Summary Details
| Query: |
Re: Neologisms, Slovene/
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| Author: | Greenberg, Marc L | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Syntax
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| Language Family: |
Germanic
New English |
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| Summary: |
Thank you, those of you who responded to 12.2931, Qs: Neologisms, Slovene/"kavbojke". Here is a summary of responses: IRENA KOLBAS (Ethnographic Museum, Croatia) writes that Croatian has a "term for blue jeans named _traperice_, which came from Amer. Engl._trapper_. So we both conect blue jeans with the Wild West. It interesting that the term _kaubojke_ in Croatian stands for boots which are connected with blue jeans and the dress of a cowboy or trapper." ASHILD NAESS (Uni Nijmegen), MICHAEL JOHNSTONE (Cambridge Uni), and S?REN HARDER (Uni S. Denmark) point out that the word _cowboybukser_ means 'jeans' in Danish. SVETLANA MARTINEK (National Uni, Ukraine) suggests "the Russian word _kovbojka_ might be interesting for you. In Russian it is not a pl. tant. It has both singular and plural forms and means 'checkered shirt for men' (Dictionary of Russian Language, Moscow: Russkij Jazyk, vol. 2, 1986, p. 65)." JOHN E. KOONTZ (Uni Colorado) also recalls Russ. _kovbojka_ and adds: "I also seem to recall that at least in my family in the 1950s we used the term 'cowboy shirt' to refer to a corduroy or other heavy fabric shirt with an applique design across the upper chest, an item of apparel that was more common then than now. I've never run into 'cowboy' or 'cowboy X' referring to jeans, which are always just (blue) jeans or levis or sometimes denims. Something like cowboy suit or cowboy clothes or cowboy outfit might be possible, though not, I think, widely lexicalized." JOHN DAVIS, who also knows the Russian word _kovbojka_ gives us: "I grew up in Florence, Arizona, home of the oldest Junior Parada. In elementary and high school, all boys wore Levi's brand jeans, never Wranglers or any other off brand. It was a real shock to me when I joined the military and was told that we were not allowed to wear Levi's as civilian attire. Apparently any jeans were not accepted wear in the eastern cities. If "cowboys" ever meant "denim jeans" anywhere, it was not in Arizona. That is not to say that this use might not have been used tongue in cheek by self-anointed individuals in Hollywood. My suspicion is that if this use of the word showed up in a movie, it was an ad hoc usage, possibly an in joke." I have passed all of this information on to Dr. Snoj, who is most grateful for everyone's contributions. It appears that the term _cowboy(s)_ meaning 'denim jeans' probably did not arise in English, though it is impossible to prove a negative proposition. Nevertheless, the parallel developments in other languages suggest that Slovene likely innovated on its own. Keep an eye out for the 2nd edition of the Slovene Etymological Dictionary (Slovenski etimoloski slovar), which should appear in Ljubljana by late 2002. Marc - ------------------------------------------------------ Marc L. Greenberg Chair and Professor Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures University of Kansas - Wescoe Hall 1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2134 Lawrence, KS 66045-7590, USA Tel. and voice-mail: (785) 864-2349 Fax: (785) 864-4298; E-mail: mlg@ku.edu |
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| LL Issue: | 12.2977 | |
| Date Posted: | 28-Nov-2001 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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