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From: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Call for Proper Noun Idioms
Message-ID: <869@kuling.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-Dec-85 23:27:25 EST
Article-I.D.: kuling.869
Posted: Tue Dec 31 23:27:25 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Jan-86 05:04:06 EST
References: <161@aero.ARPA> <868@kuling.UUCP>
Reply-To: andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson)
Organization: Uppsala University, Sweden
Lines: 22

>>I am interested in idiomatic expressions in English and other languages
>>that uses proper nouns, from linguistic and cultural perspectives.
>>The burning question is [...] what constitutes
>>the notion of 'exotic' in different languages?

As speaking of the "exotic" Greek language seems to be common for at least
English and Swedish, I would like to add "rotvaelska", which is a Swedish
idiom for a non-understandable "nonsense language". It seems to me that the
origin of this word might be found in some old German dialect. Isn't there
a dog (breed) called Rotweiler to be related to some geographic area? Could
you Germans please elaborate on this..?

I've heard of an expression used in parts of Germany earlier in this
century, namely "die dumme Schweden" (the stupid Swedes). According to
the story, this has nothing to do with the inhabitants of Sweden. Rather,
when talking about the "Swedes", the speakers actually meant either the
Czech or the Slovaks (I don't remember, really), but they preferred not to
insult their closest neighbours litterally... Confirmation, anyone?
-- 
Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden
Phone: +46 18 183170
UUCP: andersa@kuling.UUCP (...!{seismo,mcvax}!enea!kuling!andersa)