Wo kommt dat her?

The Rhineland vernacular is a playground of unusual words. Pips, knöttern, Klaaf, uselig, plästern, or spinksen are anything but linguistic curiosities; they rather testify to the tumultuous history of the Rhineland as a Roman colony, Frankish settlement area, or Jewish migration region. Words like frackich, kühmen, or verbaseln demonstrate the close ties to the Low German language area that still exist today. Additionally, there are French and Dutch loanwords such as Amarasch, Pluten, and Rabatz. These are just a few examples of Rhineland terms that Peter Honnen deciphers and explains in his new book. With a detective's intuition and a subtle sense of humor, he traces the origins of hundreds of expressions, some dating back to Roman times. Whether it's bolzen, Nonnenfürzchen, Graf Koks, or Killefitt - Honnen sheds light on the obscure. In the tradition of the great Sp.