Posted by Allerdings! on July 31, 2001 at 08:19:47:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ziguerweisen posted by Al on July 31, 2001 at 06:08:51:
Fine credits! Wow!
One could find support for your point of view, if one likes the word by word way of translation. To have a common reference, verifiable by all, and to please your scientific approach I found an online facility provided by the TU Chemnitz:
http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/
As we agree on Zigeuner meaning Gypsy, I searched on Weise (-n is only the plural suffix). It was important to have the "ignore case" button changed to "exact case". Up came 15 results, presented below in a terrible manner, as I cannot write html code.
(Begin of quote)
Deutsch English
15 Ergebnisse 15 results
Weise {m,f} wise man; sage
Weise {f} way; manner
Art und Weise {f}; Weg {m} way
Art und Weise {f} wise
Art und Weise; Verhalten {pl} manner
die Art und Weise, etwas zu tun the way of doing something
Lied {n}; Weise {f} air; tune
Methode {f}; Verfahren {n}; Art und Weise {f} method
Mode {f}; Art und Weise {f} fashion
auf diese Weise by this means
auf diese Weise; so that way
in keiner Weise; in keiner Beziehung in no way; in no respect
gewissermaßen {adv}; auf gewisse Weise in a way; to some extent; to an extent
so; auf diese Weise thus
Ein Narr kann mehr fragen als sieben Weise sagen. One fool can ask more questions than seven wise men can answer.
(End of quote)
Statistically you would be right as seen from this search.
But a scientifical approach to linguistics will not go only for the easy solution. It will take context into consideration. And it will refer to users of the language in question within this certain context. Which in this case is music.
From that point of view, please read the ninth line of the quote, which presents the seventh sample of Weise. It is the line starting with "Lied".
My reading of this line gives the translation: air;tune
Which is quite a bit closer to my translation "Gypsy (folksy) Songs)" than to yours "(Gypsy Ways [of living])". Especially in a musical context.
Some composer, who I can not remember just now, wrote some music, the title of which could have been served quite well by your translation "(Gypsy Ways [of living])". But that piece of music had the German title of "Zigeunerleben", literally "Gypsylife".
My credits are of course fading in the light of your shiny ones: Only six and a half years of education in German. Only lived in Germany for a decade+. Only listening to German broadcasts on an almost daily basis for 25 years still counting (mostly on the topics of music, art, society, politics, and of course news).
Yet I would wonder if any German musician would come up with an understanding of "Zigeunerweisen" commensurable with your translation.
Allerdings!