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18 Feb 2010

La belle Jersey

... not a comment about Tomasz's stylish choice of knitwear on Country Tracks, but his wonderful bathetic moment of whimsy on News At One yesterday. The Schaf remarked that in comparison with the rest of the British Isles, that the Channel Islands were warm: It made him want to catch a plane, and have a spot of lunch down there-- I bet a few guys would welcome him with open arms in St Helier

Bless him: Is that his subtle of saying to his bosses, he would like a holiday? A double-bill here, from today's and yesterday's News At One. Thanks once again to Terratec for kindly uploading the following



Meanwhile, I've been thinking about Tomasz's groovy surname. Now I'm aware it's Austrian, but I wonder what it means? I recall from my German A-level that Schafer (or rather "Schäfer") is the German for shepherd, from Schaf which is a sheep. However "naker" is proving more of a puzzle, I presume it's an Austrian dialect word?

The nearest formal German words are "Nacken" (nape of one's neck); or "nackt", which means "naked". I remember that the noun suffix "-er", has much the much the same function as English, a person/agent that performs the proceeding action: So in English we have cook(er), bowl(er), speak(er) and so on.

My educated guess would be that Schafernaker either literally translates as "sheep nakeder"-- thus a sheep-shearer. Or perhaps more grimly a "sheep necker", somebody slaughters sheep by breaking the necks of sheep. I think I prefer the former...

Unless it's some other shepherd's activity involving sheep {i}, perhaps one of my Teutonic-tongued readers has the answer? Or the good man himself of course [thumbs up]. Interesting to note how many Teutonic names survive, from when Gdansk was "Danzig".

Bis bald.



{i} I would hope not *that* sort of activity!!!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Roger,

    Thank you so much for following my blog!! I have to say sometimes in my blog posts I can get a bit...passionate [if you see what I mean LOL]. I was just very unfortunate in that way, because I was brought up in a straight talking environment. But I aim not to be rude. Please don't be offended...my blog readers are never the object of my sharp tongue!! LOL

    I absolutely love that picture of Tomasz you posted today. It's the eyes and his cheeky smile I think! In one word G*O*R*G*E*O*U*S!!

    Are you involved anyway in humanities/English/Languages? I study english literature and I was just really inspired by your great lingusitic skills!

    You know that sketch of London Tom posted on his blog? Well he's taken it down now so I hope he didn't take offence to my Blakean comparison! He's a great poet so he shouldn't.

    I've never seen Tom do a forecast on a Friday so let's hope Country Tracks fulfils our needs on Sunday! CASUAL LOL

    Best wishes

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  2. Ey up youth,

    You're quite welcome! I think your blog is most interesting, you 'rant' (for want of a better word) away! Better out than in... that's the excuse I always use, when I belch anyway (probably TMI!)

    I can sympathesise... whilst I'm assertive and polite, I prefer to call a spade a spade-- rather than a manual excavation device. It takes a lot to offend me, so worry not.

    I loved that photo too, it's so inviting. Beautifully sparkling eyes, those lush lips and the stubble... which would be like the sweetest sandpaper.

    I did do Latin GSCE; plus French and German to A-Level. I've been teaching myself Norwegian of late... and I'm compelled to learn Polish for some reason [wink]

    Shame Tomasz took that blog down.

    John Hammond did the lunchtime slot today, so I suspect he'll do Country Tracks instead?

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