Gifts You Never Knew You Wanted

Our house is now certainly decked* out for Christmas, from the kitschy* to the elegant* (I can hear some of you readers* who know us adding, “But mostly kitsch.”) No matter what, the effect is warm and cheery* and I hope the season so far is a happy one for you all.

Now, this week’s “gift” (i.e. posting) includes bringing alive some of the fairly ordinary words that I have asterixed above -- (yes, “asterix” – Latin for “star” -- is also a verb, according to the computer’s dictionary). Those starred words span more than 1,000 years of history. And if you read to the end to the end of the blog, you’ll find another unique holiday gift – this one a rare translation of the chorus to a well-known American seasonal song into a Western European dialect so regional that it has no official written language.

Whether you’re as excited as children checking their stockings, or feeling like Aunt Margaret just delivered her annual box of dried prunes and fruitcake, here are this week’s offerings:

* Deck – from the 15th century Middle English word, “to cover.” Today, the German word for “blanket” is “Decke.” I always thought that “deck” was some anglicized variation of “decorate,” which comes from the Latin word for “ornament.” Even though both words go back to the Indo-European root, “dek” you can see that they both went their separate ways.

* Kitschy – From the 20th century Germanic word, “kitschen” meaning “to throw together sloppily;” and no -- “kitsch” and “kitchen” are not linguistically related: “Kitchen” is a variant of the Latin “coquere,” meaning, “to cook” -- though in my case the dual connection might apply. Anyway, “kitschy” itself grew out of the word “kitsch,” which sprang into use in Germany in the 1860’s –70s, when the newly moneyed middle class started trying to show off their status by buying art work – with the market supplying all kinds of cheap imitation art, meant to convey affluence and good taste, but in fact, did the opposite. By the 1930’s, however, “kitsch” was so popular that art theorist Theodor Odomo called kitsch a “threat to culture.” Today, for many, kitsch just implies retro, or ironic humor.


* Elegant – This comes from the 15th century Middle English, by way of Middle French, by way of the Latin, “elegere” for “elect,” or “select,” with the “ant” part just being an adjective ending. Since the words “deck” and “elegant” originated at about the same time, it seems likely that they needed elegant to describe the decking, which was apparently not “kitschy,” which, as stated above, is a relatively new word. (Though I imagine bad taste existed before the 20th century, it seems to have taken an extra 500 years to come up with a precise word for it. Now that’s progress!)

* Readers – Wo! It’s now time for a trip in the “Way-Back Machine” (remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman?) Our word “read” dates back to before 900, when the middle vowels were reversed in “raeden,” meaning “to counsel, advise or explain.” In German today “reden” still means “to advise,” but their word for “to read” is “lesen,” (lay-zen); in fact, all the other Western European languages – except English -- eventually turned to Latin derivatives for their words for “read” and “write:” (Swedish: lasa, skriva ; French: lire, ecrire; Spanish: leer, escribir)
Our word “write” goes back to Old English for “to tear or scratch,” which does for the current definition what “kitschen” does for “kitchen.”

* Cheery – How cute: “cheery” comes to us from 12th century Middle English by way of Old French, “chiere,” which is from the street Latin word “cara” meaning, “face.” There are some synonyms for “cheer” -- joy, mirth, merriment, gladness, and glee – words we all know but are more special occasion words; whereas cheer, as well as cheery and cheer up, are all-year-round sorts of nouns, verbs and adjectives, which is nice because just saying those words makes me smile.

And speaking of smiling, I now give you the words to “Jingle Bells” in Swiss German -- a dialect of German that Germans themselves cannot understand. Swiss German has simplified and scaled down standard German – to the point where there’s not even a past tense! (They use the present tense, and context, to distinguish.) The language is spoken locally, among all social strata, but not spoken in school, where it is all German. Still, Swiss German is the “linguistic home” to about 4 million people. So should you ever venture to the environs of Zurich, you will perhaps be praised to Matterhorn heights with this rendition – well known even in English over there -- of this 1857 classic, here written down and translated by 11-year-old Dominik from near the Alpine city of St. Gallen:

JINGLE BELLS (in Swiss German)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, alli stigat i! (Pron: all-ee stee-goat ee)
(Everyone gets in!)

Hut gots uf a schlittafahrt und alli si da bi! (Pron: hoot goats ooff oh shlittah-fart,
oond all-ee see da-bee)
(Here we go on a sleigh ride and everyone is there)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, gal du nimsch oos mit; (Pron: guel doo nimsh oos mit)
(Be sure to take us with you)

So na wildi schlittafahrt isch schonsti wo es git! (Pron: so no vil-dee shlittah-fart ish shoon-stee vo es git!)
(Such a wild sleigh ride is the greatest thing there is!)

Catchy – without being kitschy – isn’t it?! I hope this leaves you feeling cheery, dear readers, while you continue to deck your elegant halls and otherwise enjoy the season.