Árni Ibsen wrote:
>
> on 6/14/03 11:12 AM, Liz Kirby at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > does that mean I would be good at Danish?! The Brummie accent is deep in my
> > memory - though I was sent to elocution by my aspiring mother to get rid of
> > it! I am not sure about the implication that Brummie sounds as if you are
> > about to throw up though!
>
> Liz!
>
> God forbid, no! My Brummie friends of old never gave me the impression they
> were about to throw up until I had taught them a few phrases in Danish. If
> I remember this correctly it was all about exaggerating your accent and
> getting really guttural. At least great fun was had by all when we did a
> competition between various English accents about which one was most
> congenial to harbouring the Danish tongue. Birmingham was the undisputed
> champion.
>
> Best
>
> Árni
>
> --
> Árni Ibsen
> Stekkjarkinn 19,
> 220 Hafnarfjördur,
> Iceland
>
> tel.: +354-555-3991
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> http://www.centrum.is/~aibsen/
There's a great scene in Rabelais, where somebody comes with a message
for Gargantua and delivers it in every language but the one he
understands. One of the languages is made-up. "Ah," says Pantagruel
wistfully, "it sounds like the tongue of my native Utopia. Another is
Danish, which, says Gargantua, "is how people would sound if God had
meant us to talk out of our behinds."
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