skunken in Danish

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solbjerg
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skunken in Danish

Post by solbjerg »

Hi
Please could someone tell me what the usually unused space behind the attic knee wall is called in English
Thank you
solbjerg
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Sisyphe
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by Sisyphe »

If I correctly understand your request, you mean what we call in french "un sous-toît", or more technically "un vide sous toît" (doesthis help you ?)

Or maybe that ?
La plupart des occasions des troubles du monde sont grammairiennes (Montaigne, II.12)
ElieDeLeuze
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by ElieDeLeuze »

Le sous toit seems to be the technical terme, I call it la sous pente, which seems to be ambiguious technically speaking.
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solbjerg
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by solbjerg »

Hi Sisyphe and ElieDeLeuze
Thank you both very much!
Unfortunately French is not my strong suit :-)
Under the roof is rather descriptive, but it is not as precise as the Danish word "skunk"
I have thanslated it like this:
skunk (bag skunkvæggen) = behind the attic knee wall, roof space
skunkvæg = attic wall, attic knee wall
skunk (stinkdyr) = skunk, polecat
Can you suggest a "verbesserung" (improvement)?
There is often a scuttle or hatch door in the attic knee wall and the space behind is sometimes used for storage of items that you do not need very often.
Thanks again!
Cheers
solbjerg
Sisyphe wrote:If I correctly understand your request, you mean what we call in french "un sous-toît", or more technically "un vide sous toît" (doesthis help you ?)

Or maybe that ?
ElieDeLeuze
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by ElieDeLeuze »

solbjerg wrote: I have thanslated it like this:
skunk (bag skunkvæggen)]
We had such a thing i huset, I can still hear my father saying "range ton bazar dans la sous pente!". Skunken var lavet om til skabe.
No idea how official that is, but it is definitely idiomatic. :lol:
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solbjerg
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by solbjerg »

Thank you ElieDeLeuze
I seem remember that you could speak Danish and Norwegian, right? (Impressive)
But have you come across an English expression that are better than what I have chosen?
I am getting close to 120.000 words in the Dansh ↔ English dictionary and wanted to specify some words even more.
Is your father still alive?
Both my parents are dead and I am by now a grandfather to 3 children.
Thank you!
Cheers (ovation)
solbjerg
ElieDeLeuze wrote:
solbjerg wrote: I have thanslated it like this:
skunk (bag skunkvæggen)]
We had such a thing i huset, I can still hear my father saying "range ton bazar dans la sous pente!". Skunken var lavet om til skabe.
No idea how official that is, but it is definitely idiomatic. :lol:
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by ElieDeLeuze »

Vel... I don't really speak English, I just pretend and nobody seems to notice anything. As far as I am concerned, English is not a language worth of my interest. Danish is. Hence: No idea about English and won't ever have. I can just tell you that I would say Dachabseite in German and that I've heard sous-pente in my French childhood.
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Sisyphe
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by Sisyphe »

Hi Sisyphe and ElieDeLeuze
Thank you both very much!
Unfortunately French is not my strong suit :-)
Under the roof is rather descriptive, but it is not as precise as the Danish word "skunk"
We had such a thing i huset, I can still hear my father saying "range ton bazar dans la sous pente!". Skunken var lavet om til skabe.
No idea how official that is, but it is definitely idiomatic.
There is often a scuttle or hatch door in the attic knee wall and the space behind is sometimes used for storage of items that you do not need very often.
I am nor a carpenter neither any kind of specialist, but I think that in french, the difference between "sous-toît" and "sous-pente" is still clear : you access a sous-pente (and lay there your stuff ;) ), you don't access a sous-toît, or only very very difficult - as was for my mother's house ( :) enjoying nostalgy as did Elie, I still hear the TV aerial technician banging his head and cursing this bloody dim and overwarm "sous-toît").

That is why I have you the link to linguee : http://www.linguee.fr/francais-anglais/ ... +toit.html - the translations from canadian government sites (so : bilingual and quite serious) seem to mean that there is no technical word in english : "vide sous toit" become simply "attic" or "roof space".

Maybe the existence of your "skunken" and my "sous-toit" and "sous-pente" are linked to the fact that your country and mine (Jura moutain, near Switzerland) - and Elie's too if I remember - are heavily snowed each winter. Therefore rooftops are moderatly sloping (a layer of snow is a good insulating material). There is more rain than snow in Britain, therefore rooftops have to be highly sloping.
La plupart des occasions des troubles du monde sont grammairiennes (Montaigne, II.12)
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solbjerg
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Re: skunken in Danish

Post by solbjerg »

Hi Sisyphe
You may very well be right, that no other technical English term is available for "skunk" (attic, roof space)
At least I haven't either encountered it yet :-)
As for the slope of the roof I think some other reasons also comes into play, - for example the scarcity of full grown timber.
At least in Denmark a lot of houses were build rather narrow in the 18 hundreds because massive timber were hard to come by most places (it had already been used) and as the roof timber and rafters were thinner and the houses narrower the slope of the roof had to be steeper construction-wise.
I think 45° -50° were the preferred slope here in Denmark at that time
The role of the weight of the snow - and water of course also played a role.
My second son is trying to erect a log cabin here this year or next year with logs of 60 centimers in diameter, interesting project!
Thank you very much for your help!!!
Cheers
solbjerg

Sisyphe wrote:
Hi Sisyphe and ElieDeLeuze
Thank you both very much!
Unfortunately French is not my strong suit :-)
Under the roof is rather descriptive, but it is not as precise as the Danish word "skunk"
We had such a thing i huset, I can still hear my father saying "range ton bazar dans la sous pente!". Skunken var lavet om til skabe.
No idea how official that is, but it is definitely idiomatic.
There is often a scuttle or hatch door in the attic knee wall and the space behind is sometimes used for storage of items that you do not need very often.
I am nor a carpenter neither any kind of specialist, but I think that in french, the difference between "sous-toît" and "sous-pente" is still clear : you access a sous-pente (and lay there your stuff ;) ), you don't access a sous-toît, or only very very difficult - as was for my mother's house ( :) enjoying nostalgy as did Elie, I still hear the TV aerial technician banging his head and cursing this bloody dim and overwarm "sous-toît").

That is why I have you the link to linguee : http://www.linguee.fr/francais-anglais/ ... +toit.html - the translations from canadian government sites (so : bilingual and quite serious) seem to mean that there is no technical word in english : "vide sous toit" become simply "attic" or "roof space".

Maybe the existence of your "skunken" and my "sous-toit" and "sous-pente" are linked to the fact that your country and mine (Jura moutain, near Switzerland) - and Elie's too if I remember - are heavily snowed each winter. Therefore rooftops are moderatly sloping (a layer of snow is a good insulating material). There is more rain than snow in Britain, therefore rooftops have to be highly sloping.
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