Lunenburg Notes
One of the interesting things about Lunenburg County is the language. While it has largely died out now, it isn’t many decades ago that a lot of German phrases could be heard. Often they were translated into English, where they made only partial sense. For example “It makes ice” would mean that it is below freezing. “Es macht Eis” is OK in German. They called it Deitsch, which is in a dialect for for Deutsch, and hence it became called Dutch (which it isn’t).
[I have recently been told that Plattdeutsch is not the correct name for the language they brought from Hesse, even though there are some similarities. deutsch becomes deitsch, scheune becomes scheie, heute becomes heit, and many others]
These few songs and other statements are ones that I collected in the Lunenburg county area in the summer of 1946. They were recorded on lacquer disc and I subsequently transferred them to tapes. The quality is not good, but the linguistics is interesting to me. Some of the words can be directly translated, others only after seeing their Hochdeutsch counterparts, and still others I cannot understand. An important thing to note is that most of the people who gave me things didn’t know what they meant. Consequently, words may have been changed to something that gave better rhythm and perhaps sounded better in English.
Perhaps someone can help me locate the place of origin of some of these things.
Heidelium, mein Frau is kum
Sie hat so krumme tsehe
Sie hickelum die kickelum
Und fängt die hundse flehe.
Here is the Neijohrsspruch from Martin’s Point, Nova Scotia:
The words are written, as nearly as possible, the way they would sound if written in modern Hochdeutsch. Some of it is quite easy to translate, other parts I can not figure out. For example, what is Knegermann, what is Desenskrank, what are johrkadu, nottengell, nechsesia, and others? It is a charming poem, and I would like to understand it all, and learn more about its origin. My mother remembered that in her childhood (about 1905) one of the neighbours would go out on New Year’s Eve and fire his shot gun, as though a remnant of the practice I describe below. I gather more recently that ‘shooting the new year in’ is still not uncommon. The man I got this from in 1946 hadn’t ever said this for real, and hadn’t even thought about it for about 40 years. He had learned it from the last man who ever did it for real. Moreover, he didn’t know the meaning of a single syllable! He estimated that this was about 2/3 of the whole poem.
The men of the village gathered in a group, each man with his rifle. They visited the village houses in turn, knocking on each door. When the housewife opens the door:
Gude moria
Haus mutter, haus vater, haus dechter, haus sehe, haus knech.
Lavintsch eis klick es neies johr v as in English
Es neies johr av hartzenskrank
Es neies johr av desenskrank (what is desenskrank?)
Gott giemens glick av wollenstick w as in English (What is Wollenstick?)
En lek diss onklick weit serick w as in English
Verflosten is das alten johr
En aus das johr des knegermann (What is knegermann?)
Hilfe lassen woht verlinken w as in English v as in German
Hils das neies johrkadu accent on johr (What is johrkadu?)
Mass das neies krefte bringen
Neien sehen der jedermann
Alte leib seben johrengud
Nemen in dei fatherhud th as in English father
Neiens gluck en neiens leben
Hilz das otten nottengel z as in English accent on nott
Och, mai hart war full a friedi
Von de kwikest nechsesia pronounce as ecstasy-a (What is nechsesia?)
Von de galen alsten laiten
Nan mei schatz verbei mai wehe
Wen ik dik nik hoben sollt
Wedzhik woz en wildzhent wollt dzh as in English (What is wildzhent?)
Wen ik dik nik hoben seben
Das mai hart vorbei mai leben
This is, unfortuntely, all I have. Separation into verses is mine, but it seems appropriate, although it suggests that I may may have missed a line here and there. After this is over, the leader of the group taps each man in turn, who then fires his rifle. Then they go into the house for a brief “Scheiraffel” before going on to the next house.
I would be most grateful to have any comments on the origin of this Spruch, and on the meanings of words that I don’t recognize. I have it on a tape if anyone is interested.
“Charming”
My mother’s Aunt Lindy – Melinda Boehner – used to “charm” us when anything happened to us as kids. We would, for example, fall and scratch our knees. She would come over giggle and wheeze, pass her hand over the injured spot and:
Hovela, hovela Kavela Streck
Es morres a fri is alles aveck (Morgen Fruh ist alles Weg)
I suppose that holvela hovel kavela may be something like the English Hocus Pocus. The rest makes pretty good German. Although she had no idea what it meant, it worked! She was such a comical sight that we usually quite forgot the cause of the problem.
A song that I collected in Riverport and in a couple of other places is this:
Krank, krank bin ik,
Du mei harz a numma nik numma pronounced like the English Momma, or number
Krank miserabel, So krank bin ik. accent on the miserAbel krank pronounced as in German
Da komme meine mutter und besuk duk mik -uk pronounced as the English cook
Do stelle mik dohie und bedenke meine sinn
Du bist net de rechte das ik krank trever bin. trever in the name Trevor (= daruber)
[then come Vater; Bruder, Schwester all in turn and in all cases:
Du bist net de rechte das ik krank trever bin. But then:]
Da komme meine schetse und busuk duk mik
Do stelle mik dohie und bedenke meine sinn
Du bist de rechte das ik krank trever bin.
[What is the origin of “anumma nik”
and of “stelle mik dohie”?]
Schlof bubbele schlof;
de dadi hi die schof
Die schwarze und die weise
will mei bubbele beise I think there should be another line after this one
Schlof bubbele schlof
There are a couple of other versions of this, collected by Helen Creighton.