Once, long ago, when Languagehat was a pup, Blogovia flourished, and friendly links o’erspread the world like a canopy. Now, like a region abandoned by industry, it is full of ghost towns, and all the young pups flock to the dread silos of Social Media. Every once in a while, though, one comes back to life, and such is the case of the blog of bulbul (aka Slavomír Čéplö), the much-loved bulbulistan, which has been missing in action for over a decade apart from a brief pondering of the passage of time in 2019. Now there are three posts in rapid succession: mentalist (a dive into the history and semantic range of Bulgarian пич, which reminded him of “a Slovak vulgar term for feminine genitals”), depowedlajo (an exploration of Targumic used for humorous effect in a Purim play published in Vienna in 1878 titled Reb Simmel Andrichau — I expect this will appeal to rozele among others), and now work, which begins:
So, anyway, been a while, right? How have y’all been the last *checks notes* few years? Yeah, I know, interesting times… How about instead of focusing on that shit, I show you what I have been up to since 2015 or so. Let’s start with some of the projects I have been working on that you might find interesting.
He talks about his work on HunaynNET (a project that collected all texts of classical science that were translated into both Syriac and Arabic: “The translations were then re-edited and aligned on the level of semantic and syntactic units […] The text is also tokenized and links to dictionaries and corpora are provided; and in some cases, we also provided aligned text of translations into modern languages”), Simtho (“an electronic corpus – the only one worthy of the name – of the Syriac language”), and the Zoroastrian Middle-Persian Corpus and Dictionary:
This DFG-supported ongoing project seeks to collect, annotate and analyze all available Zoroastrian texts written in Middle Persian to create a searchable corpus (in transcription) and finally an updated dictionary of Middle Persian. I was largely responsible for data processing, conversion and import, so none of what you see online is my work. The web application is still very much a work in progress, but once finished, it will be a one-stop shop for all your Zoroastrian Middle Persian needs, including manuscript images and comprehensive lexical resources.
Good stuff; congrats, bulbul, and don’t be a stranger!
Nfa, nfa, Abulbila!
“semantic range of Bulgarian пич, which reminded him of “a Slovak vulgar term for feminine genitals”
It pretty much means “bro” as in the US frat sense. It’s kind of old-fashioned, and never had anything to do with female genitalia. I’ll be very interested in their interpretation, of course, but that’s what it is in my idiolect 🙂
Then there’s pyčo, a common address stereotypically associated with north-eastern Czech dialects, particularly in and around Ostrava. It pretty much means “bro” and (etymologically) it has everything to do with female genitalia.
I seem to remember it had a criminal subtext, though, in the early twentieth century, I think? Maybe?
Everything has a criminal subtext in that region, I think.
Lots of classic spam in the 2 posts from before the gap… some of it actually entertaining. Unfortunately, it appears that commenting on a post with 294 comments, almost all of which are spam*, by itself triggers the spam filter.
* And one that isn’t is a fairly creative insult out of nowhere.
Yeah, I don’t understand why he (along with many others) doesn’t use a spam filter, or at least close off comments after a day or two. Spam makes comment sections useless.
Awww thank you all!
@prase,
I am guessing you are Czech 🙂 Yes that is the same pič- I was thinking of. I’m pretty sure it is a borrowing from Slovak.
Re spam: working on it. Blogger is… suboptimal.
David M.: * And one that isn’t is a fairly creative insult out of nowhere.
@bulbul: Have you been commenting on your own posts?
Return to blogging is good news indeed. Welcome back!
Blogger is… suboptimal.
Tell me about it!
I’m pretty sure it is a borrowing from Slovak.
You mean the word itself or its use as a general form of address?
It very well may be in both ways, after all on this side of the border we usually call our fellow countrymen oxen rather than genitals except in some troublesome regions in the east. Although all Slovaks I meet nowadays prefer coconuts for that purpose.
So “calling each other oxen” is the answer to “What’s the most important thing that Czechs and Mexicans have in common?”
@prase,
Only the word. It’s use of a form of address is distinctly Czech.
Also the ox.VOC thing is not just for addressing people, it is – to quote a comedian with reference to ‘fuck’ in NYC – a comma. There is a Czech version of Kitchen Nightmares where the frequency of the word in question – ‘vole’ indicates how bad the dish is. For this one, I count 5.
@Jerry,
I thought Mexican’s called each other goats…
That too.
bulbul : Ти, ox.VOC (говедо), etc?
https://www.schwaebisch-schwaetza.de/schwaebisch-woerterbuch.php?zufall=0#a
Siehe auch: Blärrochs, Heilochs, Hornochs
Wer als Ochs gebora isch, schdärbd net als Nachdigall = When you are born an ox, you don’t die a nightingale.
“говедо” (ox) is a _very_ mild insult in contemporary Bulgarian.
@V,
not quite, Czech vůl > vole.
hovado (or more Slovak hovädo) is also used, more like a medium-level insult.
@PP, V: Ochse is an insult in German, too, but in contemporary German it’s a relatively mild one.
Don’t know how offensive it was at Mozart’s time.
@hans
Thanks, I suppose the Swabian is also mild, they are sort of known for profane addresses (vide Schwäbischer Gruß).
Re Mozart, Ochs is probably code for a body part but needed for the rhyme here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozart_and_scatology
Depends on the situation. If you call a close friend (or even yourself) “Ochse!” for making a mistake, it’s mild; but calling a policeman “Sie Ochse!” will get you into a lot of trouble.
I have never heard the phrase “Schwäbischer Gruß”; usually “Leck mich am Arsch!” is known as “Götz-Zitat” because the phrase famously occurs in Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen (although Goethe has “im Arsch”). It’s not mild at all, and often shortened to “Leck mich” or reformulated as “Du kannst mich mal”.
@url
—
Zwei Freude [sic] streiten sich heftig und sie fangen an sich ernsthaft zu verstreiten. Da hilft es ungemein, wenn sich einer von beiden mit ‘Jetzt leck mich doch am Arsch!’ verabschiedet. So können beide ihr Gesicht wahren und beim nächsten Treffen so tun, als wäre nichts gewesen.
…
Ein Schwabe wird von einem Freund um Geld angepumpt, was in der Regel zum Verlust beider führt. Mit ‘Oh leck me doch am Arsch’ wird er versuchen, sowohl Freund als auch Geld zu behalten.
—
Two friends are having a heated argument and it starts to look like the friendship is over [sie verstreiten sich ernsthaft]. It really helps if one of them leaves, saying ‘Now kiss my arse.’ No one loses face and the next time they meet, they can both act as if nothing had happened.
…
A Schwabe is asked by a friend for a loan, which generally leads to a loss of both [friend and money]. By saying, “Oh kiss my arse”, he will try to save both his friendship and his money.
https://www.schwaebisch-schwaetza.de/leck-me-am-arsch.php
The WP article on Mozart’s scatology says, “‘Leck mich im Arsch’ is a standard vulgarism in German, euphemistically called the Swabian salute (German: schwäbischer Gruß). Although contemporary German would rather say ‘Leck mich am Arsch.'” Is the im version as the default just outdated, in Swabia and elsewhere?
I have never heard/read the im version outside of Goethe’s Götz (first, un-bowdlerized, edition, 1773):
Bowdlerized version I’ve seen:
Other editions reportedly replace the entire last sentence by dashes.
Interesting that this 1957 edition still hasn’t imposed the dative (vor […] kaiserlichen).
This brings a memory of me watching with my mother the 1976 movie Marathon Man. It starts with two elderly drivers — one German*, one Jewish — getting into an argument on the streets of the New York (which then leads to a car chase, which leads to a fiery crash). Heated words are exchanged, including the German yelling “Geh leck mich am Arsch!” My mother, a native speaker of German, translated this as “lick inside my ass.” ** Is that correct? I thought an would indicate the general area, in contrast to Mozart and Goethe’s more precise in.
* The actor in that small part, known by his professional name Ben Dova, was born Joseph Späh in Strasbourg in 1905. He was a trained acrobat, hence his stage name; his early “drunk climbing a streetlamp” act is hilarious and scary. When about to go on a trip to the United States, his ship voyage was cancelled, so he got a ticket for a quick transatlantic trip on the Hindenburg. As it landed it caught on fire, and started tipping up, sweeping the passengers toward the burning rear. He used his skills to hold on to a beam and then jump to the ground, with only minor injuries. He still had with him the handheld movie camera with which he had recorded the trip.
** Yeah. My mom.
Depends on the situation. If you call a close friend (or even yourself) “Ochse!” for making a mistake, it’s mild; but calling a policeman “Sie Ochse!” will get you into a lot of trouble.
Well, calling a policeperson anything bad, however mild, will get you into a lot of trouble, even addressing them with informal du instead of Sie.
I have never heard the phrase “Schwäbischer Gruß”;
Same here. I don’t have an opinion to the stuff Paddy linked to; my interactions with Swabians have been limited.
usually “Leck mich am Arsch!” is known as “Götz-Zitat” because the phrase famously occurs in Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen (although Goethe has “im Arsch”). It’s not mild at all, and often shortened to “Leck mich” or reformulated as “Du kannst mich mal”.
There’s also the motto Lex Mihi Ars which can be read as innocuous Latin or rude German.
I have never heard/read the im version outside of Goethe’s Götz
Yes, outside of that only the am version exists in contemporary Standard German.
” My mother, a native speaker of German, translated this as “lick inside my ass.” ** Is that correct? I thought an would indicate the general area, in contrast to Mozart and Goethe’s more precise in.
You’re correct, an indicates the general area or a surface, but maybe your mom was thinking of the Goethe version when translating it.
There’s also the motto Lex Mihi Ars which can be read as innocuous Latin or rude German.
That’s great!
Hans: thanks. I don’t think she read Goethe. More likely she misheard the word. I just found the movie and listened to that scene and it wasn’t too clear.
an is… “at”, on the surface, less disgusting than in “in”.
What’s interesting is that “FUBAR” is im Arsch* in Vienna but am Arsch in Germany. (And no comparable expression appears to exist in between… on the southern side; on the northern, it does: Czech v prdele with “in”.)
* …well, im Orsch, because the vowels of Arschloch got switched around in the dialects**, the /o/ spread to the simplex, and then both were imported into the mesolect.
** I guess that’s what happens to words that little children learn from each other.
One of my college friends, who was taking German, was fond of what he said was a quotation from Goethe, which I don’t quite remember: Und wem das nicht gefällt, der kann mich/mir [preposition, I think] Arsch lecken. I can’t find it with Google, Was that a real quotation, or was he perhaps mixing up the real quotation from Goethe with a real non-quotation expression? Assuming I’m remembering right, which is not guaranteed.
All I know about German dialect variation in these matters is that the early ’80’s Swabian-rock smash hit “Oinr isch emmr dr Arsch” leaves “Arsch” as the only word in the title where the dialect spelling is the same as the standard Hochdeutsch spelling. I assume “dr” is nominative because “Arsch” is after a copula?
Ah, Goethe’s Sturm-und-Drang period. He later was embarassed and tried to tone what he had written at that time — those toned down versions are usually what later editions print.
From a letter to Johann Heinrich Merck, probably accompanying the manuscript of Götz von Berlichingen:
(this is the version printed in Karl Eibl’s 2 volume edition of Goethe’s complete poems; the original manuscript of the poem, first printed privately in 1880, is lost)
Yes: einer ist immer der Arsch, “there’s always one who gets stuck with the blame”.
Google reveals multiple instances of the string “immer den Arsch,” but in different syntactic contexts than that one.
That requires a transitive verb somewhere.
Und wem das nicht gefällt, der kann mich/mir [preposition, I think] Arsch lecken. I can’t find it with Google, Was that a real quotation, or was he perhaps mixing up the real quotation from Goethe with a real non-quotation expression?
The second.
Thank you, Hans.