SC - OT-ish... Asparagus sounds (was: Asparagus smell)
Nigel Bell
bell_nigel at hotmail.com
Thu Feb 8 22:01:43 PST 2001
Hi ho,
Odd memories have been nudged by recent comments from Tara and Dana, and
from Robin's wonderful translation exercises, to wit:
More cultural than genetic, I recall chatting with two friends; one of whom
was Colombian born (Spanish first language, Italian second, and English
third - and very adept in English) and the other who was Yugoslavian born
(when there was a Yugoslavia - but considered herself Croatian). They were
talking about the nuances of their respective first languages and used me
(as the ethnically ignorant Anglo) as their
test-subject/unbiased-third-party sort-of-thing. In slowly enunciating
various words of their particular childhoods, it transpired that there were
sounds, when Croatian was spoken, that 'the Colombian' could hear and I
couldn't, and conversely, when Spanish was spoken 'the Croatian' could hear
some some sounds which I couldn't and, again, there were some that I could
differentiate which weren't aurally distinctive to the croatian ear.
As someone who travails agin' the vagueries of English (as spoken in the
Antipodes, at least), does this "I can hear this but I can't hear that"
phenomenon affect the translating of the old recipes?... more in regard to
the reading of the old recipes which were themselves translations 'in
period'.
Ta,
Nicholas.
_________________________________
Sed quid Custodiet ipsos Custodes
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