[LMB] AKICOT:L Bambi in Spanish & Italian

[B. Ross Ashley]

On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 02:04:23 -0400, Elvi Dalgaard <elvi at vl.videotron.ca>
wrote:

 > I'd disagree somewhat on chicken - "poultry" is clearly related to
 > the french "poule". Pigeon is the same word, as far as I know,
 > and salmon nearly. Maybe rabbit and duck and others were simply
 > not frequently eaten by the populations in question?

 > Elvi

 > Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
 >> >> From: James <khavrinen at gmail.com>
 >> >> Date: 13 August 2006 00:36
 > >
 >> >> The reminds me of the story told by my Anthropology professor of his
 >> >> first realization that English is one of the few languages which uses
 >> >> different words for the animal and the meat we get from it (
 >> >> cows/beef, pigs/pork, sheep/mutton, etc. )  He was on an
 > > 	[...]
 >> >> In class, he attributed this difference to the fact that, after the
 >> >> Norman invasion, most of the nobility ( who could actually afford to
 >> >> eat meat frequently ) spoke French, while the peasants ( who raised
 >> >> the animals ) spoke an early version of English.  Therefore, people
 >> >> talking about the meat used one word, and people talking about the
 >> >> animal used another.
 > >
 > > My memory was this was thought to be a UL, can't remember why.
 > >
 > > But I know of no well supported explanation as why 
mutton/beef/pork/veal
 > > went one way and chicken/duck/lamb/pigeon/salmon/rabbit/hare /swan/wild
 > > boar went the other except "languages are like that".
 > >
 > > Little Egret

Elvi, I don't buy "poultry" in the grocery store, I buy "chicken". But 
the poultry farmer calls the particular bird I'm going to eat a 
"pullet", defined as a young female bird who hasn't started laying yet. 
So Little Egret's point is at least partially correct, the Norman-French 
word went to the peasant in this case, and the Anglo-Saxon one went to 
the wealthy ... perhaps it's because chickens are of not so great 
antiquity in Western Europe as the others? I seem to remember that they 
were introduced from the Middle East during the latter half of the Roman 
Empire. Where I don't follow him is with those other meat animals, 
unless he means that one word has pretty much crowded out the other 
entirely. (The young domestic pigeon usually eaten is called "squab", 
which language is that from?)



-- 
B. Ross Ashley
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