|
View the H-War Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in H-War's November 2009 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in H-War's November 2009 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the H-War home page.
1. Louis Capdeboscq <louisc00@yahoo.com> 2. "McGrath, John J CIV USA TRADOC" <john.j.mcgrath@us.army.mil> 3. Jim Broumley <jim@RIDINTHEWAVE.COM> -----Message from: Louis Capdeboscq <louisc00@yahoo.com>----- Frode Lindgjerdet asked about examples of foreign terms seeping into military speak, and off the top of my head I can think of the following: - French military slang includes terms like "chouffer", literally "to shuf" from the Arabic word for "to look". - The word "un bled", to mean a place sitting squarely in the middle of nowhere, is derived from the North African wilderness / countryside. In the first (well, chronologically!) episode of Star Wars, the name of the desert planet that is Luke Skywalter's home world is derived from "Tataouine" which was a military outpost in southern Tunisia. I've come across similar transfusions in English and Russia, essentially it seems that all armies with a sufficient amount of overseas service witnessed the phenomenon, for obvious reasons. Louis Capdeboscq Louis Capdeboscq <louisc00@yahoo.com> -----Message from: "McGrath, John J CIV USA TRADOC" <john.j.mcgrath@us.army.mil>----- Classification: UNCLASSIFIED My favorite foreign expressions from service in the US Army were the German "macht's nicht" [seen on an Army wife's t-shirt once as "mox nix"] and the Arabic "inshalla." Both kind of mean the same thing even though they come from completely different societies. The closest American equivalent seems to be Mad magazine's "what me worry." A fatalistic resignation to things that have happened or won't happen. The German literally means "it does nothing" and the Arabic "God willing." Both terms have become a part of American military jargon. John McGrath "McGrath, John J CIV USA TRADOC" <john.j.mcgrath@us.army.mil> -----Message from: Jim Broumley <jim@RIDINTHEWAVE.COM>----- I do not know of any research or articles published on this subject. But I do know that this adoption of terms gets passed on to new soldiers who were not on the deployment where the foreign words were picked up. While stationed in Germany in the 1980s, many Vietnamese terms were in our lexicon. They were passed on to us by the veterans in the unit that had served in Vietnam. For example, we all referred to the portable buildings that served as our company orderly rooms as "hooches" and the local German town was the "vil." Jim Broumley jim@ridinthewave.com Jim Broumley <jim@RIDINTHEWAVE.COM> ----- For subscription help, go to: http://www.h-net.org/lists/help/ To change your subscription settings, go to http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=h-war -----
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
|