From: b.scott@csuohio.edu
On Thu, 25 Sep 2014 17:59:58 -0400, Michelle Bottorff
wrote in
in
rec.arts.sf.composition:
> A. Tina Hall wrote:
[...]
>> But this has me think of a possible term for you: der
>> Herr. (Means "the man", not "the lord" (so, no noble
>> title needed), unless the person is religious and
>> talking about their god - you won't find this use
>> outside that kind of subject.
>> And it's possible to us it directly addressing the guy,
>> and also do an extra snarky "der werte Herr" (werte is
>> short for verehrte, I think, honoured, revered). (The
>> snarky interpretation might be modern, though. Imagine a
>> mother asking her son "Wann wird denn der Herr sein
>> Zimmer aufraeumen?" - "Now, when will der Herr tidy his
>> room?")
> Cool! Thank you!
> I have saved your message for later reference.
>> Plus, it's a bit old, though I don't know from when,
>> maybe Brian has better terminology and times for it.
> If he doesn't speak up, I'll assume it's okay.
I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that it’s old enough.
At about that time or a little later the nobility commonly
addressed servants in a really disparaging way: ‘Er wird das
Zimmer aufräumen’ (‘He will tidy the room’). No ‘you’, no
name, just ‘he’ or ‘she’, as if the servant weren’t even
really there.
> I'm not planning being strictly period with the English
> anyway. I just like to avoid things that scream
> "Modern!!!!!". As a reader, I find them distracting.
Amen. I just had that problem with an otherwise fairly
decent Sherlock Holmes story: the author was trying to use
the right sort of language, but there were a couple of
lapses that I found quite noticeable.
[...]
Brian
--
It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their
holes to root for sandtatties. The waves whispered
rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,
haggisss.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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