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When I was in the seventh grade, we sang a song: "Funiculi, Funicula!" But we were never told what the words meant. Here is the song: http://www.kididdles.com/mouseum/f059.htmlSome but not all of the "cable cars" in San Francisco are "funicular": "Both the Great Orme and Elevador da Bica are funicular railways. Unlike the Hallidie’s San Francisco system in which cars attach and detach from a constantly moving cable, funicular railways usually have two cars permanently attached to either end of a cable. The cable is powered in one direction to send one car uphill and the other downhill, reversing the direction for the return trip. The weight of the car going downhill helps the upward-bound vehicle. "
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Dear maahey: The cable lies between the tracks on which
the cars run. The upgrade is too steep for the wheels to
drive the cars. So the cable has to be very strong, and
lies close to the ground. I'll go see if I can find pictures.
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Here's a URL about the original funicula, that went up Mt.Vesuvius. There are dozens of pictures that can be enlarged, if you click on "photos" in upper right line. http://www.vesuvioinrete.it/funicolare/e_funicolare_funiculi.htm
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In Québec, we have several "funiculairs" (note the extra 'i') that go up mountainsides where the view is spectacular.
There was an accident a couple of years ago, when the bar holding the funiculair to the rope broke and everyone inside was killed (some 20 people if I remember) - Very sad.
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There is one in Maggie Valley that takes the brave up the mountainside to a Wild West town--and this Wild West town is actually in North Carolina. Go figure. Anyway, no power on earth could make me go up that mountain on that thing because I would be expecting the accident to occur that you just described, b'm'dk!
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There's a funicular on Monte Titano in San Marino, linking the old historical centre with Borgo Maggiore, one of the other castelli. Unfortunately, I neither got time to ride it or get a decent shot of it.
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I have forgotten what you once called those denizens of San Marino. Was it 'San Marinians'? No, that's too logical. It was something very unusual and unexpected in sound. I could LIU, but I've just read the most amazing passage that I must PM Faldage about...
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I've ridden a funicular, in the Siebengebirge area near Bonn, to go up to the Drachenfels, but the Montallegro funicular in Rapallo was closed for the winter when I was there. I seem to remember there being one in Malaysia, too, that some Singapurians told me about.
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Well, I'm not dxb, but the adjective for San Marino is sammarinese.
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Oh, you saw my error! I caught it just as I'd already posted it, so took it out right away! So sorry! I was just writing too hurriedly!
But, yes, the sammarinese--unusual word that I hadn't memorized but remembered was interesting in its own right. Thank you, max!
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It's a cross thread, really, since sammarinese is clearly an elision, from san marinese. Indeed Emanuela said elsewhere that Italians would still say it sanmarinese, but among the sammarinese themselves, it is always said and spelled with the double m.
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When you respond to one of max's posts there's no hiding treppenwitze from him. He gets the text emailed to him.
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Ah! I see, Faldage. Oh, well; sorry, Max. But we should capitalize Sammarinese, shouldn't we? In English, at least?
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For some of our new members, Faldage's "treppenwitze"= the snappy retorts that only come to you on stairs as you are leaving. The French version is "l'esprit de l'escalier".
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sammarinese, treppenwitze, l'esprit de l'escalier--stay around here long enough, wwh, and those not familiar with terms mentioned here will both recognize and enjoy what gradually (and sometimes not so gradually) develops as a special little AWAD lexicon. I had tried so hard to recall treppenwitze and l'esprit de l'escalier just this past week, so it is very gratifying to find them both here this morning! And max's sammarinese as well! This is a bonus morning for terms gone by!
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Funicular reminded me of "funis"=rope, and rope reminded me of "cord" which reminded me of "silver cord"....
Way at the end of a long quote:
Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 (KJV)
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
I read somewhere a long time ago, that "the silver cord" is
the symbolic tie of love that binds us to our mother.
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And "cord" reminded me of "tether". I wondered what etymology of "tether" was. AHD says:
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English tedir, tethir, from Old Norse tjdhr.
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JFTR (as long as we're all learning), it seems to be rendered as treppenwitz, 24.5kg to 129g.
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JOINT FEDERAL TRAVEL REGULATIONS (JFTR)
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since sammarinese is clearly an elision
Technically, in linguistics this is called assimilation (you can see it happening in Latin, where ad-similare became as-similare). It's opposite is dissimilation: e.g., L. arbor 'tree' to Spanish arbol. Both phenomena can happen to sounds in close proximity or sepearted by other sounds.
Elision is leaving out an initial or final sound. It happens in French, where some sounds that are silent at the ends of words are pronounced if the next word in the phrase/sentence begins with a vowel. Then there's Sanskrit's sandhi (pronounced almost like Sunday), where all kinds of changes happen to sounds at word boundaries.
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>Since sammarinese is clearly NOT an elision. Thanks for the corrective note on assimilation, jheem. Had I already known that, perhaps the phrase "resistance is futile" would not have leapt to my mind when reading your post. 
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Ah, yes, the Borg: one of the better alien species in the Star Trek universe. But how about those Unborg (with the 7-Up of Nine). "You will be dissimilated! Resistence is utile!"
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Treppenwitze was my gut feeling attempt at rendering a plural. Quick dictionary check seems to indicate it was correct. In nominative anyway.
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And for benefit of new members, one of the largest geological structures in the world are the Siberal Traps, where huge but successively smaller volcanic outflows
produced circular "steps" that can be seen by astronauts.
And remember "East Side, West Side...Me and Mamie O'Rourke
tripping the light fantastic
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"treppenwitze"= the snappy retorts that only come to you on stairs as you are leaving.
Thanks, Bill--I was wondering.
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, one of the largest geological structures in the world are the Siberal Traps, where huge but successively smaller volcanic outflows
produced circular "steps" that can be seen by astronauts.
trap rocks can be seen all over the world. 'the devil's stairway (in Ulster, Norther Ireland), the Palisades of NY/NJ, and so on..
and the steps are not circular, but hexagons, (they are realy giant crystal structures, and a very strong stable compound (that resist erosion) so often the 'stair case/steps/traps, remain long after other geological features have been eroded away.(a basalt compound.--where is stales when i need specific chemical compounds?)
but the rock fractures under pressure (so it can be pulverized, and made into gravel)
(trap was one of the word i contributed to the thread on words from the dutch --i suppose they got it from one of the german language groups, but it took hold here in NY (from the dutch))
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