dialect

Erik Corry erik at kroete2.freinet.de
Sat Oct 29 17:14:27 CET 1994


Hello, I've been lurking on this list for a couple of months now.

I'm an Anglo-Dane living in Germany, and though I never lived
in Denmark, some generous Danish friends of ours always used to
send their Anders And & Co and Ekstra-Hafte to us, so I grew up
reading lots of Donald Duck. I still have a most of the weeklies
from 1976 to 1984, and a few from before that.

When I first saw Donald Duck in England I was quite disturbed to
see him speaking English! I had always known that DD came from
America, but somehow I had got so used to everyone in the comics
speaking perfect Danish. Now, reading this list, I hear that
Pegleg Pete has a very characteristic accent, and that the
same goes for Brer Rabbit, and early Mickey Mouse. And Huey, Dewey
and Louie call Scrooge 'Unca', whereas in Danish they use the normal
word for Uncle! Seems like we're missing out in Europe. Even Dr.
Erika Fuchs, who's translations of Barks are (rightly) held in very
high regard here chose to make everyone speak High German. I guess
some things are just too hard to translate.

I love the idea of having the "square" people speaking Nynorsk.
This, to me, gives exactly the right bizarre touch to them, but
maybe Norwegians don't find Nynorsk bizarre...

Btw., Pegleg Pete is still called Sorteper in Denmark, even though it
means Black Pete. (Note, whoever maintains the interlingual file, that
it is one word, at least I have never seen it as two.)

-- 
Erik Corry, Freiburg, Germany, +49 761 406637 erik at kroete2.freinet.de



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