17:15 Aug 9, 2012 |
Swedish to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters | |||||||
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| Selected response from: J Christian Odehnal Czech Republic Local time: 06:49 | ||||||
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Summary of answers provided | ||||
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4 | taste |
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4 | go/do without |
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3 | grow thinner |
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2 | languish, pine |
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2 | starve/not be able to afford/go without/go hungry |
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Discussion entries: 3 | |
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taste Explanation: Jag tror också det blev fel. Och ska vara smaka. |
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languish, pine Explanation: This might look a bit far fetched, but let us give it a try. I agree with Richard in that from the context, a typo for 'smaka' does not seem very probable. First, the otherwise excellent 'Svenskt dialektlexikon : ordbok öfver svenska allmogespråket' does not recognise 'smalka' or any other close variant. But trying to imagine what could be meant, I looked up the a Swedish translation of the Norwegian 'vansmekte' (which would fit the bill perfectly), and found 'försmäkta'. Could it be possible that a rural Swede at the time used 'smalka' as a word 'in the family' of 'smäkta'? Maybe...... Reference: http://runeberg.org/nosv1947/0067.html Reference: http://etymologi.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/vansmekte/ |
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starve/not be able to afford/go without/go hungry Explanation: Hm, lots of room for creative guessing here … :-) I can't find any 'smalka' in Swedish either. You might be right that it is connected to Sw. 'smal'. Most etymologists seem to agree Sw. 'smal' is related to Sw. 'små' and En. 'small', and that these in turn derive from an Indo-European root with a range of related meanings like 'small', 'fine', 'thin', 'grind' etc. Reflexes with -lk- appear in Latvian and Lithuanian, which probably had trading connections with Linköping as it is on the east coast. So maybe 'smalka' means something like 'starve' here. But Sw. 'smal' can also be used with the meaning 'meagre' when talking about financial circumstances. They're writing about the lack of money in the letter. In this case perhaps it could be translated as 'not be able to afford'. Leif's suggestion 'försmäkta' is also interesting. Just 'smäkta' would also work, in this case it can also simply mean 'be without'. In fact, in Old Swedish, there was an alternative form 'smakta', and the first part of the word 'sma-' is again related to Sw. 'små' and En. 'small'. 'Smäkta' in turn is related to a word for 'hunger' in Old German. So again, this could imply that 'smalka' can be translated as something like 'go hungry'. Confusing and speculative, but these are actually the likeliest connections out of many that I found. Here are some of the web pages that I used: http://g3.spraakdata.gu.se/saob/ 'smal' (”det är smalt för honom”), 'smäkta', 'smolk' http://dnghu.org/indoeuropean.html Indo-European roots http://indo-european.info/indo-european-etymology.pdf More IE etymology http://spraakbanken.gu.se/swe/resurs/dalind Dictionary of 19th century Swedish http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/ German Lexicon Project http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/small#Etymology http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spalva Latv. 'smalka' http://runeberg.org/svetym/#tocs 'smal' |
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grow thinner Explanation: My Norwegian>English dictionary has 'smalke' - 'to narrow', 'to taper'. I think the meaning here is that they will grow thinner from lack of food. |
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go/do without Explanation: Makes sense in this context. |
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