Re: How are syllable boundaries determined


Peter T. Daniels wrote:
[...]
Of course it's in the dictionaries, because the dictionaries expect
people to be reading newspapers from the 40s and history books.

My question was, "Did the term persist in English usage elsewhere for
any appreciable time after the cessation of hostilities?"

I'd be surprised if there were any BrEtc children over (let's guess)
the age of puberty who didn't know what a "U-boat" was. Folklore apart,
the curriculum of many British schools, along with the mindset of
film-makers, shows an unhealthy interest in the Second World War; and
the term is still the usual one for German submarines of the period. A
search shows that the British newspaper _The Independent_ has used it
66 times in the past twelve months.

My _original_ question, however, which no German-speaker has addressed,
was whether "Boot" is the ordinary German word for 'boat'.

My Pons Collins G-E-G dictionary, the 1994 second edition, was prepared
by Eva Vennebusch, Robin Sawers, and Horst Kopleck. Eva and Horst may
be native speakers of Aranta for all I know; but it's not difficult to
suspect they may actually be German-speakers. They seem to share my
lifelong belief that _Boot_ is the general word for "boat". There is
some evidence in the dictionary that _Schiff_ and _Boot_ don't split in
exactly the same way as "ship" and "boat"; but it's more than close
enough for jazz.

--
Mike.

.

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