Not "native English" but a word whose geographic spread and coverage of not-quite-identical items surprised me today.
At an Afghani restaurant, there were several "dolma" items on the menu, all being various ingredients stuffed into various whole, hollow vegetables. Not a single stuffed grape leaf among them (Greek dolmatakia). Inquiring on Wiki, I found that "dolma" is a generic term for stuffed foodstuffs, one of the categories of stuffables being offal. Following this lead led me to the fact that some stuffed intestines are considered to be dolma, one apparently essential characteristic being that the items are boiled.
Which causes me to think that haggis might be a cousin of the clan dolma, which otherwise is associated with regions occupied by the Ottoman Empire.
dolma
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: dolma
If my shallow dive into the internot is correct, then there shouldn't be any grape leaves on a dolma menu. They should be in the sarma section, the one with wrapped, not stuffed, things.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: dolma
I don't disagree with that, Slava. I learned about stuffed grape leaves long ago, from an Armenian friend, but she never called them anything but "stuffed grape leaves". I learned the term "dolma" from the menu of a Greek restaurant.
As for wrapped things, are golumpki also classified as sarma?
As for wrapped things, are golumpki also classified as sarma?
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8040
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Re: dolma
IMNSHO I believe they would be. Now, why so many put an 'm' in there I don't know. Shouldn't that be golubki, as in little pigeons (Gołąbki)?As for wrapped things, are golumpki also classified as sarma?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: dolma
Regarding the spelling, if I'm not mistaken, the ogonek on the "ą" causes it to be nasalized.
And the position before "b" would cause the pronunciation to tend toward "m" rather than "n". So my guess is, it's a non-Polish attempt to spell the word more closely to the pronunciation, as perceived by a non-Polish native speaker.
I didn't know the proper Polish spelling, so thank you for that.
And the position before "b" would cause the pronunciation to tend toward "m" rather than "n". So my guess is, it's a non-Polish attempt to spell the word more closely to the pronunciation, as perceived by a non-Polish native speaker.
I didn't know the proper Polish spelling, so thank you for that.
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