Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

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Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Wed May 10, 2017 10:52 pm

It's much easier to read the transliterated version. Bt.w. I should have noticed that the reference didn't go to the page about Bratislava - I had quite a lot of trouble removing a parenthesis with the word "Slovensko" which for some unknown reason had the same parenthesis in both ends. Mixing a pasasge in a writing system that go from left to right with writing in the opposite direction can apparently give funny results:

סלאָװאַקײַ (סלאוואקיש: Slovensko), אפיציעל סלאוואקישע רעפובליק, איז אַ לאַנד אין צענטראַל אײראָפּע וואס איז לאנד

I just looked over to my TV which is set to silent mode, because I'm listening to the Belkis suite of the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi ... and lo and behold, they told me something I didn't know, namely that there is a lot of Denisovan DNA in the genes of Tibetans. OK, I knew that there was some in the genes of Melanesians and some other Pacific populations, including Australian Aborigines, but the Tibetans???? The Denisovans were early inhabitants of Siberia, and the reason we know them is that a few bone fragments - including a pinky of a child - were found in a cave, and the eminent Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo analyzed the DNA in that tiny piece of bone and discovered that its DNA was different from both that of the Neanderthalians and Homo Sapiens, so there must have been a third human species running around on the planet fairly recently. And now I have just seen in Wikipedia that "in 2013, mitochondrial DNA from a 400,000-year-old hominin femur bone from Spain, which had been seen as either Neanderthal or Homo heidelbergensis, was found to be closer to Denisovan mtDNA (=mitochondrial DNA) than to Neanderthal mtDNA". The whole research subject is moving under your feet while you read about it!

Did the Denisovans (and the Neanderthalers) speak? Almost certainly - the FOX2b gene with the two essential mutations was present in the (probable) common ancestor of all three species, Homo heidelbergensis.

IT: Quanto a Respighi, egli è il compositore che a scritto I Pini di Roma, Fontane di Roma e Feste Romane - tutta una guida alla città di Roma in musica. Quando ascolto il sua musica mi fa voglia di prenderci un volo buonmercato. L'ultima colta che visitei Roma avevo solo il tempo di visitare Il Bioparco, Il Vaticano e la parte della città con Piazza Navona. Il resto della mia mini-vacanza spesi sul Sardinia ... ed adesso vorrei scrivere il resto nella lingua Sarda, ma non l'ho apreso.

E allora, che scrivono i sardi Wikipedisti su Bratislava? Purtroppo non molto: "Bratislava est una tzitade de 462 603 abitantes, capitale de s'Islovàchia.". Ma nient'affatto su Respighi, e solo questo su Roma: "Roma est sa capitale e sa tzitade pius manna de s'Itàlia cun unos 2.700.000 abitantes collocados in d'un'area de 1.285 km², est su comune pius populadu e pius mannu de tota s'Italia. Roma est istada sa capitale de s'Imperu Romanu e su centru de sa cristianidade cattoliga. Cun pius de 26 miliones de visitadores in su 2007, Roma est sa tertza tzitade in Europa e s'ottava in su mundu comente numeru de presentzias turistigas. Su tzentru istoricu de Roma est iscrittu in sa lista de sos Patrimonios de s'Umanidade (World Heritage Sites) de s'UNESCO."

Trevi-P1002b03.JPG


PS: did you notice that Sardic has pronouns with s- instead of the usual s- ? (su, sa, sos) It shares this trait with the Mallorquin dialect of Catalan - did this dialect adopt it from the conservative dialect bundle named Sardic on Sardinia or what?
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Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Sat May 13, 2017 3:54 am

I have now after a day and a long night's work finished a rough draft and an image collection for my lecture in Bratislava. The images may be supplemented or exchanged with others until I leave home, but basically the collection will in all likelihood not change much. As for the things I'm going to say, well... time will tell what I actually choose to say about those images.

The things I don't expect to have time to say will probably pop up in this thread instead.

And I have inadvertedly just used the construction which is used to deny that 's is a genitive ending (in Danish), all because English doesn't have a word for a period of 24 hours.
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Sun May 14, 2017 10:15 pm

LA: Duos dies in excursu insulam Fioniam insulam transivi ut particeps conventi associationis viatorium esse. Tamen in horto hospitium - magnicens, obiter - tugurium ex ligno factum erat, et mihi permitterunt ibi pernocatre. Robotam habebat quae gramina suarum immensa diem noctemque assiduiter serrabat. Hilare erat eam observare!

Quamobrem participatio in peregrinatio Fionica biduum verso est, ubi Otensem ('Odense'), Novocatellum ('Nyborg'), Assentem ('Assens') et Montemflaccicum ('Vissenberg', anglice 'withered mount) - locus terrarii - visitavi.

Hic in Dania die venere celebravimus Diem Magnam Precium (contradictio in terminis!), et Museum Ferroviarii Othensensis triduum actiones libriis proposuit, inter alia cursus traminiis vaporis ferriviariis - sed etiam expositionem interrailorum habebant, id quod mihi quam pristinus interrailisticus valde delectavit. De Othense as Novocastellum ivi, ubi castellum museumque visitavi, et postea ad domum hospitum conventii ivi. Ibi cenavimus et conversavimus et videotaeniam vidimus de peregrinationi hospitium ad Terram-nova-inventam ("Newfoundland' - NB. ictus in prima syllaba !), ubi vicingi coloniam in Anse-aux-Meadows (i.e. 'sinus parva apud stagna') condiderunt - sed brevi rursus reliquerunt propter inimicitatem populationis indigenae.

Hodie in Assentem Collectionem Ernsti visitavi, quae mirabilis et visitanda est. Ernst senior faber argentarius fuit et officiam condidit, quam Ernst junior post mortem patris continuare debebat. Uterque iliorum collectator fanaticus erat, et quia filius filios not habebat (et officiam antehac clausa erat) post funeralia fundationem conditur ut museum publici accessi constituere. Per fortunam spatium officinae ad museum adjungere potuerant - alioquin visitanti musei inter thesauri collectionis non penetrare potesserant. Nescio cur Familia Ernst et servi sua inter spoelia cupidinis colligendi in domum suum movebant ante adjunctionem spatii officinae.

Autem, maximus problema istud scribere mihi fuit verbum non-ambiguum invenire per "host" anglicus ('vært' in lingva danica). Non "hostis" est, qui peregrinus aut/et inimicus est in lingva latina. Et "hospes" secundum lexica lingvae latinae significat et "host" et "guest". Cur romani differentiam non videbant? Num invasores cruentes incorrigibilesque facti sunt quia differentiam NON sciebant? Forsitan "Satyricon" Petronii consultare debeo ut bonum verbum inventarem gentium qui alios homines in casa sua voluntarie invitent.

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Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Tue May 16, 2017 10:36 pm

EN: I have worked with a Russian text today (see below), but also finished the instrumentation of a movement for brass. And of course I have also watched TV, and right now there is a program from TV5 in French about the French presidents and the way they have transferred the power from one to the next. They have just mentioned an incident where a general Boissieu* had demissioned in order not to be part of the ceremony where Mitterand should receive the collier (i.e. necklace) of the Légion d'honneur - he felt that Mitterand had been disrespectful towards his idol de Gaulle. This incident reminds me about my study years, where I wrote about French politics in the form of a tragedy based on Racine's Phèdre (quoted in its entirety here - Feb 08, 2016). De Gaulle had lost a referendum, emptied the caskets of the Élysée and left without even saying a word to the man who had to take over until a new president could be elected, namely the leader of the Sénate Alain Poher. Pompidou won the ensuing elections, but died of cancer, and poor Poher had to step in once again, now to fill out the void until Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected. And somehow I found that this was stuff for a full tragedy in alexandrins. My teachers never really knew what I would come up with when they asked me to write an essay. Once I wrote an essay in the form of a system of equations about the Biafra civil war in Nigeria.

EDIT: I just found the following about M. Boissieu in the French Wikipedia - something of a character!

"Homme d'éclat qui attache une grande importance à son honneur, il commande en juin 1940, contre des troupes allemandes, l'une des dernières charges de cavalerie sabre au clair de l'armée française. Fait prisonnier, il s'évade par la Pologne vers la Russie, passant des camps de prisonniers nazis aux camps staliniens. Une fois l'URSS entrée en guerre contre l'Allemagne en 1941, il rejoint la France libre et participe aux combats de la Libération.(...) Devenu grand chancelier de la Légion d'honneur et chancelier de l'Ordre national du Mérite, il démissionne de ses fonctions avec fracas en mai 1981 afin de ne pas avoir à remettre le collier de grand maître de l'Ordre à François Mitterrand, nouvellement élu président de la République."

FR: Avant ça nous avons vu l'intérieur du Palais d'Elysée, que je n'ai jamais visité. On a dit que c'était totalement fermé au publique jusqu'à l'assomption du pouvoir de Giscard (apart les visiteurs VIP) , mais je ne sais pas si on l'a fermé encore une fois, du à la menace des terroristes. En tout cas c'est un palais richement décoré et avec un tas d'employées avec des titres parfois ultra-historiques - juste en ce moment il y un monsieur sur l'écran qui était le majordome de Giscard. Majordome? Pour ceux qui ne s'en souvient pas, je vais seulement mentionner que le grand-père de Charlemagne, Pippin le Bref, avait ce titre, et sa position était assez importante pour qu'il puisse déposer le dernier des rois mérovingiens. Il ya aussi un theâtre et un jardin privé dans ce complexe, jadis connu sous le nom d'hôtel Évreux et donné comme cadeau par Louis XV a sa maitresse madame Pompadour.

SW: Tidigare på dagen såg jag den första av två svenska program om vikingarna. Förste del började med att påminna om att vikingatiden började länge innan den välkända Lindisfarne-episod - og jag tror faktisk, att jag har nämt detta i min log (eller måhända i min log på HTLAL). Arkeologerna har hittat fartyg med döda krigare på ön Ösel i Estland, ock dessa liknade i alla avseenden de senare vikingaskepp som ni kan se i Oslo och Roskilde, ock som tillät vikingarne att korsa Atlanten och etablera kolonier på Grönland och (kortvarigt) Newfoundland. Jag nämta L'Anse-aux-Meadows för några dagar sedan (på latin), och i den andra delen av serien kommer vi att få veta mer om jakten på ytterligare vikingbosättningar i Nordamerika - nu ved hjälp av satellitfoto.

RU: Русский текст, который я изучил сегодня о ядерной физике, говорит o концепции суперсимметрии. К счастью, я знаю немного предмета (хотя без овладения математики) - в противном случае я не понял много. Я даже нашел слова для вещей, для которых я не знаю слова в датском, такие как "gauge theories": "калибровочной теории". Ядерная физика сегодня - не просто список частиц. То есть системы, в которых отдельные частицы, появляющиеся в качестве позиции в математических системах (неабелевы группы), и новизна суперсимметрии является то, что он устанавливает систему с как фермионов и бозонов - и обнаруживает, что система предсказывает некоторые частицы, которые еще не встретился. Теперь же ученые должны начать их искать, и это будет стоить нам много денег.

FR: Et maintenant TV5 parle de la cuisine française - et des guides rouges Michelin, qui sont l'horreur et abomination de toute la profession culinaire.

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Thu May 18, 2017 7:03 pm

EN: SInce yesterday I have finished my Russian article about quantum-mechanical supersymmety theories, and I have proceeded to read about koalas in Greek. Both things may sound difficult, but since the topics also interest me in Danish (and English) I have already read about them - and I would even say that it is easier to read about such things than it is to read ordinary fictional works. Some words are international scientific terms with just minor adaptations, and even when you couldn't have predicted the exact form of a word you may be able to recognize it. For instance it surprised me to see marsupials named "μαρσιποφόροι" in Greek (/marsiopofori/), but it is easy to recognize and understand the word when you see it. And context helps in other cases, like when the joey "Αμέσως σκαρφαλώνει μέχρι το μάρσιπο της μητέρας του". You know that the bean-sized newborn has to to climb to the pouch (which you know from the name of the marsipials) so "σκαρφαλώνει" is likely to mean something like 'climb' - and indeed it does.

GR: Έχω δει μόνο τα κοάλα σε ζωολογικούς κήπους, και υπάρχουν μόνο σε σχετικά λίγες ζωολογικούς κήπους (η αυστραλιανή νομοθεσία είναι πολύ περιοριστικό όσον αφορά την εξαγωγή των κατοικίδιων ζώων). Έχω επισκεφθεί την Αυστραλία φορά, και θυμάμαι ότι έξω από Μπρίσμπειν ήταν ένα κέντρο όπου το κοινό μπορούσε να φωτογραφηθεί με τα κοάλα. Μου τον αποκαλούσα "gramse-bamse-center" (= κέντρο χαϊδεύσης αρκούδων) στα δανικά, αλλά πρέπει να είστε προσεκτικοί: τα ζώα κοιμούνται τις περισσότερες φορές, και είναι μεθυσμένοι από το φύλλα ευκαλύπτου που τρώνε, αλλά έχουν επίσης μεγάλα νύχια και ένα πολύ μικρό εγκέφαλο! Εγώ δεν έχω ποτέ αγγίξει ένα κοάλα, αλλά στην αγγλική κουίζ QI ο κωμικός Sean Lock είπε ότι κατείχε ένα κοάλα, και όταν κινείται, γλίστρησε το δάχτυλό του στον κώλου του κοαλα. Δεν είναι πολιτικά ορθό να πω αυτό, αλλά ίσως δεν είναι αλήθεια. Ας ελπίσουμε ότι αυτό δεν είναι αλήθεια!

EN: And of course I have also watched television, like today an excellent program about royal bedchambers from Edward I to Victoria with Lucy Worsley - but in English, so I'm not going to comment on it. Except saying that she forgot to mention the incident where queen Elizabeth II had to entertain an intruder in her bed chamber for some time until the security service could be bothered to come and apprehend the guy.

LA: Ego saepe ad televisioni refero, et forsitan credes ut ergo televisionem amo. Istud non verum est, ego generaliter eam odio quia per credulibus qui merces ement facta est.. plerumque de malevolentibus cum memoria exigua atque iudicium pessimum. Nescio cur credunt ut taenias mercatorium magis spectatoribus delectant se iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum et iterum ad nauseam repetantur (hoc etiam per micro-taeniae canalitium valet). Praeterea programmata etiam ad nauseam repetantur ut pecuniam reservaret.

Dicitur spectatores televisionis classici nunc fugent ad ministeria transmissionis fluentis ('streaming' anglice), sed ego infrequentissime taenias fictionis video, et se ad computralio meo sum non saepe accidit ut taenias viderem - verosimilius est me cum data mea musicae aut imaginis occupatus esse. Ut hanc mutationem facere opus est dua computralia, unum cum documentiis meis, alium qui interretum accidit et non documenta in modo perpetuo continet - etiam propter situationem lamentabilem securitatis interretialis.

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Fri May 19, 2017 7:47 pm

I have watched TV again (repeat offender!): Mike Rowe visited a farm where cow pooh was transformed into organic flower pots - and to perform this feat the farmer and Mike had to wade around in cow pooh. But it was all in English so I shan't comment on it here. I also saw a program about the Ming dynasty in China, but if I should comment on it I would have to learn Chinese first. It won't happen. And I saw a program from a Danish regional sender about the oldest part of the history of my town Aros, which at one point was attacked by a fleet of Norwegians, but apparently the 'last Danish viking king' was inside the town and he came out with his warriors and chased the Norwegians away, and they never returned. I could say a few words about it, and since it happened at the end of the viking age you'll get it in Icelandic, which probably is closer to the language of the Danes of that time than modern Danish is.

IC: Eftirnafn Svend Estridssonurs þýðir "sonur Estriðar". Það er vegna þess að móðir hans var dóttir konungs Sveins Tjúguskeggs og systir Knúts ríku konungs (í Englandi þekktur sem "Cnut se Micela") - og þarmeð fínni en faðir hans Ulf Jarl. Og svo var hann hórkarl sem fékk aragrúa af skelgetin og (sérstaklega) óskilgetin börn, þar af ekki minna en fimm urðu konungar Danmerkur eftir dauða hans. Af hverju gerðu Norðmennini þa á leiðangur til Danmerkur? Já, forveri hans sem konungur Danmerkur var Magnús, konungur Noregs, sonur Noregskonungens Olav (svonefnt) Heilagur, sem hafði gert undarlega samning við Hardeknud Danakonungs: sá sem lifði lengst tími, myndi taka yfir bæði ríki. Þegar Magnus lést árið 1047, hljóp Svend Estridsøn að ná völdum í Danmörku, en um valdatíma hans kom hann að berjast við vonbrigðum Norðmenn sem hélt að þeir myndu skila konungum Danmerkur ótakmarkað. Það gerðist eins og við vitum ekki, og kredit fyrir att Danmörku og Noregi voru aðskilna ríkir til stofnuns Kalmarsambandsins er skýrt Sveini.

RU: Am studiat, de asemenea, o serie de texte în limba română pe neandertalienii, inclusiv sunetul vocii lor. Gâtul lor a fost mai scurt și mai îngust decât cel ai sapientilor, și este probabil ca vocile lor au fost mai tare și mai clare în ton decât voci sapentilor. Sau altfel spus: un mare om Neanderthal puternic și dur avea o voce țeavă, așa cum unii au încercat să-le reconstituie cu performanțe aproape straniu, pe care puteți să-le auzi pe Youtube.

SvendEstridsoen.jpg

DA: Det var forresten også under Svend Estridsøn at man begyndte at slå mønt - i Aros og med assistance af engelske fagfolk. Jeg undrer mig dog over at kongen afbildes med en indiansk fjerprydelse. Og en blomst..
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby William Camden » Sat May 20, 2017 5:50 am

Iversen wrote:EN:

EN: And of course I have also watched television, like today an excellent program about royal bedchambers from Edward I to Victoria with Lucy Worsley - but in English, so I'm not going to comment on it. Except saying that she forgot to mention the incident where queen Elizabeth II had to entertain an intruder in her bed chamber for some time until the security service could be bothered to come and apprehend the guy.




GramseBamseDuisburg.jpg


I remember that incident in my youth. There was some ribald comment written on walls in Scotland presuming some form of coital congress between Her Majesty and the "guest"...
Mind you, ordinary members of the public could walk past Downing Street, then much more accessible than Buckingham Palace. Not any more...
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Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Mon May 22, 2017 10:18 pm

I have spent the weekend until Monday aftrnoon at my mother's place, and since the weather for once was impeccable I spent much of the time on using a 'grass trimmer' - at least that seems to be the English name for a 'græstrimmer', which we in our family until now only have known under the (Danish) name 'pister'. But when I prepared to write this message I found that the word 'pister' may be totally homemade. Anyway, it is a thing with a nylon cord on an axis that rotates very fast and whips weeds to bits. I also dug up several bags of dandelions and assisted my sister in washing her camper waggon .. oh no, that word doesn't exist. It is a caravan, and since she is scared of standing on wiggly metal ladders it has become my job to wash the roof of the thing. I also assisted my mother with the production of 12 cinnamon buns with and without chopped almonds - "mandelsplitter" in Danish. And before writing this I did need to check whether you can say "almond split(ter)s" - It seems not. And now I wonder whether "it seems not" might be one of those locutions that Anglophone purists loath. Well, who cares? Did I have time to study? Well; I actually read a few pages of Latin grammar before sleeping, which may have hastened the process.

Kunst087.JPG

After my return to my homely lair I have been studying some aspects of the history of the Germanic languages, and among other things I was reminded of an exceptionally good grammar in Ancient Icelandic (from around 1300), the "Fyrsta málfræðiritgerðin". The general meaning of the following quote is that you need specific letters for each language ... but if you don't find them then they are "af ganga" (dropped? or invented ?):

Hveriga tungu er maðr skal ríta annarar tungu stǫfum, þá verðr sumra stafa vant, af því […] at eigi finnsk þat hljóð í tungunni, sem stafirnir hafa, þeir er af ganga.

And no, "finnsk" isn't Finnish. It means "is found" and is actually a reflexive verb with the pronoun "sik" integrated as an ending, used as a passive. Besides nobody on Icelandic cared about Finno-Ugrian languages at this time. You will also notice the use the letter like "ǫ" which later were replaced by "ö" - this shows the age of the text: Old Norse (or Old Icelandic), not Modern Icelandic. Actually the original Old Norse texts form a fairly heterogenous bunch in their handwritten form, but you don't see this because all the printed editions (even the scientific ones) are normalized - and non-scientific editions are translated into Modern Icelandic, which for instance means that the ending -r becomes -ur. This grammatical treatise is also the only reason that we today now that Old Norse had nasal vowels - they have been denasalized in the modern Scandinavian languages.

I have still not decided whether I'll be participating in the Polyglot Conference in Reykjavík - it will take some planning to make it into a decent holiday, since late fall isn't the optimal season for travelling around in the countryside outside the capital so the logical solution would be to do Iceland as a stop on the way to North America.. So far my main concern is the gathering in Bratislava.
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Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
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Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Wed May 24, 2017 8:12 am

Since yesterday I have been thinking about the words "af ganga". If you try to use the alphabet of some other language and don't find letters for certain sounds, then they are "af ganga". I decided to look these words up in my edition of "Oldnordisk Læsebog" by Ludvig F.A. Wimmer (reprint from 1967 of an edition from 1916 of a book from 1870 - but still easily the best one around). It didn't have "af gangi" (supposedly with a form of *gangi), but only "af gǫngu" (a form of the word "ganga", which means something like walk(ing) or stride and is related to the verb "að ganga" = 'to go', 'to walk'. But that doesn't fit the sentence I quoted, so now I am confused. The safe thing is that there was a smart guy on Iceland around 1200 who was aware of the problems of using alphabets which lacked letters for certain sounds.

And lo and behold, I used the the opportunity to read some of the texts in the book, and in Hávamal (the speech by the high one (Odin)) I found not only "ǫ" (later replaced by ö in Modern Icelandic), but also "ø" as in Danish and "œ" as in French:

"Ríki sitt
skyldi raðsnótra hverr
í hófi hafa;
þá hann þat finnr;
es med frœknum kømr;
at engi es enni hvatastr;


my own hyperliteral translation:

realm his
should clever every(one)
in moderation have [=rule};
then he that finds;
when with brave-ones comes,
that nobody is of-all (the) bravest/most manly.


The translation from Beyondweird runs as follows:

Each of the prudent must
hold in moderation
his power;
then he finds it,
when he comes among valiant men,
that none is keenest of all.

Do I understand the meaning? Not really - but after all, I'm not a viking.

Yesterday evening I also read some texts in old versions of German and some Afrikaans. The German ones included parts of the Nibelungenlied, which ultimately is said to depict events surrounding the Burgundian court in Central Europe, but shares some key figures with Norse mythology - like the hero Sigurðr (Wagner's Siegfried) who killed a dragon and tasted its blood and got involved with a lady called Brunhilde, who actually was a Merovingian queen - yes, I know, it is somewhat complicated. But it is even more complicated (and long-winded) in the Middle High German original version.

In Afrikaans I read some bird descriptions in my excellent "Robert's Voëlgids", which I bought during my latest visit down there. At first I had bought a book called "Watter voël is dit" ('What bird is that?'), but it didn't have translations of the bird names, and since I mostly deal with African birds in English that wasn't OK. So I put it on a table in one of my camps with a note that said it should be handed over to somebody who would appreciate it - and then I bought the ultra-informative Robert's (check out the bustards below).

AF: Die eerste keer dat ek Suid-Afrika besoek, het ek 'n Drifters toer met 'n groot 'truck' ' gekoop wat sou strek vanaf Johannesburg deur Kruger en Durban via Drakensberg en Karoo na Kaapstad - maar ek het halfpad in Bloomfontein uitgestap omdat die twee guids spel vervloek rockmusiek elke keer as ons gery het op die pad - en dit was eenvoudig ondraaglik. My laaste reis was ook met 'n groot vragmotor (van Nomads), maar die reis was in alle opsigte suksesvol - geen musiek in die voertuig. En ek is in groot kabines in die verskillende kampe geakkommodeer wees - pure paleise! Diegene wat die goedkoper akkommodasie gekies het, het klein tente ontvang die deur die selfs eiehandig selfs moet opsteken. Soms is dit dom suinig te wees...

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Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
Location: Denmark
Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:05 am

As I wrote in the Ployglot gathering 2017 thread I expanded my trip to Bratislava to a voyage from Tuzla in Bosnia til Nürnberg in Germany, and I only returned Sunday late in the evening. I have now reduced some 500 photos to 202 (which mostly have been edited to remove irritating objects, modify the light) and make walls vertical again. That took the whole of Monday, and then I spent some hours to update my html-based reference system and write travelogue stubs for each day during the travel. Yesterday I listened to about 4 hours of music by Alan Hovhaness and went to town to visit the library and buy stuff... well summa summarum, I haven't studied languages since I returned home, but now the worst is over - apart from the fact that we have a horde of handicraft people running around in the highrise house where I live because they have to fix something called "faldstamme" in Danish and "soil pipe" or "soil stack" in English. I have two, one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen, and all the other flats also have them, and I have had to empty some cupboards and endure boring noise the whole month because it spreads through concrete as if it was paid to do so.. But I'll survive, and I'm already planning what to study once I get some free time again. I brought a number of dictionaries and grammars back from Bratislava (for Slovakian and Czech) so even though I don't plan to add any of these language to my active list soon I do want to know more about them and maybe learn to read them. Add some gardening for my mother and other menial tasks, and then the rest of this summer is accounted for.

And in case you wonder: who is that guy Hovhaness?? Well, he may not be a household name, but in my eyes he is one of most important 'classical' composers of the past century because he wrote extremely personal and undeniably modern, but still euphoneous music in a time plagued by rubbish avantgarde 'music' (or whatever you choose to call it). I have earlier made some disparaging remarks about lazy composers from around 1800 and onwards. No such qualms about mr. Hovhaness: even though he destroyed an immense amount of his early compositions sometime during the early 40s he managed to write more than 500 new ones in his long life - including 57 numbered symphonies (and several unnumbered ones). I do think productivity is a good thing when it is combined with excellent taste, and I find both in this man. PS: I should maybe have written this in Armenian since he was of Armenian stock (although born in the States) ... but then I would have to learn it first.

And now the first part of my travelogue: a company named WizzAir has started budget flights from Denmark to Tuzla, and because I also used it for my recent trip to Cluj in Romania I knew that they also had flights from Tuzla to Bratislava. And even though all the relevant flights started uncomfortably early in the morning I couldn't resist the temptation.

SE: И можда ја би не требало да пише о Тузли на српском јер срби заиста бомбардовали град током грађанског рата, али освета долази са мојом јадном српском језику! Град има удобан стари центар и 'веллнесс' парк са три сланим језерима и пешчаним плажама под именом 'Pannonia', где такође постоје неке обновљене куће из Паноније пре 5.000 година. Они такође имају истоцнобосанског музеј, али нема новца да остане отворен за посетиоце.

Већина становника су муслимани, и неколико пута дневно, ту је бука од минарета - али такође можете купити млевеног свињског меса. Превоз из града је мало проблематично. Постоји железничка станица, али не распоред и хотелпортиерен добио шок када сам му рекао да сам видео путнички воз на први платформи. Постоји добар аутобуска станица, али сви пут су аутомобили очигледно иду у Немачку. И аеродром се користи вероватно само WizzAir и не постоји аутобус do/od аеродром. Такси кошта 15 евра за око 15 километара.

More about the trip later.

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