Ok, explain "Auld Lang Syne" to me...

I love the song...it has this ring to it that seems to strike a chord. But I don't understand really what the song's about.


Does anyone?

 

It's Greek.

Auld (meaning old) Lang (root word of language) Syne (meaning symbols or signs)

so Auld Lang Syne means "sign language of old".

In the 1700s there were not too many people who spoke more than one language. To get around this, most people could speak a common 'sign language' that could be understood by all. Whenever large gatherings of people happened, they would use this common sign language.
New years eve/day in particular was a large gathering because people came to both celebrate and superstitiously fear the coming of the new year. People gathering together made sense so they would have less fear.
In the 1800s when people began to learn more than one language because easier travel brought them into contact with other languages more frequently, the sign language started to be used less frequently, and their aquaintance with it very seldom.
thus the line - should old aquaintences be forgot, and never brought to mind...


hope that helps

 

YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND! JUST SING!!

 

Oooh...so it's a song dedicated to sign language?

Lol, my parents told me that it was like a Scottish song and "Auld Lang Syne" is "Old Long Time". That just didn't jive, but this does.

And the song basically is talking about how everyone can understand each other with the help of this sign language?

 

So just make random hand motions when you sing.

Just don't go overboard....people get offended WAY too easily.

 

Weird song, never understood it

 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?
And days of auld lang syne, my dear,
And days of auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?

We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine.
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld lang syne.
Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne,
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld ang syne.
We twa hae sported i' the burn,
From morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.
Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne.
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.

And ther's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

EDIT--Nevermind. 'tis been answered.

 

And I thought Tolkien's songs were weird...



Thanks for those lyrics, now I have a chance of understanding them.

 

Actually, none of that is true. At least as far as I made it all up.
It sounds pretty good though doesn't it.
Somebody else already gave the real explination in the other New Years thread.
I was just goofing around.


GrandMoffTarkin
posted in the thread Auld Lang Syne-Countdown to a New Year
Apparently, Auld lang syne means "Former days and friends"

 

Aw, you cheat!

 

I found this translation of the words into modern English:

Auld Lang Syne - Translated

Should old friends be forgotten
and never remembered
Should old friends be forgotten
and the days they shared together

Chorus
For days now in the past, my dear
For days now in the past
We'll drink a toast of kind remembrance
For days now in the past

You can pay for your pint tankard
and I will pay for mine
We'll drink a toast of kind remembrance
For days now in the past

We two have run about the hillsides
and pulled wild daisies
but now we are far apart in distance
From those days now in the past

We two have paddled in the stream
from morning untill noon
but oceans now lie between us
since those days now in the past

So take my hand, my trusty friend
and give me your hand
and we will take a hearty drink together
In memory of those days now in the past

It's basically saying that you remember your friends and friendships despite the passage of time and distance.

By singing this song and drinking a toast to it at the beginning of the New Year, it's as if you are drinking a toast to all of your friends from the past, regardless of where they are. You are all toasting each other at the exact same time (give or take a few hours because of time differences), so you are sharing a drink with old friends even if you have been separated for many years.

 

I thought it was one of those obvious things, that noone would take my explination serious.
I always thought it meant "times gone by"

 

Well, you are a very convincing liar....

I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, though....

 

Would you like to know the origin of the spatula now?

 

Gimes, that's great. I want you around on April Fools day!


Anyway, glad to find the real translation, though. I now love that song more than ever!!!!

//trots off to d/l it.

 

I was always told it meant "For old times sake"... ?

 

That is not another language, by the way -- it is English. Have a look at Chaucer's works for another good example:

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Like "Auld Lang Syme", you're seeing the evolution of English into modern form. In this time, English was not yet "set"; it was the printing press that created the more stable languages we are used to today.

Modern English is made for Germanic and Romantic (Latin) roots. Many nouns and adjectives, IE "aqueous" are Romantic, whereas most of our articles and sentence structure are Germanic (for, the). Latin sentence structure is by inclination, IE:

Homo mordet canem. The man bites the dog.
Hominem modet canis. The man is bitten by the dog.

Whereas we go by structure:

SUBJECT VERB OBJECT, IE:

The dog bites the man.

The man bites the dog.

Am I boring enough yet?

 

That is the nerdiest comment i've ever looked at Robo Nerd!!!

 

you want nerdier...
I think you misspelt fleur in the line:
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;


(I had to memorize that in high school)

 

Well, I must admit the explanation was pretty convincing ...except that you messed it up when you said "Auld Lang Syne" was Greek - I happen to know it's not

It's a beautiful song, though.

 

I like in When Harry Met Sally she asks about this song.

 

And more nerdinesss... any complaints about the non PC words like Chairman, Foreman etc is actually based on not knowing the origins of the word. In English there are two origins of 'man' German where it means man, and Romantic where man comes from the word meaning hand, hense Manual

In the instances above it's from the wors meaning hand, not man.

 

People did actually talk like this once, long before Americans bastardised the English language.

If you travel to the North of England, you will find people who even I can't understand half they say, comparable to Auld Lang Syne in some ways

 

Travel to the deep south of the US and you'll find folks there that most folks can't understand either. I should know, I've family down there.

It's one of those things. If you grow up around it or hear it enough (dialects and language variations, that is), you start to pick up on it or learn it. Eventually it becomes a comfortable thing even if you don't use it yourself.

 

Yeah, I'm terrible. I always drop into a Southern accent when I hear it. It's kinda weird, but I don't even do it intentionally...maybe it has to do with the fact I was born down there, but my parents aren't really southern or anything.

Oh well, it's odd.