An etymological curiosity. At Chez Pim there is an entry, with photo, on Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie, also known as bot boi. It appears that bot boi is regarded as archaic German, but I can’t see what it might have meant.

Still curious about the term bot boi, I texted Thomas the (real) German boy to see if he knew what it meant. “Potpourri”, he replied instantly. Hmm. Odd. “How about something regarding food, or perhaps something phonetically similar but not the exact spelling”, I tried again. “Ah, it’s an antiquated expression for a thick stew, which in modern German is eintopf”, he explained. Eintopf, according to Thomas, has a starch element from mashed beans, peas, potatoes, or lentils, which are cooked with chunks of meat to make a thick stew. I suppose when the Pennsylvania Dutch migrated here from Germany they imported the idea but adapted it to the more readily available ingredients, namely flour and corn.

This Thomas sounds like a few men I have known: he always knows the answer. But how exactly does he get the link from Eintopf (casserole, literally ‘one pot’) to bot boi?

Pot pie is a term I suspect is mainly American, but I may be wrong (am querying at wordorigins), meaning a doublecrust pie.

This Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie is a stew with noodles made in a pot on the stove. Apparently such noodles are also called dumplings elsewhere – slippery dumplings as opposed to fluffy dumplings. (The English dumplings I know have a raising agent and are cooked on top of a stew in this way).

Wikipedia:

In the Pennsylvania Dutch region, there is a dish called “bott boi” by Deitsh-speaking natives and is mispronounced “pot pie” by English speakers in the area. This dish is sometimes referred to as “slippery noodle pot pie” to distinguish it from the true pie form of pot pie. Bott Boi is a stew, usually made of a combination of chicken, ham, beef, or wild game with square-cut egg noodles, potatoes, and a healthy stock of onion, optional celery and/or carrots, and parsley. Bouillon is sometimes used to enhance the flavor.[2] The egg noodles are often made from scratch from flour, eggs, salt (optional) and water. Some recipes use leavening agents such as baking powder.

LATER NOTE: I have come to the conclusion that the Pennsylvania Dutch borrowed the English term pot pie and adapted it to their dialect. At Wordorigins, Aldiboronti kindly quoted the definitions and first citations from the Oxford English Dictionary (mine is on my old computer):

pot-pie, n.

1. Brit. regional. A dish made from cubed meat, covered with a layer of dough and stewed in a pot. rare.

1702 J. K. tr. F. Massialot Court & Country Cook 268 Tunnies..may be bak’d in a Pot-pie [Fr. Pâté en pot], putting the Flesh chopt small into a Pot, or earthen Pan, with burnt butter and white Wine.

2. U.S. Originally: a pie filled with meat, game, fruit, etc., and cooked in a pot or a deep pie pan. Now also more generally: a pie, typically with a savoury filling of meat and vegetables.

1823 J. F. COOPER Pioneers i, The snow-birds are flying round your own door, where you may..shoot enough for a pot-pie any day.

3. U.S. A meat fricassee with dumplings. rare.

1890 Cent. Dict., Pot-pie,..A dish of stewed meat with pieces of steamed pastry or dumplings served in it; a fricassee of meat with dumplings.

I think the Pennsylvania Dutch were thinking of the third definition. It refers to dumplings rather than noodles, but Googling indicates that some noodles are called dumplings in some states.

I miss lamb döner. Does it still exist anywhere in Germany? At least I can get beef at some places and don’t have to have turkey.

Here is a spoof video of Delia Smith making doner (followed by deep-fried Mars Bars and a spam casserole).

John, who wisely remains anonymous apart from his first name, has a weblog I will be visiting again.

The subheading, and usual topic, is ‘German quirks from an American perspective’.

In theory there is nothing wrong with learning England’s version of English, just like there is nothing wrong with learning that Swiss language Rhaeto-Romanic . It can be done, but it is just not a worthwhile pursuit. English is the world language because of America, not because of England, so it only makes sense to learn America’s version.

In German schools you will receive bad marks for speaking with an American accent or using American spelling if you picked it up during your high school year in the States. Instead you should be receiving bonus points for learning the standards of a world economic and cultural super power. Mickey Mouse doesn’t speak with a British accent.

(I’m not sure what he means by an American dialect, though – I think he made that up)

(Via Heidelbergerin)

There are a number of defences in English criminal law (the US ones are not all the same), a bit like German Rechtfertigungsgründe and Schuldausschließungsgründe.

Some of them can be pleaded as defences to all offences (general defences). For instance, self-defence (Notwehr) is a general defence that applies to several offences against the person or against property – but actually not against all offences. Insanity is a general defence, but the consequences of being found insane are not much fun, so it’s only ever pleaded against murder.

Then there are special defences: diminished responsibility and provocation can only be pleaded if murder is charged. Those are also called partial defences, because if the defendant is successful in pleading them, the consequence will be a conviction for manslaughter, not an acquittal.

Some defences in the news recently: The ‘canoeist’s wife’ Anne Darwin pleaded that her husband forced her to lie about his death, relying on the defence of marital coercion. See Times Online article. Whether or not Anne Darwin would have had to be in her husband’s presence for the defence to apply, it was widely reported that she was ‘no shrinking violet’ and possibly ‘wore the trousers’ herself.

Today, the UK Ministry of Justice has published Murder, manslaughter and infanticide: proposals for reform of the law – the proposals include:

To abolish the existing partial defence of provocation and replace it with
new partial defences of:
o killing in response to a fear of serious violence; and
o (to apply only in exceptional circumstances) killing in response to words and
conduct which caused the defendant to have a justifiable sense of being
seriously wronged.
• To make clear that sexual infidelity on the part of the victim does not
constitute grounds for reducing murder to manslaughter.
• To remove the existing common law requirement for loss of self-control in
these circumstances to be “sudden”.

As the law stands, it has often been criticized that a man who lost his temper and killed his (stereotypically) smaller and weaker wife could plead provocation for this sudden loss of control, whereas a woman who was terrorized by her husband and gradually became depressed would be taken to have full malice aforethought. In fact, the courts are aware of the problem and do not now tend to convict wives of murder in this situation. See Guardian article. There is also a proposal to change the defence of diminished responsibility.

Abigail Dahlberg’s Dispatches from an Environmental Translator’s Desk is a new weblog to me, and not very old either. She is a UK German-English translator living in Kansas City.

I noted in particular a link to a story in the Washington Post about the demise of the copy editor. As Abigail says, read carefully.