169 replies to this topic

[Abivard]

Funny, you know the oo-rah part is borrowed from the USMC?

Apaches are Americans, they don't have a warcry,

The South's Rebel yell is from the 5 civilized nations, More Americans than you think have ancestry from them in the south.

Swedish sounds funny to us American- Norwegians too, whom I might add outnumber the Norwegians who stayed behind. Bokmal is also rather offensive to us as well ;p Why do you want to sound like a dane?

[Liquid Leopard]

How do you know the USMC didn't borrow it from someone else???
The USMC has only been around about 200 years.

[XphR]

Why... Popcorn Shrimp, of course!

Edited by XphR, 06 July 2013 - 03:00 PM.

[Alistair Winter]

Abivard, on 06 July 2013 - 01:55 PM, said:

Funny, you know the oo-rah part is borrowed from the USMC?

The funny thing about history is that certain cultural elements, like language, tend to go back and forth over time. Where does oo-rah come from? Was it used before the 20th century? Does it perhaps come from a Scandinavian "hurra", which may come from Russians, who again borrowed the term from Persians?

Whatever its origins - the scholars can't seem to agree - I think it's useful to look beyond the USMC. A lot of what's happening in America can be traced back to the "Old World".

Abivard, on 06 July 2013 - 01:55 PM, said:

Apaches are Americans, they don't have a warcry,

Obviously I know that the Apache are Americans, which is why I used them as an example. Finland is not normally regarded as part of Scandinavia, but Finns are certainly a part of the FRR.

Abivard, on 06 July 2013 - 01:55 PM, said:

The South's Rebel yell is from the 5 civilized nations, More Americans than you think have ancestry from them in the south.

Who's to say what I think, dude?

Abivard, on 06 July 2013 - 01:55 PM, said:

Swedish sounds funny to us American- Norwegians too, whom I might add outnumber the Norwegians who stayed behind. Bokmal is also rather offensive to us as well ;p Why do you want to sound like a dane?

Yeah, I'm fairly familiar with the history of Norwegian emigration to America, I've studied history and will be a history teacher by christmas. Which is not to say I know a lot, but I do know that no other country in Europe had a higher percentage of their population move to North America. Ireland has a higher total number of people though. In terms of outnumbering those who stayed behind, that's certainly true. But where were those American-Norwegians when we were fighting this guy?

I'm kidding, of course.

In regards to bokmål, I guess it's hard to understand unless you know about the alternative, nynorsk. Norway has long been a collection of relatively isolated small towns with very different dialects and nynorsk is a weird synthesis of these wildly different dialects, in an attempt to create a common written language. The only problem is, very few Norwegians speak anything close to nynorsk, so it's not really based on direct transfer of tradition at all. It's very different from Iceland and the Icelandic language. It's kind of like if I were to create a synthesis of English, Norwegian and Germanic, which are all part of the Germanic linguistic family, in order to create a new European language. It would be an artificial construction and you wouldn't feel any more of a European speaking that artificial language. After all, very few people speak "European".

EDIT: I'm of course exaggerating greatly to prove a point. A better comparison might be Italy and the Italian language, but even that would be stretching it, because Italian dialects are far more heterogenous than Norwegian dialects.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 06 July 2013 - 02:59 PM.

[Alistair Winter]

XphR, on 06 July 2013 - 02:55 PM, said:

Why... Popcorn Shrimp, of course!

I have now officially derailed this thread. Very sorry about that, I'll stop now.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 06 July 2013 - 03:09 PM.

[hyperioneast]

how bout victory or Valhalla

[StalaggtIKE]

"We are freeborn. We shall grant you freedom through death."

First and foremost the FRR is a republic of free men. I think something reflecting that, while mocking the feudalistic governance that the rest of the factions of the inner sphere endure, would be appropriate. The punchline being we will free them through their demise.

[Liquid Leopard]

Last night I used this a few times:

"For mead!"
"For spirited women!"
"For heavy metal in Nordic languages we don't understand! "

...Then one of my teammates on voice chat said something to the effect that the spirited women in his life were a great deal of trouble. (Being divorced, myself, I can relate.)

Edited by Liquid Leopard, 08 July 2013 - 10:35 AM.

[Tovan Cassidine]

Liquid Leopard, on 06 July 2013 - 02:41 PM, said:

How do you know the USMC didn't borrow it from someone else???
The USMC has only been around about 200 years.

The USMC got "oo-rah" from listening to the US Army say, "hoo-ah." We borrowed that from one of the tribes of "native americans."

[Ivar Miraborg]

Battlecry? Bleh...There's too much talk already.

If you want something inspiring listen to my Stalker roar!!!!

[van Uber]

Alistair Winter, on 06 July 2013 - 01:27 AM, said:

I don't know how Norwegian sounds to swedes...

They sound over the top cheerful and optimistic. It's like you could never, ever have a bad day speaking like that. A couple of years ago there was this stand up comedian from Norway touring in Stockholm. His angle was that he was the only pessimistic Norwegian and due to that was forced in exile to Sweden where his world view was more appreciated.

I used to play the original "Worms" with Norwegian speech for extra comical effect back in the days, so yes I guess we do come off as sounding a bit fun in each others ears. To those non-Scandinavians that bother to read, most Norwegian is fully understandable to a Swede (and vice versa), even more so than some specific dialects we have (I guess it's the other way around too).

Edited by van Uber, 09 July 2013 - 04:06 PM.

[Abivard]

I know the Norwegian Military picked the oo-rah part up from serving with US Marines in this century.

Tovan Cassidine, on 08 July 2013 - 08:26 AM, said:

The USMC got "oo-rah" from listening to the US Army say, "hoo-ah." We borrowed that from one of the tribes of "native americans."

There are several potential sources from which the word "oorah" originated.
The 1st Amphibious Reconnaissance Company, FMFPAC can be credited with the introduction of "Ooh-rah!" into the Marine Corps in 1953, shortly after the Korean War[citation needed]. Recon Marines served aboard the USS Perch (ASSP-313), a WWII-era diesel submarine retrofitted to carry Navy UDT and Recon Marines. Whenever the boat was to dive, the 1MC (PA system) would announce "DIVE! DIVE!", followed by the sound of the diving klaxon: "AHUGA!" In 1953 or 1954, while on a conditioning run, former Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps John R. Massaro, while serving as company Gunnery Sergeant of 1st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, simulated the "Dive" horn sound "AHUGA!" as part of the cadence. Legend has it, he took it with him when he went to serve as an instructor at the Drill Instructor school at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. He there passed it on to the Drill Instructor students and they, in turn, passed it on to their recruits where it eventually and naturally became a part of the Recon cadence, and thereafter infiltrated Recon Marine lexicon.[1] Over time, "AHUGA!" morphed into the shorter, simpler "Oorah!" Today, the official Marine Corps Training Reference Manual on the history of Marine Recon is titled "AHUGA!"
The term may have been derived from the Turkish phrase "vur ha!" translated as "strike!" or "kill them all!", which was used as a battle cry of the Ottoman Empire army and adopted as a Russian battlecry "Urrah!"

• "Oorah" is also used by United States Navy Hospital Corpsman, Master-At-Arms and Seabees because of their close association with the Marine Corps.
  
• "Oorah" is also used by the Russian Ground Forces for the same purposes, though historically the cry was a genuine battle cry, shouted in unison and with a long drag on 'a' while attacking in formation. "Oorah" is a correct transliteration for "Ура" (as it would be rendered in Cyrillic), the Russian equivalent of "Hooray." Proper pronunciation of this word places emphasis on the second syllable, in contrast to the Marine Corps exclamation. It is possible that the Russian word was a loanword form of "hurrah"--there is commonality in both the placement of emphasis and the purpose of the words. The depictions of the Russian Civil War, WWII,and 19th century wars in Soviet films made the prolonged, overlapping waves of "Ooraah" a symbol of courage and defiance needed for pushing the attack forward and, by extension, a symbol of Russian infantry in general.
  
• "Oorah" is also used by the Military of Bulgaria as salute to higher ranked officers and politicians. "Oorah" was also used by the Bulgarian infantry during bayonet attacks.
  
• In the Netherlands, the cry "Long live the Queen!" is usually followed by three times "Hoera" (pronounced much the same way). A notable example is the State Opening of Parliament, when parliamentarians cheer the Queen in this way after she finishes reading the Speech from the Throne

The army term hoo ah is a term used by staff officers and REMF's was my Understanding, and was looked upon as a word used by sycophants. it was mostly used in hollywood films after the 1980's where it may have indeed originated in a 1970's movie.
Where the Army word originated we will never know, but hurrah or oo-rah is more likely than some indian warcry from a made up tribe of "Native Americains" as there never has been any 'Native Humans' in the Americas.</p>
A Native American is anyone who was born in the Americas, anyone saying otherwise is a racist of some sort or other, and out to start trouble.

Edited by Abivard, 10 July 2013 - 09:50 AM.

[Abivard]

Up the Republic!
Down with the Houses!
Death to the Snakes!
Death to the Steiners!

For all the Mead!


Til Valhal! Ooh-rah!

Yippy kay yay Mother-less clammer!

[Peregrine Plover]

Freda Rebub... (hic)
No, no, no...
Free da Rebubble... (hic)
No, that ain't it...
FREDA! FREDA!
FREE RAZZLE HOGZ!!!! (HIC!)

[Valdemaar]

T Decker, on 25 November 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

"Death Before Dishonor"

Død før vanære - Norwegian
Death áður svívirðing - Icelandic
Tod vor Schmach - German (sorry, couldn't find "Old Germanic" translation)
Död före vanära - Swedish


Something to remember though: Because of the Vikings' reach from the Middle East to North America, their sphere of influence was VAST. Numerious words in modern English can be directly linked to Old Germanic (the principle language of the Viking people from the 11th to the 14th century). Languages that incorporate Viking words are English, German, Polish, Swedish, Icelandic, Skandinavian, French, Farci, Spanish, Latin, and Yiddish, just to name a few (basically, every major language except those from the far East).


My point is: Whatever the battle cry may be, once everyone comes to terms with what it is, you could actually say it in ANY language (except those of the far East again), and STILL have some link to the Viking heritage.

How cool is THAT?

I, myself, am an American of Skandinavian/Austrian/German/Native-American decent... Hence, why I call the FRR my "home." Although I'm a mutt, I'm still 75% Viking! LOL

Just to be nit picky as I love everything I've read about the language, Icelandic doesn't just incorporate vikings words. Icelandic was derived from Old Icelandic. Old Icelandic helped to compose West Norse, one of the dialects of the Norse language. With all that said while the spoke language has changed since those days the written form of modern Icelandic has changed very little. As an example, Icelandic is the only language that continues to use the letter Thorn (Þ, þ) and one of three to use Eth (Ð, ð). So, if we're going the viking route of naming things then we may as well use Icelandic as it's the purist modern day presence of the Norse language.

Edited by Valdemaar, 18 July 2013 - 09:07 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

van Uber, on 09 July 2013 - 04:05 PM, said:

They sound over the top cheerful and optimistic. It's like you could never, ever have a bad day speaking like that. A couple of years ago there was this stand up comedian from Norway touring in Stockholm. His angle was that he was the only pessimistic Norwegian and due to that was forced in exile to Sweden where his world view was more appreciated.
I used to play the original "Worms" with Norwegian speech for extra comical effect back in the days, so yes I guess we do come off as sounding a bit fun in each others ears. To those non-Scandinavians that bother to read, most Norwegian is fully understandable to a Swede (and vice versa), even more so than some specific dialects we have (I guess it's the other way around too).

Well, the dialect in Worms is the Oslo-dialect which, I agree, sounds very cheerful and non-intimidating. I don't know what it is, but some people from Oslo tend to speak with a much higher tone than other Norwegians. Kind of like Japanese women. Suffice it to say, not all Norwegians speak like that.

Abivard, on 10 July 2013 - 09:36 AM, said:

I know the Norwegian Military picked the oo-rah part up from serving with US Marines in this century.

Yeah, that's what I meant by saying that cultural elements tend to go back and forth over time. Oo-rah most definitely comes from the US Marines in this century, but the question is where it came from before that. As has already been pointed out in this thread, quite a few Scandinavians came to the US during the 19th century.

I'm not saying it was Scandinavians who introduced 'Hurra' to the US military.


... but it was Scandinavians.

Valdemaar, on 18 July 2013 - 09:06 AM, said:

So, if we're going the viking route of naming things then we may as well use Icelandic as it's the purist modern day presence of the Norse language.

Then again, it's a tiny country with very little political or cultural influence. Why would all the Scandinavians start speaking modern Icelandic?

Edited by Alistair Winter, 18 July 2013 - 10:32 AM.

[Adridos]

... So who came up with that word?

All Slavic use the alternations (hurá, hura, ypa,...) as hooray in standard language.
You say that the word originated from Persians who then apssed it down to Ottomans through whom it got to Slavics?
And what do Scandinavians have to do with it all?

Just curious.


Also, no need to come up with fancy battlecries. Teach your guys to scream "For Rasalhague!" and should it not be enough, a good alternative will form up just like in real millitaries.

[Truck Thunders]

This topic is almost a year old and still nobody has come up with the correct answer.

( NSFW, by the way.)

[Ronan]

Skål! <drinks>

Edited by Ronan, 18 July 2013 - 11:41 AM.

[van Uber]

Well, speaking of battlecry... this is how it works in Stockholm: http://www.liveleak....=c26_1357935775