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Potatoes, Earth Beans, Horse Bell Yams and Apples on Earth: An Introduction on Danish
Written in Chinese by Yan on 10/29/2008
Written in English by Yan on 5/11/2009
The potatoes we North Chinese like, something we call Tu Dou, “Earth Beans”, is called in the South China as Ma Ling Shu, “Horse Bell Yam”. And Southern Chinese call peanut, something we Northners call as Hua Sheng, Flower Birth, “Earth Beans”.
So a friendly reminder to everyone. If you go to a South Chinese family for dinner, you have to adjust your mind before telling the hostess what you want. For example, if you want a common Beijing style combination of beer, served with roasted peanut.Remember don’t call it Flower Birth but Earth Beans instead. Otherwise you would be end up served with beer and roasted potatoes!
Potato is a common daily dish but I admire one of my friends who has seen art, poetry and philosophy in this daily routine, and has written a long essay of it consequetnly, full of depths and reflections. Of course he supported his point of view with philodsophy, in an artistic and poetic language style!
Danish is a language that is very difficult to pronounce, so it is called “a throat disease” . And Danes are mocked by their Scandinavian neighbors as speaking with hot potatoes in throat! But I am used to that. To be honest, without a hot potato in my throat, I don’t know how to talk any more. Denmark is small country measured in geography but a giant measured in culture. Believe it or not, though Denmark is small, it has more than 100 dialects. Jyland folk’s accent sounds like my hometown folk of Shandong province in China. Country and heavy, honest and sincere. And Fyn folk talk like Tangshan Chinese, with an accent that is flying, flying and flying…
So whenever I heard people mocking Danes of having a potato in throat when talking, I would ask: “Which kind of potatoes are you talking about? As there are more than 100 of them!”
French is a romantic language. Of course French people name their potatoes romantically. It is called Pommel de Terre, “Apples of the Earth”.
Wow! Let us compare, Potatoes, Earth Beans, Horse Bell Yams and Apples of the Earth …Of course the French name is the most romantic one. No wonder French people call their language the most romantic language on earth!
These fragmented comments of mine, was inspirited by year of 2008, the International Year of Potatoes. Voila, no more blah, blah…… Let me present you a definition of Danish, the language that contains a potato in throat, in Chinese, a language that is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people.
10/29/2008:
我们北京人常吃的土豆，在台湾叫马铃薯。台湾吃的"土豆"， 却是我们的“花生”。
各位到台湾同胞家吃饭，可得事先想好噢，否则想要油炸花生米就啤酒，却上来一大盘土豆，岂不辜负了啤酒？
当然在北京有时候土豆我们也叫马铃薯。而南方“花生”是"土里的豆"。
丹麦文发音难听，被称之为嗓子里面含块土豆 (katoffel i halsen)。
但是我说惯了，不含块土豆都不会说话啦！
住在丹麦的网友白头鸥说家常菜最显刀工的就是炒土豆丝了！
可不，别看它”家常“，白头鸥网友却在土豆丝里看出了哲学，伟大和平庸。
白头鸥文章在此：http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5c450bd30100ag0m.html
法国人把“土豆”“汉”马铃薯叫做“土里的苹果(Pomme de Terre)。
而且这法文的土里的苹果还是女性哪！(法文所有名词都有阴性和阳性之分)。
"土里的豆" ？
还是“土里的苹果”？
这么一比，还是法国人浪漫！
丹麦语简介
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%B9%E9%BA%A6%E8%AF%AD
丹麦语（Dansk，dansk 文件－播放，国际音标：/d?nsg/）属于印欧语系－日尔曼语族－北日尔曼语支，通行于丹麦王国以及其属地法罗群岛、格陵兰，也零星通行于德国、挪威和瑞典境内的部分地区。
丹麦语字母表是由拉丁字母组成。丹麦语和挪威语十分相似，而大家也使用相同的字母。
和丹麦语最具亲缘关系的语言是同属于北日尔曼语支的挪威语和瑞典语。书面丹麦语和挪威语极其相似，尽管这三种语言的语音系统截然不同。如果一个人通晓其中任何一种语言，他便可以毫无困难的阅读其他两种语言。三种语言的相似程度是如此之高，以致于有些语言学家将它们定义为一种语言的三个方言。
丹麦语是丹麦的官方语言，格陵兰的两种官方语言之一（另一种是格陵兰语），法罗群岛的两种官方语言之一（另一种是法罗语）。此外，在位于德国境内和丹麦接壤的石勒苏益格地区，也有小规模的人群讲丹麦语。通行于石勒苏益格地区的丹麦语被德国官方正式承认为德国的区域性语言之一，并受到政府的保护。
由于丹麦语的语音系统非常难于掌握，有些丹麦人也如此揶揄自己的语言：“丹麦语与其说是一种语言，不如说是一种咽喉疾病。”另一种说法更生动：“说话的时候口中仿佛含着一个滚烫的马铃薯”。
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