Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Mar 08, 2022 7:34 pm

Last three subscriptions

Latin
Latein Rezitation
Not many videos here, but interesting reading choices nevertheless.
Ovid #44-ExPonto, Lib.II, Epist. 8 & 11-Lateinische Rezitation, 11:46


Two in French
Thinkerview, longish, reflective
50 ans d’Utopie ? Yann Arthus-Bertrand [ EN DIRECT ], 1:50:42


And, my final subscription, which most probably already know
Arte
Et si la poussière n’existait pas ? | 42, la réponse à presque tout | ARTE, 22:51
The link for this does not work. Not sure why, though it is quite long. Anyway, if it interests you, you can search Youtube by its title.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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Amandine
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B1/B2), Russian (B1), Romanian (A1, casual playing on Duolingo), Yiddish (ditto)
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby Amandine » Tue Mar 08, 2022 10:03 pm

The Dalida episode is on my list to watch because recently my iTalki teach was complaining there was a statue of her in Montmartre even though (in his opinion) her connection to the area was very slight and there are lots more artists more deserving. :lol: So I have to see what all the fuss is all about.
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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Mar 12, 2022 6:40 pm

Since last post:
Ancient Greek
I listened to all of the amusing Ion by Ioannis Stratakis, following along with my own parallel text. Socrates makes a fool of a reciter of Homeric verse, who was perhaps too easy a victim.
French
Watched Dalida, les secrets d'une femme - Un jour : Un Destin - Laurent Delahousse - Documentaire histoire, 1:39:20. Probably the most successful women pop singer in France in the 60s and 70s, her story is told with imput from among others her brother and her cousin. Dalida commited suicide with barbiturates at the age of 54, and her fate reminds us of the suicides of other famous entertainers. One bit of information I picked up is that in her time she sold more records and albums than any other female singer in any language except for Madonna and Céline Dion. Here is the Destins - 100% documentaires video:
4 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Mar 15, 2022 4:52 pm

The fits and starts and ramblings that have occurred over the past several months may have found a resting place. With thanks again to SpanishInput for the post on n-grams and Herodotean for the advice on the TLG, the clutter on the desktop has gone from 2 instances of LWT, 4 o4 5 open Word documents, two or three open Excel spreadsheets, two or three open pdfs to just one Word document, the 2 LWT instances, and one open window on SCAIFE.
The open Word document is a frequency list of words appearing more than once in Thucydides—back to him again. I pick an unknown word from the list, search for it in the section of Terms (Words and Phrases) of LWT. That section, if the word is there, gives me a definition, and can take me to Logeion, which can give me if any exist collocations. The collocatition can often give me a short, short sentence to help the old memory.
What else that has been done is the loading into LWT of most of the works of the historians plus much of the work of Plato. The historians being Thycydides, Herodotus, Arrian, and Xenophon. The works of Plato include The Republic, most of which I have never read, and the works of Xenophon include Cyropaedia, which I have not read. The upside to having all these works in LWT is the access to many usages without always having to go to SCAIFE. The downside is LWT can be very sluggish indeed handling so many works.
One small sample from today was the word ὑπομιμνῄσκοντες, which means “reminding.” The word is used only once in Thucydides (and once in Xenophon’s Hellenica), of the works in my LWT. Not a difficult word, just ὑπο tacked on to μιμνῄσκοντες. But it is one word down and a usable procedure to work with.
8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Wed Mar 16, 2022 5:02 pm

An old thread on HTLAL which I just posted about on our forum, Listening-Reading, gave me some interesting and suggestive reading the last couple of days as I did my work on learning vocabulary for Ancient Greek. Some of the hints on that thread remind me of the AJATT site, which if you can keep yourself from getting distracted by the later sales promotions, provides practical, usuful advice to learners of any language. I especially remember the advice that you can stop reading a book any time you like if you want to and move on to something else. Likewise I like Atamagaii's particular piece of advice to read and enjoy a book in translation before you give it a go in the original. Though it's important to remember I think that Atamagaii wanted to learn languages out of a love of literature, not for (an equally valuable) practical reason.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:02 pm

March 26, 2022
A few videos. The best were
French
Secrets d'Histoire Officiel
Philippe Le Bel et l'étrange affaire des templiers - Secrets d'histoire, 1:42:02

Summarizes the background for the trials of the Templars under King Philippe Le Bel. The Iron King by Maurice Druon introduced me to these events. Some of you will have seen Game of Thrones. This Youtube video has no sex, no nudity, no dragons. The Iron King has sex and nudity but no dragons. :)

and
Spanish
El Bola, 51:26


Docudramas usually leave me cold. This one had an impact. Focusing on the dangerous games adolescents can play and on the serious problem of physical abuse of children. Mostly convincing, I thought.
Without the English subtitles I would have been clueless.

In Ancient Greek Youtube posts by Justen Sung interested me in the learning technique of Mindmapping, and a post by Online English Skills about using Mindmapping for vocabulary study hooked me.
Lesson 4: Boost Your Vocabulary with the Mind Mapping Strategy!, 5:05
Mindmapping
The poster does not go on and on and on about mindmapping, just gives a simple demonstration about how it works.
He intrigued me, so I gave mindmapping a test run on a few items from Ancient Greek.
In the center of a piece of paper goes the word and its definition(s), as the video shows. Around the periphery of the page goes, at the top center, Synonyms, at the top right, Antonyms, at the center left Collocations, if any, and on the bottom tier of the page visuals illustrating the meaning(s). The visuals don’t have to be fancy pictures from the Internet, they can be just crude drawings, so long as they remind you of the meaning.
I’m not showing a picture of a page because it would come out too small for showing the details. But here are some parts of the page I did for the important Greek word συμφέρω. There are several meanings, 1. the notion of bringing, collecting, carrying, 2. notion of being useful, expedient. 3. notion of working with. 4. bearing with, giving way. 5. fit, suit. 6. (of events) +inf happening, turning out. 7. agree. For grins I added συνήνεικε an aorist form.
Above the definitions I gave three synonyms,
    ὠφελέω help, χρῆσιμος useful, δεῖ fit
The Antonyms:
    σκεδάωωθμι scatter, ἀχρεῖος useless, ἄχρηστος unfit, Ayn Rand (for her novel Atlas Shrugged), ἥσθχος stationary, and διαφέρομαι disagree
.
Some collocations are:
    λεγω, πολις, δίκαιος
Circles are drawn around all these.
A picture would help bring out the Rembrandt qualities of my drawings, :) but a description will have to do.
    For collecting, three 5 cent coins. For agree, 2 hands shaking. For ‘bearing’ Atlas holding up the globe. For ‘useful, expedient,’ drawing of a Swiss knife. For ‘fit’, an arm flexing a bicep. For “happening”, a magic wand showering some star flakes. For working with, two hardhats and a shovel.
Each drawing is circled.
The value of this, for me, is that the pictures help set in the mind all those meanings and that the search for collocations and especially for synonyms and antonyms get the old noggin working and thinking about Greek.
Took about half an hour more or less to complete the mindmap. A quick glance at the illustrations brings it all back to mind.
Looking the the post about mindmapping can give you a good illustration of the format and solidify the concept in your head, if you are interested.
8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Mar 27, 2022 4:47 pm

Some resources here for my mindmapping.

1. For finding synonyms and antonyms.
A. English-Greek Dictionary, A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, by S. C. Woodhouse. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, first published 1910, reprinted 1940.
B. Greek Synonyms from the French of Alex. Pillon, edited with notes, by T. K. Arnold.

2. For usage and sample sentences:
THESAURUS LINGUAE GRAECAE ® (TLG), A Digital Library of Greek Literature.

3. For usage, sample sentences and finding collocations via Logeion: LWT. It helps to have over 180,000 terms and expressions.
4 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Apr 02, 2022 5:53 pm

Spanish
Loaded Podcast en Spanish on my iPod. Thanks to Kraut for the reference.
Found a great number of the incomparable stories of Anton Chekhov translated into Spanish. He's Antón Chéjov in Spanish.
At over 90% finished, the power of the characters and the relationships in La Novela de Genji becomes ever more evident.

French
A couple of books.One in English about the defeat of the French army by the Germans in 1940: The Fall of France by Julian Jackson. Details of recriminations on all sides about what went wrong on the French side. In Jackson's opinion, the fault lay mostly with many poor military decisions. Based on data from the book, it is hard to disagree with him.

One in French, Les mythes de la seconde guerre mondiale, by Jean Lopez. Topics such as "was Rommel really a great general?" or "could submarines have won the war for the Germans?" Lopez thinks the answer to both questions is no.

And still reading volume 3 of the Histoire de France by Michelet about, among other things, the career of Richard III the Lion Heart of England. Europeans have been fighting each other forever.

Ancient Greek
The latest "casualty" of my mindmapping is the ubiquitous προστίθημι. With at least eight different meanings, not hard to create some "art" work to illustrate, but too many synonyms and antonyms to do justice to them on one sheet of paper :( I was happy with a doodle of two pieces of a crossword puzzle to illustrate "join."

Having worked a bit now with mindmapping, it is rather a grandiose word for a rather simple technique.
8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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Herodotean
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby Herodotean » Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:57 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:Some resources here for my mindmapping.
1. For finding synonyms and antonyms.
A. English-Greek Dictionary, A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, by S. C. Woodhouse. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, first published 1910, reprinted 1940.
B. Greek Synonyms from the French of Alex. Pillon, edited with notes, by T. K. Arnold.


Just in case, I'll mention that Woodhouse should always be cross-checked with LSJ; don't take Woodhouse's word for anything. And I find this interface to be more user-friendly than the PDF and the Chicago website.
2 x

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Apr 03, 2022 4:54 pm

Herodotean wrote:
MorkTheFiddle wrote:Some resources here for my mindmapping.
1. For finding synonyms and antonyms.
A. English-Greek Dictionary, A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, by S. C. Woodhouse. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, first published 1910, reprinted 1940.
B. Greek Synonyms from the French of Alex. Pillon, edited with notes, by T. K. Arnold.


Just in case, I'll mention that Woodhouse should always be cross-checked with LSJ; don't take Woodhouse's word for anything. And I find this interface to be more user-friendly than the PDF and the Chicago website.
You are right. The Chicago website is far friendlier than the pdf. And even Woodhouse gives a warning about the reliability of his work. :) Thank you for much time saved.
1 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson


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