Dear Howard
I’ve heard double negatives in the south ('Ja mei, machts ka Faxn ned, Kinners!’) but I don’t know how widespread it is elsewhere. I think you’re right that reproducing the double negative would have the wrong connotations in English, so I suppose just find a stylistically appropriate intensifier… Is it a deliberate colloquialism?
Pete
On 4 Sep 2016, at 12:23, Howard Gaskill <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
This is something I ought to know, but don't. Forgive a naive question, but how common is the use of the double negative with single negative meaning in the language of the Goethezeit?
Hölderlin does it occasionally in Hyperion:
"ich vernehme durch keine Stimme von ihnen nichts mehr"
"das merkte keiner, da vermißte keiner nichts"
I presume this corresponded to Swabian usage, but also that -- since he doesn't resort to it often -- the intention here is to underline the negation. In which case a translation into English, assuming it doesn't wish to reproduce the double negative, should find some other way of adding emphasis?
Howard Gaskill
