Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0023166, Thu, 2 Aug 2012 13:24:14 -0300

Subject
Re: [Fwd: American idioms]
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Stan Kelly-Bootle: "My point was not about the frequency of 'midst' amongst [sic] different breeds of English...My point concerned CK's particular use of 'midst,' unusual in both Brit and American English: migraine causes him to 'leave in the midst of a concert.' My spinal tap is increased by Jansy's discovery of CK quitting the nasty publisher 'in the midst of a SUNSET.' I find this sublimely unexpected and Nabokovian beyond rational analysis."

Jansy Mello: It was Mike Marcus who mentioned the symphonic "in the midst of a vast sunset."
Another credit is due to Matt Roth because, after I quoted him in a foot-note in my answer to Jerry Friedman, I failed to add his name or initials to his words.

I hope Alexey Sklyarenko changes his mind about leaving the Nabokov-List, publications, sites...
In a former posting he wrote: "Although in her Russian translation of PF Vera Nabokov renders "theatrical ululations" as teatral'nye zavyvaniya, there is a semantically closer word: ulyulyukanie. It comes from ulyulyukat' (to halloo; to whoop, in mockery). According to Dahl, ulyulyukat' means "to hunt superior type of game (krasnyi* zver'): a fox, a wolf, a bear, to cry ulyulyu!" (One cries "atu!" when hunting a hare and "us'!" when hunting a hog.) Dahl also glosses ulyulya, dialectal word for sova ("owl") rhyming with pilyulya ("pill"). Strange enough, he does not mention Latin ulula deriving ulyulya from German Eule (with a question mark, though). In Dahl's dictionary ulyulyukat' is preceded by ulyulyukivat', "to lull a child to sleep" (or "to death"). Cf. German einlullen. There is ulyulyukanie in VN's Camera Obscura and Solus Rex."
I was fascinated by the informations concerning "ulyulyukanie," "ulyulykat and "zavyvanlya," and the sounds "Eule/Owl," contrasted with the opposite mood in "to lull," in another instance of how one or two letters make all the difference (VN's "Comic/Cosmic"- and now... "ulyulyukat/ulyulyklvat")

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