A burning quest

Da! Spaljivanje potraga je! Ja probuditi jutros na spaljivanje potraga!  Oh dear, if I write on Teksikanski or hrvatski or something who knows what this morning, just go with me please.  I have not had my coffee yet! Ne mogu think bez kafe.  And yet I must to think!  The quest is calling me.

A burning quest awakens me from a dream so sweet I dare not write about it.  Your ears would burn and then your body would be ablaze and I dare not do that to you.  I won't do that to you.

I heard her speaking softly in my ear and it was dark.  Oh yes! Oh yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!  And then I heard her say so sweetly and so distinctly:  "Does it mean the same thing it means in english?"

I startled straight up in my bed suddenly fully awake.  It was 0400.  I couldn't sleep anymore. The question: "Does it mean the same thing it means in english?" became the  spaljivanje potraga, the burning quest, that took me away from the dream so sweet I dare not write about it.  Kafe! Oh for a cup of coffee, but there's no time.  I must find the answer to this.  I must! I simply must know!

See, it all started yesterday when I chanced upon a YouTube video wherein Klapa Ragusa is singing "Dobri moj caca."  Such a beautiful old song to which I've listened many times with my brain in low gear or turned off.  In truth I usually just listened to the dulcet tones and ignored the lyrics - who knows why? - except that I must confess that I did not know what is "čača."

"Čača" is not a word in the teksikanski vocabulary.  Well, of course it is but not from the hrvatski side of the teksikanski vocabulary.  Čača is there from the spanjolski side of the vocabulary.  Caca, like Klapa Ragusa sings it, sounds like cha cha - you know - like cha cha cha, the dance but the rhythm of the Dalmacijan song is most assuredly not a  cha cha cha.  So, what means this čača?  Donno.  Brain back into loafing mode.  The song is pretty so who gives a flip?  Just enjoy the music!

Yesterday it was suddenly in my face.  I could not miss it.  This Dobri moj caca is spelled Dobri moj ćaća.  Whoa!!  Klapa Ragusa is singing "čača" and spelling it ćaća. Suddenly it became clear.  Grimm's law of consonantal slips was working here.

This is ćaća like tsa tsa.  Like in car or tsar.  Oh yes the folks who write the engleski dictionary somewhere want to tell you this is derived from caesar.  Idijot romanophiles.  No way. Remember, for example, we took Pannonia away from Rome pretty much like the Amerikanski took Kentucky away from some "Indians."  We just moved in.  The Romans were actually pretty primative, barbaric.  The Amerikanski no call their leader "Big Chief."  We don't either.   We Slavs have our own way to come to that word and its ours way, not belong to some "Big Chief" in some primitive village somewhere over accross the Jadrana. Nope, but we digress.

Nobody does Grimm's law of consonantal slips more dramatically than we Slavs can do it.  We take the prize every time.  The further south you move, the more dramatic we are about this.  We south Slavs are the drama queens and kings of the universe. We can slip  and slide, jump, leap, and turn back flips more gracefully than anyone anywhere can do it.  No one comes close to measuring up to us.  We take the prize.  We are the best. 

Every day I write responses to comments made now in at least 18 or 19 different languages, 15 of which are Slavic languages and mercy mercy do I know about consonantal slippage and vowel shifts.  You don't think I'm smart enough to actually know that  many languages do you?  No way, but I do love my people and like any lover, I just feel my way along.  Čača <- ćaća <- tata.  Oh!  Now I know what a čača is, or rather ćaća pronounced like čača.  Its tata.  Yeah!  Ding! Ding! Ding!  Grimms law!  Grimm's law!!  Cool.  Now the song makes sense to me  and I listen to the tekst as well as the melody and love it all the more. 

I was so proudly sharing my discovery with CJ yesterday when she asked the question:  "does it mean the same thing it means on english?"  I responded something like, I don't know but in this case means on english "daddy."  The song is about "My Good Daddy."  We talked about other things then and her question faded away.  Until 0400 this very morning!  In the middle of that dream I dare not write about when her voice said so distinctly in my ear:  "Does it mean the same thing it means on english."  That sweet voice jarred me from my sleep. I  had  to find what "tata" means on english.  I had to know. Thus began the burning quest.

Google.  Wikipedia.   Where else do you turn when you need help in the wee hours of the morning?  What is "tata?"  Its India's largest business group and multinational company.  Its Jamsetji Tata, the father of Indian industry.  Nelson Mandela was known as "Tata."  There's an Argentine boxer nicknamed "Tata."  There is Tata a city in Hungary, a city in Morocco.  Tata is an elf in Tolkien's Middle-earth.  Its the station code for Tatanagar Railway Station. 

Then there is Tata Young, a Thai singer, model and actress.  I listened to a couple of her songs hoping to find the meaning of "tata."  I found "Mila mila."  That sounded pretty Croatian to me.  Oh boy!  ~fans himself.  ~fans himself faster.  Whew!  That song almost came close to describing the dream I'm not going to write about, but there wasn't a clue in there any where about what means this "tata" on english.

I'm a desperate man now.  What means "tata" on english?  Molim! Molim! Someone out there hurry and tell me what means this before CJ awakens this morning.  I can't have her thinking ja sam neki stranac koji ne mogu govoriti na engleskom jeziku dobro!!!  I speak on english good.  Well, most of time anyway.  Dobro dobro, sometimes on english I speak ok good.  But I do not know what means this "tata."  Someone please to help me brze brze.  Tell to me so I can sleep please.  I want to go back to that dream.  What means "tata" na engleskom?   That's the burning question!

Embrace the finches!
Happy misdeeds!

Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac, a man on a burning quest!