Mysterieus Nederlands

[muckefuck]

Woorden in het korte verhaal "Spookstad" van Hafid Bouazza die in het Van Dale woordenboek niet te vinden zijn:

• kovel
• kevelkin
• nebbespitsorig
• bolbuikig
• holgerugd
• buideltje
• lendenen
• grien
• lodder
• pampoesje
• ruiseln
• helledampen
• pluimgesnater
• vleugelgewiek
• wildgewingerd
• betrippeln
• kuf
• schaargewijs
• wanlust

Comments

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

I can see why you would infere that, but in actual fact I don't mind Bouazza too much. He's one of very few Dutch authors I can stomach. (I tend to avoid Dutch literature like the plague.) I just think he tries a bit too hard to be colourful sometimes. Yes, it's great we have an author who is not afraid to be original, archaic and lyrical when the story calls for it, and yes, nebbespitsorig is quite an interesting word, but as someone who was raised on the good old Protestant "less-is-more" ethic, I find it a bit... showy. If that's in character, though, more power to Bouazza. There's definitely something to be said for being an inventive wordsmith.

Even muiltjes is a fairly old-fashioned word. It reeks of Cinderella.

[quemadmodum.livejournal.com]

I so agree with less is more...did you ever read Gerrit Komrij's sledghammer attack on some work by Koolhaas, I believe it was called "Goendroens", or something like that? I think it's in "Papieren Tijgers" or "Daar is het gat van de deur"....Koolhaas's book was loaded with nauseatingly cutesy neologistic language too, if I recall correctly. I remember laughing so hard while reading Komrij that I almost dropped the book. He also more or less pulverized Harry Mulisch, who, it is only fair to say, has improved since the essay was written.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Take that to its extreme, however, and you have Hemingway, who's much too minimalist for my taste over the long run. I'll take Mulisch even if he does tend to get carried away by the sound of his own brilliance at times.