# Swedish: wirel



## David Garamatz

My question is, what is a _wirel, _as in the following (Swedish): “I denne bjälcke är fästat ett block eller _wirel_ hwarigenom ett tåg löper”. 

The beam it is fastened in was over an Indian irrigation well, outside the town of Surat, Gujarat, in 1751: a rope ran through the 'pulley or _wirel_' to the harness of an ox that drew up a succession of buckets of water out of the well. The manuscript includes the author's sketch of the well but without enough detail to answer my question.


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## Lugubert

I have no idea. Neither has Google for variants like virel or virrel. SAOB unfortunately hasn't reached V yet. But they didn't start until 1786, so they should be excused.

However, from the use and sound of it, I'd guess that it's a synonym of block/talja/gina. Do you need the meaning only, or a translation? If the latter, I'd shamelessly write "a  pulley or similar device".


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## David Garamatz

Thanks for your comment. If I were simply doing a translation, yes, I'd turn _wirel, _as you say, into 'a block or the like' but as SAOB can't help me, I must do the best I can to help it, or its second edition, and/or get help from others, so that I can publish a reliable glossary to my translations of the original (1750s) texts.


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## utmarker

I was thinking maybe you could turn to a glossary of the locally spoken language, or a Portuguese or English one, from that time because it could very well be that this isn't a Swedish word at all.

Maybe what the writer intended to say was(my brackets): “I denne bjälcke är fästat ett block eller wirel(som det kallas lokalt) hwarigenom ett tåg löper”

I am of course only speculating.


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## David Garamatz

Many thanks for your reply.
    You've put your finger on a problem I've had for years: that of knowing the language of words of unknown meaning, which is relevant when, e.g. one tries to decipher something illegible in a (predominantly) Swedish text. 
    As there was a Babel of languages used in the town in question (Surat, in Gujarat, in the mid 18th century) _wirel _might have come from any one of a dozen or more of them, while the author of the manuscripts in question was more or less at home in half a dozen contemporary European languages (paternal Danish, maternal Swedish, perhaps also a bit of mother's putative Sami, English, French, Dutch and so on and so on), besides Latin and (possibly) Greek. He read, and I hope enjoyed, pornographic works in French and German! He did have trouble, he noted, with written Portuguese.
    Perhaps as a result of this linguistic ability, he seems to have been irrepressibly curious, which his texts reflect.


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## utmarker

Well, the reason I mentioned Portuguese and English is of course, as you implied, that both nations had interest in the region and it is reasonable to assume that both languages were in frequent use.
And of course with technology follows terminology.
The "wirel" could have been a "block" of a particular design so the writer decided to include the foreign term.

As I said, entirerly speculative from my part.


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## David Garamatz

Further south on the west coast (of India), perhaps in inverse proportion to the distance from Goa, it appears from what Braad wrote during his first visit (1752, en route for Canton) that English families had quite often to learn Portuguese, because communication with servants was possible--least impossible--in that language. English wasn't in widespread use, and I suppose even the English who survived the first two monsoons ('the life of a European in India') were motivated to learn some local i.e., Indian, language(s).


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## Lugubert

I have tried dictionaries of Portuguese, and Hindi, Urdu and Persian with several possible spellings (long/short _i_, for Hindi/Urdu ordinary and retroflex _r _and b-/v-) but no luck so far. No useful WRL root in Arabic, either.


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## hanne

Is there any chance of a misreading or typo? Is your source print or hand-writing? Is it fraktur?


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## utmarker

Could it be a personal name that came to be used for this device?

  Edit: It would be interesting to know the name of the author. I can't see that it is mentioned anywhere.


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## David Garamatz

No chance, alas! The manuscript is as clear as day, for the writer, (Stockholm-born Christopher Henric Braad, 1728-81), had learned or perfected his fair style of writing in a Stockholm public office in the mid 1740s. When writing informally his handwriting often illegible, when he was hurried it could be dreadful.

Yes, perhaps a personal name but many of the farming people around Surat were then (mid 1750s) Parsis. 
    The word could be a bit of dialect from Norrköping, where CHB lived from the age of eight, and where his father managed a water-powered textile factory that he had first repaired. 
    The author of the manuscript was Stockholm-born Christopher Henric Braad, 1728-81. The manuscript is in Göteborg University (www . gu . se) and can be viewed on the net; look just below the middle of folio 174, with a sketch and ground plan of this well on the facing page.


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## utmarker

A longshot is a Swedish name like Wire, Wirelius, Wirell but that's unlikely.

I took a peek in Rietz "Svenskt dialektlexikon" which sometimes pays off, but no luck.


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## JohanIII

David, gu.se & folio 174 - you're skipping a lot of steps there.
If it's on the net, link it, or the search at least. Curious.


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## David Garamatz

Curiously enough, Johan III, I've never linked anything to anything and, at present, don't know how to. I promise to find out and will then post the link.


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## JohanIII

Hmm, "I'm curious" is what i meant 
You've got a small menu above the "Quick reply" box.
Mark a word, klick on the globe with a chain in that menu - popup! - insert link there, OK - done - the word is now linked.


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## hanne

Keep in mind that users with less than 30 posts are not allowed to post links, so David would need to provide a description of how to find it instead.


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