Subject
pardonner/ perdonner
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Date
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Hi, Jansy and Penny,
A word of explanation. Penny, I realized "pErdonner" was a typo---my
interpretation was sheer whimsy. BTW, VN has a goodly number of
bilingual (and
few tri-) puns involving basic bodily functions. I talk about some of
them in
an old article on ADA originally entitled "Taking Nabokov Clitorally."
Eric
Naiman has also explored the subject in several amusing pieces.
The Russian "perdet'" is one of the two common vulgarisms for "fart".
Curiously, Russian has separate terms indicating whether or not the act
is
accompanied by sound effects: bzdet' is "sonic". Cinematically speaking,
"perdet'" (which is cognate with Eng. "fart") probably had its heyday
during
the silent era only to be supplanted by its semi-synomyn with the
advent of
the "talkies". "Perdonner" is indeed a low pun but certainly
inadvertent. Rest
assured that my comment was unrelated to the contents of your thoughtful
posting.
Cheers, Don
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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A word of explanation. Penny, I realized "pErdonner" was a typo---my
interpretation was sheer whimsy. BTW, VN has a goodly number of
bilingual (and
few tri-) puns involving basic bodily functions. I talk about some of
them in
an old article on ADA originally entitled "Taking Nabokov Clitorally."
Eric
Naiman has also explored the subject in several amusing pieces.
The Russian "perdet'" is one of the two common vulgarisms for "fart".
Curiously, Russian has separate terms indicating whether or not the act
is
accompanied by sound effects: bzdet' is "sonic". Cinematically speaking,
"perdet'" (which is cognate with Eng. "fart") probably had its heyday
during
the silent era only to be supplanted by its semi-synomyn with the
advent of
the "talkies". "Perdonner" is indeed a low pun but certainly
inadvertent. Rest
assured that my comment was unrelated to the contents of your thoughtful
posting.
Cheers, Don
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm