 pm, Piotr Gasiorowski
> wrote:
> > Mate Kapoviæ wrote:
> >
> >> Well, "I'll fuck your mother" definitely *sounds*
> like a curse... In
> >> Croatia, we have a version of this one including
> the dog.
> >
> > May you be "blessed/cursed" by a dog? We have it
> too (<pies cie,
> > jebal/>), and the phrase must be quite old.
>
> In Croatian it's "jebo ti pas mater" or, not so
> strongly, "jebo te pas"
> (the latter is more, as you put it,
> "shock-exlamation").
>
> > Samuel Linde's monumental
> > Dictionary of the Polish Language (1815) has it
> (Linde was an undaunted
> > lexicographer, too much in love with words to
> regard anything as taboo).
> >
> > "Be thou cursed with [my] word/hand" is not used
> in Polish (except as a
> > generally comprehensible Russian phrase, left
> untranslated). Our
> > equivalent is <kurwa twoja mac'> (lit. 'the whore
> is your mother'), used
> > in full or elliptically slimmed down to the first
> word as a general-use
> > "shock-exclamation". This too, seems to derive
> from a plain insult
> > rather than a religious formula.
>
> Hungarians tend to use kurva for practically
> everything, even in phrases
> like "kurva jó" - "bloody good". We have a similar
> development in Croatian
> - we can for instance use "kurac" (cock) in the
> meaning "nothing" (similar
> to English "shit").
>
> Mate
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>



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