A linguistic note on today's trip
I have just been speculating, and I wonder what all you linguists think of the following theory:
Our walk today took us through "Devon's premier wetland", with all kinds of special birds and plants and stuff we didn't recognise anyway (evidently we are closer to the kind of nature lovers that go "Oh look: that's a large tree!" "Yeah, much larger than the trees in Sweden!"" Is it an oak?" "I don't know...""We should look whether there are any acorns lying around." "Yeah: let's!" - "Wow, it's so green here!""Yeah. Must be because of all the trees and bushes and grass...""Yes, you're right.""But there are a lot of flowers as well." "Yeah. But they also have these - what do they call'em? Those thorny berries - black...""Blackberries?""Aren't blackberries that other kind of berries? Those - you know - like...""Yeah, you're right""Are they called brambles?""Yes, that's it: brambles!""But can you eat them here?""Sure you can. Look what I'm doing.""Yeah, but I mean, is it allowed to pick them?""Guess, so. Otherwise they'd just rot away anyway. At least we're doing something useful with them.""In our country people don't eat food that grows on the side of the road.""We're in England now.""Right. Forgot for a sec." Et cetera.
Anyway, the theory:
This nature reserve of national importance is called the Exe Estuary. From the tourist leaflet:"estuaries provide protection against flooding. The saltmarsh, sandbanks mudflats [and we felt mud all right] and beaches of an estuary act as natural buffer against the force of the sea, protecting towns and farmland." "Hè", I thought, "isn't that something like the uiterwaarden in the Netherlands? (I was glad I could put this snippet of primary school education to use for the first time in my life.) But ... UITERWAARD ... ESTUARY ... uiterwaard/estuary/esterwaard/uituary/... What do you think? Have we discovered an interesting etymological link with possible historical consequences? Have the English imported an important aquatechnological finding (right...) and its name from the Netherlands?
Our walk today took us through "Devon's premier wetland", with all kinds of special birds and plants and stuff we didn't recognise anyway (evidently we are closer to the kind of nature lovers that go "Oh look: that's a large tree!" "Yeah, much larger than the trees in Sweden!"" Is it an oak?" "I don't know...""We should look whether there are any acorns lying around." "Yeah: let's!" - "Wow, it's so green here!""Yeah. Must be because of all the trees and bushes and grass...""Yes, you're right.""But there are a lot of flowers as well." "Yeah. But they also have these - what do they call'em? Those thorny berries - black...""Blackberries?""Aren't blackberries that other kind of berries? Those - you know - like...""Yeah, you're right""Are they called brambles?""Yes, that's it: brambles!""But can you eat them here?""Sure you can. Look what I'm doing.""Yeah, but I mean, is it allowed to pick them?""Guess, so. Otherwise they'd just rot away anyway. At least we're doing something useful with them.""In our country people don't eat food that grows on the side of the road.""We're in England now.""Right. Forgot for a sec." Et cetera.
Anyway, the theory:
This nature reserve of national importance is called the Exe Estuary. From the tourist leaflet:"estuaries provide protection against flooding. The saltmarsh, sandbanks mudflats [and we felt mud all right] and beaches of an estuary act as natural buffer against the force of the sea, protecting towns and farmland." "Hè", I thought, "isn't that something like the uiterwaarden in the Netherlands? (I was glad I could put this snippet of primary school education to use for the first time in my life.) But ... UITERWAARD ... ESTUARY ... uiterwaard/estuary/esterwaard/uituary/... What do you think? Have we discovered an interesting etymological link with possible historical consequences? Have the English imported an important aquatechnological finding (right...) and its name from the Netherlands?
posted by Anna P.H. Geurts | 9:56 pm
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