[Stolen from haligweorc] My answers are in italics.
1. When you looked in the mirror first thing this morning, what was the first thing you thought?
Nothing. Seriously, I am not a rational being for a couple of hours after I wake up. I am a night person.
2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.00
3. What's a word that rhymes with TEST?
-fest. I like that it's a German loan-suffix (not a word on its own) that means pretty much the same in English as in German.
4. ... planet?
Janet. (Maybe b/c I saw Derek's answer, but I do have a friend so named.)
5. Who is the fourth person on your missed calls?
Maria B.
6. What is your favourite ring on your phone?
The Muppet Show Theme
7. What shirt are you wearing?
A green one. With long sleeves.
8. What do you label youself as?
Someone who knows how to spell 'yourself'.
9. Name the brand of shoes you've recently worn.
Dunno.
10. Bright room or dark room?
Dark.
11. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Coughing up a lung, reading from Kenneth Sisam's Middle English Reader (with ME Glossary by JRR Tolkien).
12. What did the last text message on your phone say?
"Merry Christmas!"
13. Where is your nearest 7-11?
Down the street. (What a boring question.)
14. What's a saying you say a lot?
Whaddyagonna do?
15. Who told you they loved you last?
My cousin
16. Last furry thing you touched?
Friend's dog.
17. How many drugs have you done in the past three days?
Sudafed, Tylenol Sore Throat, NyQuil, Dimetap
18. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed?
Who still uses film?
19. Favourite age you've been so far?
Honestly, I've never cared.
20. Your worst enemy?
Have to agree with Derek: sin.
21. What is your current desktop picture?
The Linux Penguin
22. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"Bye."
23. If you had to choose between a millions bucks and being able to fly, which would you choose?
[Cue BNL Song] $1,000,000.
24. Do you like someone?
I like most people. (Hah. That's what you get for not being specific.)
25. The last song you listened to?
Bli hos meg, by Dina (Norwegian)
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Friday, January 20, 2006
Some Saxon for your Saturday (early ed.)
Today's link isn't about Anglo-Saxon (Old English), but Old Saxon, the language of the Saxons that stayed behind on the continent, also known as Low German. (The modern descendent of Old Low German is Plattdeutsch, or Plattdüütsch.)
Among the many interesting features of the Northvegr site is this Latin to Old Saxon dictionary.
If you're enough like me that you're still reading my blog, you may enjoy browsing random pages and seeing what words you can recognize from modern English. For example, take the entry:
sermo quidi, mahal, spel, sprâca, vvord.
How many of these words have English relatives? Answer: All but one (and I'm pretty sure the one has an Old English cognate). First, let's take the easiest: the last word is, in fact, "word", with the Old Saxon spelling convention of using two separate v's instead of a 'w'. So if the words are all related to speech, can you guess the rest? (Don't worry about mahal for now.)
sermo > sermon
quidi > quoth
spel > [go]spel (< godspell, 'good news')
sprâca > speak (cf. German sprechen)
Without looking anything up at the moment, I'm guessing mahal is related to Old Norse mál (as in the Hávamál) and Old English maðelian. (Beowulf's speeches usually begin with Beowulf maðelode ... "Beowulf matheled")
Here's an even easier one:
mare meri, geban, lagu; sêo, flôd, strom, vvatar.
Once again, all but one (geban) of the Saxon words have cousins several times removed in modern English. To wit: mere/mer[maid], lake; sea, flood, stream, water.
A little more challenging:
dux folc-togo, heri-togo, lêdo, lêdor.
Dux yields "duke" in English, hence the last two Saxon entries being obviously related to "leader". Any ideas on the first two? Yes, folc is "folk". No, togo does not mean Saxon leaders wore togas. Heri-togo is a direct cognate of German herzog, which also means "duke". Heri, like Heer in modern German, means "army". The togo is related to the German verb ziehen, to draw, pull, 'tug', and its inflected form, -zog-. (Der Herzog hat seinen Anzug angezogen. The duke put on his suit.) Anyway, a duke was someone who led (togo) his people (folc) and army (heri).
As you may notice, Low German, along with Dutch and Frisian, occupies linguistically a middle-position between English and German. (Just like Old English occupied a middle position between all of the above and Old Norse.)
Now one for you Tolkien fans:
legio eorid, ierid.
The Rohirrim in Tolkien's books speak Old English (the Mercian dialect), which has eored, from eoh horse and râd > ride/rode. Tolkien's idea for Rohan was to imagine what an Anglo-Saxon kingdom might have been like if horses had played a bigger part in their society, as they did on the continent. Along with eoh, Old English also has mearh, mare, and hros, hors, horse. Ironic that they inherited so many words for an animal that has comparatively little role in their history compared to the continent. (I think Tolkien thought the Battle of Hastings might have gone better if Harald had had more mounted units.)
...Ok, one more:
margarita mere-griota, mere-grita.
Margarita is Latin for pearl. This entry almost sounds like the Latin term was once a loan-word from Germanic. Saxon mere-grita is just what it looks like: "mere-grit", or "lake-sand", or even "water-pebble" (it's only a coincidence that the drink is served in a glass encrusted with salt). Then again, it could be that when a Roman said "margarita", what a Saxon heard in his head was "mere-grita". The Old English would be mere-greot. According to Liddel and Scott, the Latin source, the Greek margaritês, is itself a loan-word from Persian. Beyond this, the Indo-European entry for mori- doesn't suggest any connection. Oh well.
Incidentally, the Perseus Digital Library is a very handy tool for inquiries like this.
Among the many interesting features of the Northvegr site is this Latin to Old Saxon dictionary.
If you're enough like me that you're still reading my blog, you may enjoy browsing random pages and seeing what words you can recognize from modern English. For example, take the entry:
sermo quidi, mahal, spel, sprâca, vvord.
How many of these words have English relatives? Answer: All but one (and I'm pretty sure the one has an Old English cognate). First, let's take the easiest: the last word is, in fact, "word", with the Old Saxon spelling convention of using two separate v's instead of a 'w'. So if the words are all related to speech, can you guess the rest? (Don't worry about mahal for now.)
sermo > sermon
quidi > quoth
spel > [go]spel (< godspell, 'good news')
sprâca > speak (cf. German sprechen)
Without looking anything up at the moment, I'm guessing mahal is related to Old Norse mál (as in the Hávamál) and Old English maðelian. (Beowulf's speeches usually begin with Beowulf maðelode ... "Beowulf matheled")
Here's an even easier one:
mare meri, geban, lagu; sêo, flôd, strom, vvatar.
Once again, all but one (geban) of the Saxon words have cousins several times removed in modern English. To wit: mere/mer[maid], lake; sea, flood, stream, water.
A little more challenging:
dux folc-togo, heri-togo, lêdo, lêdor.
Dux yields "duke" in English, hence the last two Saxon entries being obviously related to "leader". Any ideas on the first two? Yes, folc is "folk". No, togo does not mean Saxon leaders wore togas. Heri-togo is a direct cognate of German herzog, which also means "duke". Heri, like Heer in modern German, means "army". The togo is related to the German verb ziehen, to draw, pull, 'tug', and its inflected form, -zog-. (Der Herzog hat seinen Anzug angezogen. The duke put on his suit.) Anyway, a duke was someone who led (togo) his people (folc) and army (heri).
As you may notice, Low German, along with Dutch and Frisian, occupies linguistically a middle-position between English and German. (Just like Old English occupied a middle position between all of the above and Old Norse.)
Now one for you Tolkien fans:
legio eorid, ierid.
The Rohirrim in Tolkien's books speak Old English (the Mercian dialect), which has eored, from eoh horse and râd > ride/rode. Tolkien's idea for Rohan was to imagine what an Anglo-Saxon kingdom might have been like if horses had played a bigger part in their society, as they did on the continent. Along with eoh, Old English also has mearh, mare, and hros, hors, horse. Ironic that they inherited so many words for an animal that has comparatively little role in their history compared to the continent. (I think Tolkien thought the Battle of Hastings might have gone better if Harald had had more mounted units.)
...Ok, one more:
margarita mere-griota, mere-grita.
Margarita is Latin for pearl. This entry almost sounds like the Latin term was once a loan-word from Germanic. Saxon mere-grita is just what it looks like: "mere-grit", or "lake-sand", or even "water-pebble" (it's only a coincidence that the drink is served in a glass encrusted with salt). Then again, it could be that when a Roman said "margarita", what a Saxon heard in his head was "mere-grita". The Old English would be mere-greot. According to Liddel and Scott, the Latin source, the Greek margaritês, is itself a loan-word from Persian. Beyond this, the Indo-European entry for mori- doesn't suggest any connection. Oh well.
Incidentally, the Perseus Digital Library is a very handy tool for inquiries like this.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Medieval hands
No, I mean handwritings. It's been a busy month-plus, but with any luck some of the many, many blogposts that are currently sitting in 'draft' status will graduate to the public soon. In the mean time, here's your link for the week:
Medieval Writing
This site gives examples of various medieval scripts with accompanying paleography exercises to help you learn to decipher. Enjoy!
Medieval Writing
This site gives examples of various medieval scripts with accompanying paleography exercises to help you learn to decipher. Enjoy!
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