Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: Version 1.0 Netnews CMS/BITNET 5/19/85; site PSUVM.BITNET
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!t3b
From: T3B@PSUVM.BITNET
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Call for Proper Noun Idioms
Message-ID: <4122T3B@PSUVM>
Date: Mon, 6-Jan-86 11:21:05 EST
Article-I.D.: PSUVM.4122T3B
Posted: Mon Jan  6 11:21:05 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 7-Jan-86 04:15:23 EST
References: <161@aero.ARPA> <868@kuling.UUCP> <869@kuling.UUCP> 6716@boring.UUCP
Lines: 41

Lambert Meertens writes:
>An
>expression for "gibberish" in Dutch is "Koeterwaals".  This could mean
>omething like "the language spoken in Koeterwaal" (several Dutch place
>ames end in -WAAL) except that there is no such place.  There is an
>nteresting corresponding between the ending -WAALS here and the ending
>VAELSKA in ROTVAELSKA.  Also, in Danish the expression is KAUDERVAELSK and
>In German, next to ROTWELSCH, KAUDERWELSCH.  Before the spelling reform of
>1947, the official spelling of Dutch WAALS was WAALSCH.  The German verb
>KAUDERN by itself already means "to speak gibberish", as does WELSCHEN.
     
     
This had never occured to me before, but reading Lambert Meertens's
posting seems to lead to the conclusion that the English word
CATERWAUL comes from the same source, and that the etymology and
definitions in NEW AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY (1981) may be
partly "folk linguistics." In this dictionary, which is the one
on my desk at the moment, CATERWAUL is defined as follows:
     
"1. To cry or screech like a cat in heat. 2. To make any discordant
sound or shriek. 3. To have a noisy argument. ---n. 1. The cry of
cats in heat. 2. Any similar cry. . . . perhaps from Low German
katerwaulen : kater, tomcat . . . + waulen, to screech."
     
Is the dictionary just guessing?  I'm not a linguist, and so I
really don't make any claims one way or the other. Cats or dogs?
     
   Tom Benson
   Department of Speech Communication
   The Pennsylvania State University
   227 Sparks Building
   University Park, PA 16802
   814-238-5277
     
     
     :akgua,allegra,ihnp4,cbosgd:!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!t3b   (UUCP)
     t3b%psuvm.bitnet@wiscvm.arpa (ARPA)
     T3B@PSUVM    (BITNET)