Date:    Fri, 27 Feb 1998 18:51:47 +0900
<br>From:    Daniel Long  dlong[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]JOHO.OSAKA-SHOIN.AC.JP 
<br>Subject: dialectal loanwords - mebos
<br>
<br>I think the subject of "dialectal loanwords" is kind of interesting.  In
<br>Japan, for example, the word *rafuransu* is listed as a dialect word in
<br>a part of Toyama prefecture for "fire engine".  (A U.S. company called
<br>American LaFrance used to make fire engines.)
<br>
<br>But I have a question about a Japanese borrowing that may show regional
<br>variation within the English world.  OED2 has the following entry for
<br>*mebos*.  Considering the devoicing processes of high vowels in
<br>Japanese, their story here makes perfect sense.  My question is just
<br>this: Is this word known and used in South African English or it just
<br>some obscure thing those wonderful and wacky UK lexicographers dug up?
<br>There must be some South Africans on the list!
<br>
<br>Danny Long
<br>
<br>mebos (_______, Afrikaans _______). S. Afr. Also meebos.
<br>[Afrikaans, prob. ad. Jap. umeboshi, a dried, preserved plum.]
<br>A confection made from apricots dried, flattened or pulped, and
<br>preserved in salt and sugar.
<br>
<br>1793 tr. C. P. Thunberg's Trav. Europe, Afr. & Asia III. 120, I saw
<br>several kinds of fruit, the produce of this country [sc. Japan], either
<br>dried or preserved in yeast, in a mode which is, I fancy, only practised
<br>at Japan or China. The fruit that was only dried, such as plumbs and the
<br>like, was called Mebos.
<br>
<br>1912 Northern Post 27 Sept. (Pettman), I have now come to the conclusion
<br>that our old navigators became acquainted with this delicacy in Japan,
<br>learned to like it, and afterwards at the Cape attempted to imitate it,
<br>but used the fruit of apricot trees.., and that the word Meibos or
<br>Meebosje had its origin in [Jap.] Umeboshi.
<br>--
<br>Daniel Long, Associate Professor     tel  +81-6-723-8297
<br>Japanese Language Research Center    fax  +81-6-723-8302
<br>Osaka Shoin Women's College         dlong[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]joho.osaka-shoin.ac.jp
<br>4-2-26 Hishiyanishi                 http://www.age.ne.jp/x/oswcjlrc/
<br>Higashi-Osaka-shi, Osaka Japan 577-8550
<br>