[Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 195, Issue 19

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

 The mysteries of fish-names in German can boggle linguists.I ouvght to have said that Waller can in German mean Catfish.  A name for, rather than the name for... 
And so can the more usual "Wels" if perhaps more widely.

Among the oddities 
Rotbarsch would seem to mean Red Perch 
but there are dictionary references which say Norwegian Haddock 
Haddock is Schellfisch!   

I saw "Waller" on the menu, and asked, and ordered it, in Erlangen from a native of the place , and it was white fish, very much the same as the farmed catfish from the Mekong currently in freezer shops hereabout (NO LONGER GERMANY) under the name BASA 
not the same as I've since seen and been advised against eating as "Wels...."  

So, it's not the case, as demanded by the Geechee or West Indian voice on an early Louis Armstrong recording, that "that catfish MUST go!"For a little more textual fun the speaker on that wonderful early Louis recording says he calls Chitlins   "inner tubes".  Processed chitlins can be bought along with Basa catfish in the same shop as Haslet, if anybody wants a dietary preparation worthy of some Ken Colyer purist fans.

It remains alas tragic that the ten-fingered New York Waller went so early as he did!  

Robert R. Calder


    On Monday, 18 March 2019, 17:36:29 GMT, Ken Mathieson <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk> wrote: Hi Guys,
I'm not trying to be referee but the German noun Waller means pilgrim or 
traveler, while there are a few German words for catfish in my 
dictionaries and probably several more in local dialects. The commonest 
seem to be Katzenfisch (natch), Wels/Katzenwels and, less common, 
getigerte Hai, although quite how a fresh-water fish comes to be called 
a tiger-striped shark is a mystery to me. Either way, I much prefer 
Waller's Yacht Club Swing to catfish any day.
Cheers,
Ken




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