tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10618983894817536552024-02-08T03:30:44.024+01:00A Little Light WritingYash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-23278287373487777462019-10-19T21:02:00.000+02:002019-10-20T19:13:04.438+02:00The Next Step<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes words and images go perfectly together. Case in point:</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioUTSLv81yrZL9mAIwUFOBt7FRxGzyPVQIicr6mYIyjepAINOT28w3obN9mKhH1EFFHNwRW2WO8ArwdisgZcpFU9_7f8s_n5Kib2A-sxNlysCZJXeI2-t1mKlksTPL0gLSSuycaSPZvoc/s1600/The+Next+Step+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioUTSLv81yrZL9mAIwUFOBt7FRxGzyPVQIicr6mYIyjepAINOT28w3obN9mKhH1EFFHNwRW2WO8ArwdisgZcpFU9_7f8s_n5Kib2A-sxNlysCZJXeI2-t1mKlksTPL0gLSSuycaSPZvoc/s400/The+Next+Step+2.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Next Step</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a shot from a local lake one misty morning over ten years ago. It’s quiet, meditative. It almost evokes a zen-garden feeling. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In itself it’s an interesting enough picture. Not my favorite or best shot, and certainly not my worst. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But over the years it's become my best-seller. And I think it's because of its title. More than one person has commented that it’s the caption that really makes the picture for them. Reportedly, it brought someone out of depression after the loss of a loved one. Others have their own reactions to it and reflections branching out from it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The title and image serve each other symbiotically as a kind of focusing mechanism for a concept -- different for everyone who has commented on it, but similar in function. It’s the best example I have of</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> words enhancing images</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">o - o - o</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Interestingly, though it's a good seller (all things being relative), I took it with a crappy old Sony Cybershot DSC-P8, which was a 3.2 megapixel camera. It takes a lot of care to get a good print, and even then I can't print it any larger than about 8x11 inches. But it just shows that it doesn't <i>have</i> to be about the equipment.</span></span></div>
Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-55051159706687002872019-10-13T21:25:00.000+02:002019-10-14T20:45:51.465+02:00Painting with WaterOver the years, I've found myself giving the<i> exact same </i>working title to many of my images, because the name fits so naturally. The title that comes into my head before any other is this: <b>Watercolor</b>. In itself, it's a nondescript word to describe a photograph--more a medium than a subject. But when I'm editing or simply viewing these images, it's the most fitting title.<br />
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I've toyed with calling them things like "Watercolor #2" (or #2,000, or #6,439). But I don't need such a naming scheme to identify what is clearly a very strong theme to many of my images. I am, simply put, addicted to making photos of water in its various states: liquid, solid, gas (steam, mist, vapor). I once even had a special sub-section of a photo show devoted to this theme.<br />
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There is infinite variety in such a subject; no two images can ever be the same (well, at least not for the liquid and gas phases). Heraclitus said no one ever steps in the same river twice, and this is also true for the person who takes two or more pictures of that river. It's not just that water is an ever changing subject in itself, but in its liquid phase it's also an ever changing canvas of reflections.<br />
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If you're one of the 5 people reading this, you already know this about me and my images.<br />
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All this to say here are three recent photos (two of which I've deleted from recent blog posts in order to do some quality editing).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGa-wSqpOpaJIDtS4O4E8rFCndNEmkY7Igyq_FVtOgG-SEtrORs17tUiC2bGzQ7XUqpgNpyv3u9Bo6Yvp0cnjzaaeuxdDuxCbvdxa_H9TjMmijxAtpaSS7fHlMQ9KIlKEFH_JVZ7FjPKI/s1600/Camo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGa-wSqpOpaJIDtS4O4E8rFCndNEmkY7Igyq_FVtOgG-SEtrORs17tUiC2bGzQ7XUqpgNpyv3u9Bo6Yvp0cnjzaaeuxdDuxCbvdxa_H9TjMmijxAtpaSS7fHlMQ9KIlKEFH_JVZ7FjPKI/s400/Camo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Camo"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVK2elGn0fgXGcXmdrf2S7jmqhEXRpe5_A3gYH5vyAyI_Fdmxg6pdKBteVFhKS41u2YJlTHCJn7G7BXZeFg2SQ8EVZ29p4GjEDiIvJma4ZFbjqBYvESwTUMhZV3_LqFzD7gL9ToxNWHw8/s1600/Frenzy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1389" data-original-width="1600" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVK2elGn0fgXGcXmdrf2S7jmqhEXRpe5_A3gYH5vyAyI_Fdmxg6pdKBteVFhKS41u2YJlTHCJn7G7BXZeFg2SQ8EVZ29p4GjEDiIvJma4ZFbjqBYvESwTUMhZV3_LqFzD7gL9ToxNWHw8/s400/Frenzy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Frenzy"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajrTLibTg7hA2zGJcy-aG_JZ3-COHDpIvxhl4CInoOVsEpvgeTo7EI0o-_07NxFZNjbmgClxoxXYCEk9K3H13slAzd_UtqL0EZ-jUGiujPJUa4I9gF4xR2O5Ie9StdUr88M9Fe9VIdMo/s1600/WaterCloud.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajrTLibTg7hA2zGJcy-aG_JZ3-COHDpIvxhl4CInoOVsEpvgeTo7EI0o-_07NxFZNjbmgClxoxXYCEk9K3H13slAzd_UtqL0EZ-jUGiujPJUa4I9gF4xR2O5Ie9StdUr88M9Fe9VIdMo/s400/WaterCloud.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Waking Up"</td></tr>
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<br />Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-3955789431719925382019-10-12T19:25:00.000+02:002019-10-13T20:54:26.505+02:00Phall Pholiage Foto RunFall is well and truly under way in our corner of Germany. After a good 10 days or so of cold rain, the weather cleared, and warmed up, in time for the weekend. Anne and I went out for a couple runs this morning. It's more than one, because Anne ran hers and I, nursing an aging knee back into shape, shuffled mine.<br />
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But that's okay, because I was there for the sights, smells, and sensations as much as for the run. After the first hundred meters running together, I made the first of many stops for pictures of the exploding colors. Anne continued on her way and I didn't see her again until I drove home a few hours later (she ran home).<br />
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After the first five miles, I stopped for a beer at a forest <i>Gaststätte</i>, to look through my photos, soak in the sun, and wave away the many bees warmly buzzing around the dishes of cakes and torts the clientele were enjoying on the terrace.<br />
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Then I beer-burped the last mile back to the car, collecting pretty leaves on the way.<br />
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Here are ten keepers from this perfect morning (click on a photo and use the left/right arrow keys to scroll):<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zdbjZlSULW1F_UixMpVcOFe-smat8BT-fdiJbRst6wY-SCo17CUrHmBrzgm902Nx-LJmfBgLvsuM5_fzBLkNFLJJz6OEP47bWjSveJ6B57Tx31pIooF21cvnRDwG7fKoGj7oXM9HlC4/s1600/IMG_5344.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zdbjZlSULW1F_UixMpVcOFe-smat8BT-fdiJbRst6wY-SCo17CUrHmBrzgm902Nx-LJmfBgLvsuM5_fzBLkNFLJJz6OEP47bWjSveJ6B57Tx31pIooF21cvnRDwG7fKoGj7oXM9HlC4/s320/IMG_5344.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I call this one "Adam and God"<br />
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<br />Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-21264795317193331192019-10-07T12:30:00.000+02:002019-10-07T12:30:01.740+02:00Weird/Not WeirdThe only thing that’s strange is that nothing is strange. Dropped into a foreign land, yet not at all foreign.<br />
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After our departure in September 2017, we kept in the back of our minds the desire to get back to Europe some day in the future. But after four serious moves* in only two and a half years, we were hoping to stay put for a while. If for no other reason than to take a rest. We bought property, we were happy to be near the kids and family... Time for a breather. Time to discover a little of what America had to offer, after 19 years abroad.<br />
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And then... Opportunity knocked, and here we are back in Stuttgart (five moves in under four years).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN8WJqcY7IY51nBolbsUd7hyWHcTVmBFuUHzluORNIQOXP1t1sOB6SE6LdN0QdtOZDYqwpIN1AL-jobhaCoQHZqLJflquo4zRf5QSYEenEN2O9ZJzEj91bITSvUWIKBf0qNoqvkrYpk2Q/s1600/IMG_5331.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN8WJqcY7IY51nBolbsUd7hyWHcTVmBFuUHzluORNIQOXP1t1sOB6SE6LdN0QdtOZDYqwpIN1AL-jobhaCoQHZqLJflquo4zRf5QSYEenEN2O9ZJzEj91bITSvUWIKBf0qNoqvkrYpk2Q/s200/IMG_5331.jpg" width="150" /></a>The first weeks, we were pinching ourselves. Differently from the last moves, we knew where everything was, how everything worked. The German began flowing again. We found our favorite running trails, our favorite grocery products, our old friends, our familiar sights. We slipped back into this life as if we were coming home.<br />
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It's a weird thing, but the little, unassuming leaf at right encompasses more than you'd think.<br />
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The next several pictures show some of the sights we've returned to, and are appreciating to the fullest. (Click to see them larger)<br />
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* Stuttgart-Tbilisi (Nov 15); Tbilisi-Stuttgart (Nov 16); Stuttgart-Honolulu (Sep 17); Honolulu-Washington D.C. (Apr 18)Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-23009661207953072482019-10-05T19:15:00.001+02:002019-10-06T11:50:20.227+02:00Closing the circle on a series of revelations<br />
Riding along the Neckar river the other weekend, we came upon some navigational locks. I couldn't think of the German word. I asked Anne for the French word to see if that would jog anything. While it didn't jog my memory for the German word (I had to ask a passerby), it did jog something else... Here are the links in my chain of thought:<br />
<ol>
<li>How do you say river/canal lock in French? <i>L'écluse</i></li>
<li>Well that's like English <i>close</i> and all those other latinate words with the <i>-cl-</i> root, such as <i>exclude</i> and French <i>clef (key)</i></li>
<li>Makes sense because locking and closing are thematically and linguistically <i>close</i>, shall we say</li>
<li>German for this kind of lock is <i>Schleuse</i></li>
<li>Well that's like English <i>sluice</i></li>
<li>And <i>sluice</i> is like German <i>schliessen</i> which is <i>to close</i>.</li>
</ol>
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And thus, the circle is closed.</div>
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Let's look more <i>closely</i> at some Germanic, Latinate, and other Indo-European words for a river lock. In addition to above, we have the following:<br />
<ul>
<li><i>la chiusa</i> (Italian)</li>
<li><i>l'esclusa </i>(Spanish)</li>
<li><i>Sluis</i> (Dutch)</li>
<li><i>šliuzas</i> (Lithuanian)</li>
<li><i>ecluză</i> (Romanian)</li>
<li><i>shlyuz</i> (<i>шлюз</i>, Russian and Ukrainian. All the Slavic languages I sampled save Croatian have some variation of this, but I think it's probably a borrowing from the sea-faring Dutch, where Peter the Great got most of the Russian empire's maritime terminology) </li>
<li><i>sluse</i> (Danish)</li>
<li><i>kliewi</i> (Maltese)</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
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It's no surprise why this river/canal navigational aid has these names: they require water to be closed in and sluiced out. But it's fun when one word knocks a whole bunch of other words into place in my brain. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvxuRvU21ItEqM4TokFNfc3EXqdQzHOeAOc8U1W53pUZUxTZa8b0IWxTsncseWbJgnnZCc4ZVjg_yMeEy70-eGOWMqkujwFkyjQmO_5lEmpeFbs5FIN2CkClMRRaxKM_1vxkIGGj830Q/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-10-05+at+18.58.39.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="738" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvxuRvU21ItEqM4TokFNfc3EXqdQzHOeAOc8U1W53pUZUxTZa8b0IWxTsncseWbJgnnZCc4ZVjg_yMeEy70-eGOWMqkujwFkyjQmO_5lEmpeFbs5FIN2CkClMRRaxKM_1vxkIGGj830Q/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-10-05+at+18.58.39.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Photo reposted from Popular Mechanics online article, "<a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/g2875/7-impressive-boat-locks/" target="_blank">7 of the World's Most Impressive Canal Locks</a>," by Tim Newcomb, 13 Dec 2016, accessed 5 Oct 2019)</span></div>
Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-16665179524093073732019-10-03T22:09:00.001+02:002019-10-13T20:54:47.424+02:00Guess Who's BackRight. So it's been about a year since the last post, and before that another year, and before that about four years. I've decided to cave in to the overwhelming popular demand and resurrect this little corner of Cyberia. I'm going to shift focus in A Little Light Writing away from exclusively language and photography, and make it more of a place I provide updates to the one or two people I know want them.<br />
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Why?<br />
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I quit Facebook over a year ago, for a number of reasons -- not least of which was the sour feeling FaceBookLife had begun generating.<br />
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I'm also currently on an Instagram cleanse. I had started an account to showcase my photography (go see it! <a href="http://www.instagram.com/yash.holbrook" target="_blank">@yash.holbrook)</a>. Which was fine, but two things happened: 1) I began taking more photos with my phone than with my real camera, and 2) I wasted a lot of time scrolling through my feed and those of others. I'll eventually go back once I've broken the habit, but for now I'm just <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/children-bored.html" target="_blank">trying to be bored</a> -- i.e., not tickle my eyes with little squares, and not thinking of things I see in terms of whether it would look good as a little square.<br />
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But I'm still taking pictures I would ordinarily share on FB or IG, outlets I've now cut off. So I will start using this blog as that outlet. So let's start with my morning's ride to work through my Stuttgart forests. In particular, a misty sunny October morning at <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/JMERccguc9TDyNiB7" target="_blank">Bärensee</a>.<br />
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I'll take this opportunity to highlight these are not iPhone pictures.</div>
<br />Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-59781980331983954402018-11-04T01:32:00.000+01:002018-11-04T01:32:01.556+01:00Sunday Morning in Hawaii (Feb 2018)<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">As an east-coast November kicks off, I find myself sometimes drifting in my mind to the Pacific. Here's where I tend to go:</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">One February Sunday, a gray and forbidding morning, I got out the door even before my first coffee. My aim was to grab a cup at the Island Brew Cafe on the marina, and go watch the waves rolling into Sunrise Beach. This being a Sunday, formal “sunrise” was already in the past, but the overcast made the point moot. I packed a camp chair into the car, put on some water shoes, and headed out.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIQLciAnJB8aMrEHOYgMryqKISlNyoK96k7Gd1AoeGrTNu4W1HAjTG8GmQAPowvpigu0mm789UiJGR5ktwlaHBGQ6gTr2-HVzpOEAa-U1YadIvPxUmmd87kbv2dAaPK5GSInbi6zvGZ4/s1600/180224+Sunrise+Beach+Coffee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="902" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRIQLciAnJB8aMrEHOYgMryqKISlNyoK96k7Gd1AoeGrTNu4W1HAjTG8GmQAPowvpigu0mm789UiJGR5ktwlaHBGQ6gTr2-HVzpOEAa-U1YadIvPxUmmd87kbv2dAaPK5GSInbi6zvGZ4/s400/180224+Sunrise+Beach+Coffee.jpg" title="Sunrise Beach and Coffee" width="225" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">When I got to the water, I grabbed the chair and planted it in the sand. There were only a few shore fisherman on one side of a berm, and just me and the waves on the other.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">The surf was wild. The evening before, I had noticed the most energetic wave action crashing at China Walls, and apparently the churn was still on. The air was thick with sea mist. I looked west and saw the looming hulk of Koko Crater, a greenish gloom against the pewter sky. The top of the crater seemed almost disconnected from the earth, cut off by the whitish salt mist.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">It wasn’t windy, but the waves were piling in and piling on, crashing into each other before beating onto the rocks. The air was visible up and down the beach, but not if I looked straight out. I could taste salt on my lips. I sat and sipped, watching the turmoil as the waves broke and pushed into the rocky tidal pools a dozen yards from me, then sluiced back out through the ragged crannies.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">My coffee was finished, but I sat and watched. I’ve found that, despite telling myself it’s time to move on, I can't tear myself away from the water. My daughter once called the rolling surf mesmerizing, and that’s exactly what it is. It casts a spell that you don’t want to break. Turning your back on the surf is hard.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">After 45 minutes, I walked barefoot into the tidal pool directly in front of me. I egg-shelled over the slippery, eroded volcanic rock into the clear pool. The cold shock of the first contact phased quickly to inviting, and my feet sank into in the sand. Up to my knees in clear water, I waited while more pushed into and out of the pool where I was standing.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">It took me another half hour to slowly pull back, imagining weirdly that part of me was sluicing out with the water as it rushed away from the shore.</span></div>
Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-77313016657061270372017-09-16T22:40:00.002+02:002019-10-20T00:18:36.588+02:00Shifty Double Agents (revisited)<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In this post, we take a second look at the curious, and curiously similar, double lives of the verbs <i><b>to hew</b></i> and <i><b>to cleave</b></i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Part One: How “K” can equal “H” </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">In </span><a href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2012/03/hewing-and-gluing.html" target="_blank">Hewing and Gluing</a> (<span style="font-family: "calibri";">March 2012), I explored how <b><i>cleave</i></b> and <b><i>hew</i></b> both mean “to chop, split, cut,” etc. and, strangely, the </span><b>very opposite</b><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> of splitting: “sticking to” or “staying close to.” I concluded by noting how odd it was that these two very distinct verbs, which don't appear to be linguistically related, could both share that same, strange conceptual double duty. I posited that perhaps the two words were, in fact, not so distinct from each other after all. I wondered whether the similarity the two words share goes beyond the conceptual. Whether, in fact, the words themselves might be “physically” related — or, in other words, cognate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since those first musings, I’ve learned about “Grimm’s Law,” a consonant shift that occurred a couple thousand years ago, breaking what would become the Germanic branch of Indo-European (IE) off from the main stem and its resulting non-Germanic IE descendants.[1] According to this pattern of shifts, some IE consonants changed in the Germanic branch: IE “p” became Germanic “f”, “t” became “th”, “b” became “p”, “d” became “t”, and so on for roughly a baker’s dozen consonants. Including “k” shifting to “h”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span>
</span></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Linguists have noted “k”-to-“h”-shifted cognates between, say, Latin and its descendants on one hand, and proto-</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Germanic and its descendants on the other. The following table illustrates some examples, by first presenting a reconstructed Proto Indo-European (PIE) root, then a Latin word derived from that root, a modern French word derived from the root, a modern German, “h”-shifted word derived from the same root, and a modern English one. </span></span><table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image-source: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 20%;" valign="top"><div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Proto Indo-European root</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(the * means the root is "reconstructed," not attested)</span></span></div>
</td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image-source: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 19.881656804733726%;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Latin word based on root</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image-source: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 20%;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">mod. French from Latin word</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image-source: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 20%;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">mod. German word from IE root</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image-source: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 20%;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">mod. English from Germanic word</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*kwon- [dog]</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">canis</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">chien</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">hund </span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">hound</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*ker- [horn]</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">cornu </span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">corne</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">horn </span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">horn </span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*kerd- [heart]</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">cor </span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">coeur</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">herz </span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">heart</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">*kaput- [head]</span> [2]</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">caput </span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">chef (and all the -chap- root words)</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">haupt</span></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(217, 217, 217); margin: 0px; padding: 10px;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: inherit;">head</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 0px; table-layout: fixed; width: 20.8716%;">
<tbody>
<tr><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 30.21978021978022%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CL</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 39.56043956043956%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">EA</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 29.67032967032967%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">VE</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">H</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">E</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">W</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 0px; table-layout: fixed; width: 24.541284403669724%;">
<tbody>
<tr><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 27.570093457943923%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CL</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 27.102803738317753%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">EA</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 44.85981308411215%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">VE</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">KL</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">E</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">B (-en)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">H</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">E</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">W</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking at this table, we can see that root of the German verb <i><b>kleben</b></i> (-kleb) might be seen as a bridge between <i><b>cleave</b></i> and <i><b>hew</b></i>.</span></span><table style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 0px; table-layout: fixed; width: 26.8349%;">
<tbody>
<tr><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 25.64102564102564%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">CL</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 26.495726495726498%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">EA</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 47.43589743589743%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">VE</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">KL</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">E</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">B (-en)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">H</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">E</span></div>
</td><td style="border-color: rgb(219,219,219); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px; width: 33.33%;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">W</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">H</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">AU</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(-en)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All this to say that if we pick apart the modern English verbs <b><i>to cleave</i> </b>and <i><b>to hew</b></i> we can imagine that they are in fact cognate, with the “k” sounding word shifted to the “h” sound:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">That we have both a pre-shift derived word (cleave) and a shifted version (hew) might simply be due to when they entered the language. English being a voracious consumer of the rest of the world’s words, </span><i><b>cleave</b></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> might have been brought in from a different IE language sometime after the original word shifted to </span><i><b>hew</b></i><span style="font-family: "calibri";">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Part Two: Forehead slap</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, to complicate things, we can consider something else. The title of my March 2012 post was “Hewing and Gluing,” making a sort of rhyming pun about of the dual concepts of splitting and sticking together. While thinking about the verb <i><b>cleave</b></i> in the new light of Grimm’s Law, I had a forehead-slap moment. I recognized that <i><b>cleave</b></i> almost 1000% is related to the modern German verb <i><b>kleben</b></i> – which means “to glue, affix.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Part Three: The mystery deepens, colloquially speaking</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">So we’ve seen that <i><b>cleave </b></i>and <i><b>hew </b></i>may in fact be structurally related. But there’s also possibly an idiomatic relationship between the English <b><i>hew</i> </b>and German <i><b>hauen</b>. </i></span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">As noted in my very first post on these weird words, German <i><b>hauen</b></i> (chop) and English <i><b>hew</b></i> are cognate. Both have a chopping, cutting sense. If those two are cognate, then, if I’m right in my speculations above, <i><b>hauen </b></i>and German <i><b>kleben</b></i> are also cognate. Thinking about these words for this blog post, I recalled a colloquial German phrase: <i><b>Hau ab!</b></i> (infinitive <i><b>abhauen</b></i>), which means “get lost!” or “get out of here!” It suddenly struck me (cleaved me? hewed me?) that we have a colloquial English phrase <i><b>to cut out</b></i>, as it “he saw the look on her face and cut out of there without thinking twice.” We also have the colloquial <i><b>to split</b></i> as another way to indicate making a hasty departure from the scene. Stretching things just a bit further, we also have English <b><i>to strike out for…</i></b> as in “they struck out for Texas and we never saw them again.” The table showing relationships now looks even weirder:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hew, cut, split, strike, abhauen -- What's going on here? What is it about this sense of cutting or hitting in both English and German that lends itself quick departures?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And still unanswered: What is this mysterious, dual conceptual relationship between striking, chopping, cutting, on one hand, and sticking, affixing, staying close to on the other? I’m no closer to a reasonable speculation on the answer to that one, but I imagine, in the next 5 years, I might come up with something!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Footnotes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">[1] Grimm's Law is also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift (and some other terms). I learned about it listening to Kevin Stroud’s excellent <a href="http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/" target="_blank">History of English Podcast</a> (especially episodes 4 “A Grimm Brother Resurrects the Dead,” and 21 “ Early Germanic Words”). </span>This shift, which scholars believe probably happened a little over 2000 years ago, distinguishes modern Germanic languages from Latin, Greek, and other, more modern IE languages (paraphrased from Elly van Gelderen, A History of the English Language. John Benjamins, 2006, cited here). https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-grimms-law-1690827</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[2] This last one, the *kaput- root, is a good one to try to get our heads around. Although the modern German word for “head” is “Kopf,” there’s another word, “Haupt.” This latter word today is the adjective “main,” but originally meant both the body part “head” and the figurative word “head” or “chief.” Consider the German word for “captain,” which is “Hauptmann.” On the face of it, the English word "head" might not seem related with Latin-derived "cap" or "chief" or "capital.” But due to the consonant shift formalized as Grimm’s Law, we can see how they actually are. Old English "head" was "heafod,” which looks, not coincidentally, like modern German "haupt,” which in turn is a shifted version of the Latin word “caput”.</span></div>
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Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-91144033115134365332013-12-03T07:36:00.000+01:002013-12-03T07:36:29.304+01:00Portraits of an Intimate NatureTime for a post on photography...<br />
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I've got a few running themes that go through much of my photography. Some time ago, I decided I wasn't a landscape photographer, though I take <b><i>plenty </i></b>of pictures of nature. My nature shots tend to be more about details, close-ups — and yet it's not macro photography.<br />
<br />
It occurred to me to begin thinking of my nature photography as portraits, intimate portraits in a way. Some quiet natural detail or moment -- often out of context.* I came up with this blog entry's title, meant as a play on words and also as a characterization of many of my nature images.<br />
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Rather than spend more words to try to describe what I mean, here is a selection of fifteen images to show you.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS636iSMKdcFLA-kPDWcPIYG7SE77rSSy2g_TD2w1FtBYCEqIj4fs8U9Lqw2AluCCz8EIAD-5ubZ6tdv1Y5nywy75TaMxyKavZNyjJUQG70t3_-Dulf2oX714Z9kOzhnbsi99Vfp3XNCY/s1600/LLW+Intimate+Nature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS636iSMKdcFLA-kPDWcPIYG7SE77rSSy2g_TD2w1FtBYCEqIj4fs8U9Lqw2AluCCz8EIAD-5ubZ6tdv1Y5nywy75TaMxyKavZNyjJUQG70t3_-Dulf2oX714Z9kOzhnbsi99Vfp3XNCY/s640/LLW+Intimate+Nature.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portraits of an Intimate Nature</td></tr>
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All of these pictures share a quiet, contemplative feeling that I can only describe as "intimate".<br />
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o - o - o</div>
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* "Out of context" is itself a running theme I apply to more than my nature photography.</div>
Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-40697623284057990162013-11-29T18:48:00.003+01:002013-12-01T18:49:39.143+01:00Advent Is Coming!<br />
On the eve of Advent, a little exploration of things to come...<br />
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A few weeks ago, a friend was wondering what the German word <i><b>Sonnabend</b> </i>means. The answer is "Saturday", but it's not the normal word for Saturday (that's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Samstag</i>). Hence his wonderment.<br />
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I started musing on why there's this second word for Saturday, and where that word might have come from.<br />
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My departure point is usually to think of other words with one or more of the same roots as my object of investigation. In this case:<br />
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<ul>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;">Abend</i> ("evening")</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;">Feierabend</i> (basically, "the end of the work day")</li>
</ul>
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The latter adds to "evening" the concept of <i style="font-weight: bold;">feiern </i>(the verb "to celebrate"), which makes a lot of sense at the end of the work day. But why have a word that literally translates to "celebrate-evening" but designates the part of the day <b><i>before</i></b> the evening? Similarly, the <b><i>Sonnabend </i></b>designation of Saturday as "Sun-evening" seems to put the cart before the horse.<br />
<br />
In both instances, -<b><i>abend</i></b> is used to designate a moment now, but <b>before </b>the other part of the word ("celebration" and "Sunday").<br />
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Maybe, I thought, I'm thinking of "evening" as too limited, as a specific evening part of the day. Maybe there's some more original idea in the word "evening".<br />
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Then it hit me how similar German <i style="font-weight: bold;">Abend</i> is to English (and others from Latin) <b style="font-style: italic;">advent! </b>I don't know why it took me so long to get here... Because <i style="font-weight: bold;">advent</i> means, loosely, "something coming" (L. <i style="font-weight: bold;">ad-venire</i> = "to come to"). And then it also hit me how French <i style="font-weight: bold;">avenir</i> ("future", as in "something to come") also comes from the same L. root.<br />
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So "evening", Ger. <b><i>Abend </i></b>and the Fr. word for "future" are all related, and we can see that in our English use of an expression like "on the eve of..."<br />
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With this understanding, it becomes very clear why Germans might say <i style="font-weight: bold;">Feierabend</i> or <i style="font-weight: bold;">Sonnabend</i>, because they're talking about the <i style="font-weight: bold;">thing to come</i>, or in these cases, "celebration" and "Sunday".<br />
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And with that, if you hadn't already thought of it, I direct your attention to the first line of this entry.<br />
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Happy Holiday Evenings!<br />
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Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-533197314218040192013-10-24T22:25:00.000+02:002013-10-24T22:46:12.158+02:00Like, Where's That From?<!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?-->
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The other day I was thinking about German suffixes, as one does, and their English equivalents. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For example:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-style: italic;">-heit </b> (E. <b><i>-ness</i></b>, as in <b><i>Blindheit</i></b>, or "blindness");</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><i>-keit</i></b> (E. </span><b><i>-ness</i></b><span class="Apple-style-span">, as in <b><i>Einsamkeit</i></b>, or "loneliness"); </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><i>-schaft</i></b> (E. </span><b><i>-ness</i></b><span class="Apple-style-span">, as in <i style="font-weight: bold;">Bereitschaft</i>, or "readiness")*; or even </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i style="font-weight: bold;">-nis (-niß) </i>(which, after all is said and done, also has a </span><b style="font-style: italic;">ness-</b>ness to it<span class="Apple-style-span">).</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I have a particular fondheit for the suffix <b><i>-lich</i></b>. It corresponds roughly to the English <b><i>-ly</i></b> suffix, and is used in German as a frequent adjectival ending. In English it's evident mostly in adverbs ("mostly", "quickly") and a few adjectives ("friendly", "likely"). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Thinking about English <b><i>-ly</i></b>, it seems clear that it means <b><i>like</i></b>, as in "friend-like". Adverbially (which is the adverbial form of "adverbial"), you can see this connection in such a colloquialism as "quick-like" (instead of "quickly").** </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It doesn't seem hard to get from the use of <b><i>-ly</i></b> as a suffix — as a grammatical form appended to the end of a noun or adverb — to the stand-alone use of the word <b><i>like</i></b>, as in "this whisky is <i style="font-weight: bold;">like </i>molten gold". </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm not aware of a German word that looks like <b><i>-lich</i></b> and is at the same time used like <i style="font-weight: bold;">like</i>. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But since much of this blog's word play is about "<a href="http://write-light.blogspot.de/2011/02/speculating-on-words.html" target="_blank">speculative linguistics</a>", I can speculate that we derive our English stand-alone <i style="font-weight: bold;">like</i> from the German <b><i>-lich</i> </b>suffix, by way of our English <b style="font-style: italic;">-ly</b>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Is my speculation correct? I like to think it's likely.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">- o - o -</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">* Okay, <i style="font-weight: bold;">-schaft </i>is more properly E. <b><i>-ship</i></b>, but that's a synonym for <b><i>-ness</i></b>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">** It's fortunate we have this colloquial form to resort to, because then we can make adverbs out of some awkward adjectives like "friendly". Saying something is "all friendly-like" is nicer than saying <i style="font-weight: bold;">friendlily</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">- o - o -</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Now, where does the verb <i style="font-weight: bold;">to like</i> fit into all this? Maybe it began through the use of the above mentioned stand-alone <i style="font-weight: bold;">like</i> as a downgrading of <i style="font-weight: bold;">to love</i>. According to this theory, the first instance could have gone something like this:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">He: Do you love me?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">She: Hm, well...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">He: Do you not love me?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">She: I wouldn't say <i>love</i>, darling, but something very much like it. Not quite <i>love</i>, but <i>like</i>.</span></div>
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Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-58579499136923260972012-04-14T10:38:00.000+02:002012-04-14T10:38:11.612+02:00Just sharin'Today at the service garage, waiting for the mechanic’s verdict, I noticed an ad declaring “original parts” in numerous languages. The German version is <b><i>Originalteile</i></b>. "Part" in German is <b><i>Teil</i></b>.<br />
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I saw one I didn't recognize: <b><i>Originální díly</i></b>. Looks related to German <b><i>Teil</i></b>, but it doesn't look at all like a Germanic language. So I started to think about the connections...<br />
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Then it hit me: German <b><i>Teil</i></b> comes from the verb <b><i>teilen</i></b>, which means “to divide or share”. In at least some Slavic languages, the same concept is expressed by the root <b><i>del-</i></b> (e.g., <b><i>delit'</i></b> in Russian). So I'm homing in on a Slavic language for <b><i>díly</i></b>.<br />
<br />
Further musing turns up these words in English and Italian, conceptually similar to sharing, as in "sharing something out", "dividing something up" (by cutting/slicing):<br />
<ul><li>English <b><i>tailor</i></b></li>
<li>Italian <b><i>taglio</i></b> (noun "a cut")</li>
</ul>If we continue along this line, we'll probably start finding scads of relatives in this family, because what we've got here is an Indo-European root. All these words are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate">cognates</a>. <div><br />
</div><div>So:<br />
<ul><li>Stumble upon another IE root? Check.</li>
<li>Discovered connections I hadn't thought of before? Check.</li>
<li><b><i>Originální díly</i></b>? Czech.</li>
</ul><br />
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</div>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-29110428710948633652012-03-06T22:40:00.000+01:002012-03-06T22:40:00.328+01:00Hewing and GluingHave you ever been struck by a cleaver? No? Good!<div><br />
<div>How about by the word <b><i>cleaver</i></b>? I have. The verb <b><i>cleave</i></b> is something I’ve pondered for quite a few years (okay, not continuously). It can mean one thing, but also pretty much its exact opposite: "to cut apart" and "to hold together".</div><div><br />
</div><div>There are a number of things going on here... First, the cutting, chopping (or chopped) sense is in these words: <b><i>to cleave</i></b>, <b><i>cleaver</i></b>, <b><i>cloven</i></b>, <b><i>cleft</i></b> and probably <b><i>cliff</i></b>, and of course, <i style="font-weight: bold;">cleavage. </i><b>*</b><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Speculating a little, I wonder if <b><i>clover </i></b>is related (with its distinctly separated or <b><i>cloven</i></b> leaves). Stretching a bit further afield, there’s also <b><i>clove</i></b>, which I believe takes its name from the French word <b><i>clou</i></b>, for “nail”, which the little pungent spicey thing resembles almost to a T. (Hint: nails are for pounding.)<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>There’s possibly even more. If, as a certain eminent linguist of my acquaintance likes to point out, “b” = “v”, then what about <b><i>clobber</i></b>, and from that a <b><i>club</i></b>? A club, in addition to being a weapon, is also what English speakers call the suit of cards that looks like a <b><i>clover </i></b>but the French call <b><i>trefle</i></b>, from <b><i>trefoil</i></b> or “three leaves”).</div><div><br />
</div><div>Is it just a coincidence that all of these words have some apparent kinship revolving around the concept of cutting, chopping, or hitting? Read on...<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>This cutting/chopping/separating idea is what most people today get from these words. But there’s another conceptual use of <b><i>cleave </i></b>that survives in older English and modern poetical or oratorical styles. There are phrases such as to <b><i>cleave to your partner</i></b> and <b><i>cleaving to a path</i></b>, for instance. Both of these phrases mean “to stick to...”, which is decidedly not akin to cutting, chopping, or hitting. <b>**</b><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>I have fewer related words to show for this meaning of <b><i>cleave</i></b>, but that doesn’t diminish the puzzle for me. (Hint: that was foreshadowing.)<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>I think it’s pretty clear that this older “stick to” concept of <b><i>cleave</i></b> is related to the modern German verb <b><i>kleben</i></b>, which means “to stick, affix, glue”. I don’t know enough German to know whether there are <b><i>kleb-</i></b> words that also mean “to cut, chop, separate”. <br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>But I do know another German word that somehow brings us back to the “cut apart–stick together” dichotomy: <b><i>hauen</i></b>. This verb means “to chop, cut, strike”. In fact, it resembles in no small measure our English <b><i>hew</i></b>, meaning the same thing. Again, it’s not part of the conversational lexicon for today’s English speakers, but it exists in phrases like <b><i>rough-hewn</i></b> or even to <b><i>hew a path</i></b> through a thicket or whatever.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Here’s where the puzzle, or “coincidence” gets most interesting. <b>***</b> Because in the same sense that we have <b><i>cleave to a path</i></b> or <b><i>cleave to your partner</i></b>, we ALSO have <b><i>hew to a path</i></b> or <b><i>hew to a line</i></b> (“stay the course”)!<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Huh? On one hand we have a word, <b><i>cleave</i></b>, that seems to come into English through German (though undoubtedly it’s an IE root) and can mean both “chop” and “stick together”. On the other hand we have an apparently very different word, <b><i>hew</i></b>, that seems to come into English though German and can mean both “chop” and “stick together” -- not just literally, but in the poetically idiomatic expressions: <b><i>cleave/hew to a path</i></b>.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>How can two apparently unrelated words mean, on the one hand, one thing, and on the other, the exact opposite, in a poetical, figurative sense? <br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>I suspect the answer is that cleave and hew are not as unrelated as they at first appear. <br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>That still leaves the question of meaning one thing and its opposite... But, since this post has already <i style="font-weight: bold;">clobbered</i> you over the head with a lot of words, I think I’ll save the obligatory, revelatory trip to my OED for another time and just leave you with this thought: <br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><i>Instead of asking at the start of this blog post whether you’d ever been struck by a cleaver, it seems I could have also asked if you’d ever been STUCK by a cleaver.</i></b></div><div><br />
</div><div><div style="text-align: center;">- o - o - </div></div><div><br />
</div><div>* For readers who may remember that this blog is about words and pictures, I'm sorry to disappoint you on this one. (Oh, alright. <a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9OLCwaA82y3M0hFTnpiSkpRUS1EOGpjVzNzNXk3QQ" target="_blank">Look here.</a>)<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>** Unless you have to <b><i>chop</i></b> down trees to clear a path, <b><i>beat </i></b>up rival suitors to claim a spouse, or<b><i> cut</i></b> in on someone to dance with a desired partner.<br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>** Cue daughter’s sigh: “Actually interesting? Or merely Dad interesting?”</div></div>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-86116627434659493312012-02-28T22:12:00.003+01:002012-03-01T14:28:31.224+01:00Huh?<div style="background-color: transparent;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.913860633270815"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overheard in a crowd in Stuttgart: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Ich möchte dich ungerne verlieren.</i></span></b></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.913860633270815" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Translation: "I would like to lose you [in the crowd] unwillingly" or "I would like unwillingly to lose you."</span></b></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.913860633270815" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><br />
<b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead of saying the equivalent of "I would NOT like to lose you", the speaker said she WOULD like to lose the other person, but unwillingly (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>ungerne</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span></b></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.913860633270815" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What's going on here? I had never heard such a construction before. Seems a little convoluted for a simple thought. I wonder whether the speaker changed her mind mid-sentence...</span></b><br />
<b id="internal-source-marker_0.913860633270815" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe my German-speaking acquaintances can enlighten me?</span></b></div>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-20362841666793538642012-02-25T21:37:00.002+01:002012-02-25T21:46:35.008+01:00Beer and the Bible, sort of...<div style="background-color: transparent;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.7361680213361979" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back to the wonderful topic of </span><a href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/11/thinking-of-beer-and-bread.html" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">beer</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I was thinking about two words that crop up sometimes in beer styles here in Germany: </span><a href="http://dalsiepivo.blogspot.com/2010/08/weltenburger-kloster-urtyp-hell.html" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Urtyp</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (“original type”) and </span><a href="http://archersfork.com/2011/12/brew-review-pilsner-urquell/" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Urquell</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (“original source”, as in “source of water”, like a spring). The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ur-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> prefix means “original”. Then I remembered another German word, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ursprung</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (“origin”) and its adverb, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ursprünglich</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (“originally”).* </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can’t help but notice the similarities between </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ur-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in English “original”. Easy to imagine they come from the same source (pun intended).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So that got me thinking about the origin of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">origin</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It struck me that the three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) trace their roots to Abraham. And Abraham traces his roots to... </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ur</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, as in </span><a href="http://mrkash.com/activities/mesopotamiamap.html" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ur of the Chaldees</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or Chaldeans. (Check your Genesis, 11:31.) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Could </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ur</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (which seems to be a common prefix in Mesopotamian place names) be the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">igin of our word </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">origin</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? Time for a trip to my OED.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Results? Not as clear-cut as I’d like. I’ll spare you the details**, but essentially </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">origin</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (“rise, beginning, source”) led me to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">originate </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(“bring into existence”) led me to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">original</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (“from L. oriri, to rise”) before something interesting cropped up with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">orchestra</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which comes through Greek from the PIE </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*ergh-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “to set in motion, stir up, raise”, from root </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*er-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*or-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Er...in other words, the PIE root </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*er-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*or-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has to do with starting up, beginning, or rising up (like a spring) from the earth.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seems like my attempt to link beer with the Bible are coming to nought. Ergh! Unless we can somehow delve into Sumerian place names and figure out whether their </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ur-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> prefix is related to the PIE root </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*er/*or</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Which I can’t. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it is a bit of fun imagining Urians playing pick-up football in the hot sun against the visiting Babylonians, chilling with a brewsky afterwards. I imagine one of them scratching his head, looking at the bottle, and asking “What are we gonna call this?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
</b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.7361680213361979" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- o - o -</span></b></div><b id="internal-source-marker_0.7361680213361979" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Interestingly -- to me, at least -- the German </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">quelle</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">spring/sprung</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> root both relate to our English </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">spring</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as a source of water.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">** The Details:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=origin&allowed_in_frame=0" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">origin</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: early 15c., from M.Fr. origine, from L. originem (nom. origo) "rise, beginning, source," from stem of oriri "to rise, become visible, appear". [Let’s try </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">originate</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.]</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=originate&allowed_in_frame=0" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">originate</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: yadda yadda (see </span><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=original&allowed_in_frame=0" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">original</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=original&allowed_in_frame=0" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">original</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: early 14c., from L. originalis, from originem (nom. origo) "beginning, source, birth," from oriri "to rise" (see </span><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=orchestra&allowed_in_frame=0" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">orchestra</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=orchestra&allowed_in_frame=0" target="new"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">orchestra</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: c.1600, "area in an ancient theater," from L. orchestra, from Gk. orkhestra, semicircular space where the chorus of dancers performed, with suffix -tra denoting place + orkheisthai "to dance," intens. of erkhesthai "to go, come," from PIE *ergh- "to set in motion, stir up, raise" (cf. Skt. rghayati "trembles, rages, raves," L. oriri "to rise"), from root *er-/*or- (cf. L. origo "a beginning;" Skt. rnoti "rises, moves," arnah "welling stream;" O.Pers. rasatiy "he comes;" Gk. ornynai "to rouse, start;" Goth. rinnan, O.E. irnan "to flow, run"). </span></b></div>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-4323640828428438792011-11-08T13:05:00.000+01:002011-11-08T13:05:17.562+01:00Shots I Wish I'd Taken: Namibian Trees (Lanting)You may have seen this one... Franz Lanting's image of camel thorn trees circulated around* the internet earlier this year.<br />
<br />
One of the amazing things about this shot is that it is not a fake. Though it reminds me of a painting you might get if Gauguin were crossed with Matisse and the resulting artist decided to paint a landscape, this is a straight-up, brilliantly composed, photo. Plus, it's <a href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-trees.html" target="_blank">trees</a>!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7m52zWJ4kiV07g3M7feiG8unxUB59IdkrggQ9vBuYIYUyaGOHqsztSc9hwPKPxqGen6F8IgzQikygIRXK9yUArYaxTBzfrOm_N76Pb5d9DGgzBoWdPxcgmSspo5-K9CNS1Fpx94ZLZ_o/s1600/NG-Jun11-Franz-Lanting-camel-thorn-trees-watermarked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7m52zWJ4kiV07g3M7feiG8unxUB59IdkrggQ9vBuYIYUyaGOHqsztSc9hwPKPxqGen6F8IgzQikygIRXK9yUArYaxTBzfrOm_N76Pb5d9DGgzBoWdPxcgmSspo5-K9CNS1Fpx94ZLZ_o/s400/NG-Jun11-Franz-Lanting-camel-thorn-trees-watermarked.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Camel Thorn Trees, Franz Lanting, <a href="http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/camel-thorn-trees-namibia/" target="_blank">National Geographic (June 2011)</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">- o - o -</div><br />
* Is "circulating around" a redundant phrase?Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-15197868545461257502011-11-06T15:39:00.000+01:002011-11-06T15:39:33.684+01:00Thinking of Beer and Bread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigZEyEHwML3VDrPrIoI67_nWSZz8tyXetcWS_x-0FZPEgRrPgNROfLNdOY8Ct-T1cUxj9fBsr_1H4lPsW65jIeaGxFVrfa1YxzzNsY-p7HXFiefmprzruOaauDyI-ROAygHodQ-2RFFCw/s1600/beer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="new"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigZEyEHwML3VDrPrIoI67_nWSZz8tyXetcWS_x-0FZPEgRrPgNROfLNdOY8Ct-T1cUxj9fBsr_1H4lPsW65jIeaGxFVrfa1YxzzNsY-p7HXFiefmprzruOaauDyI-ROAygHodQ-2RFFCw/s200/beer.jpg" width="200" /></a>I live in Germany, so I think a lot about bread and beer. Okay, I do more than <b><i>think</i></b> about them. In my view, these two food groups form the basis for all human progress.<br />
<br />
Perusing a recent Biergarten menu, I started musing on one of the beer options: <b><i>Weizen</i></b>. I know that <b><i>Weizen</i></b> = “wheat” in English. (You've heard of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer" target="_blank">wheat beer</a>, right?) I also know another way to order the same thing is to ask for a <b><i>Weissbier</i></b>. <b><i>Weiss</i></b>, or <b><i>weiß</i></b>, means “white” in English.<br />
<br />
So, do “white” and “wheat” share the same root? Seems like they should, if you think about it.<br />
<br />
Here’s what <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/" target="new">my OED</a> reveals (I’ve truncated the entries, which in full reveal interesting Indo-European cognates, but you can click on the words to go straight to the full OED entries):<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=wheat" target="new">Wheat</a>: O.E. <b><i>hwæte</i></b> "wheat," from P.Gmc. <b><i>*khwaitijaz</i></b>, lit. "that which is white," from <b><i>*khwitaz-</i></b>, the source of O.E. <b><i>hwit</i></b>, whence English “white”.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=white" target="new">White</a>: O.E. <b><i>hwit</i></b>, from P.Gmc. <b><i>*khwitaz</i></b>, from PIE <b><i>*kwintos/*kwindos</i></b> "bright".</blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cd_zEnIhwAkXnA0BgejtyGJzKet951kbnC6SOHJ6hyphenhyphenFGUp_AcpNBrI-BljacfxtMwL4riLAw2JrnYN-5bMVpllHjopM02XudDvaX4J5XtA3sTvKLTXQpQn1JizeBcxU8uKqweMKs1Z4/s1600/wheat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="new"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-cd_zEnIhwAkXnA0BgejtyGJzKet951kbnC6SOHJ6hyphenhyphenFGUp_AcpNBrI-BljacfxtMwL4riLAw2JrnYN-5bMVpllHjopM02XudDvaX4J5XtA3sTvKLTXQpQn1JizeBcxU8uKqweMKs1Z4/s200/wheat.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
What do we learn from this? The next time the Denny’s waitress asks if you want “white or wheat”, you can answer “yes”.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>You’ll still be a smart-ass, but you’ll be a smarter one knowing the close linguistic kinship of these two words.<br />
<br />
You’re welcome.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">- o - o -</div><div><br />
</div><div>PS. Reminder: Etymological abbreviations <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AtOLCwaA82y3dGNMdXkzNm1UUzhLQUxTLS01QmQ2alE&single=true&gid=0&output=html" target="new">here</a>.</div></div>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-88743479350040062422011-10-17T09:41:00.000+02:002019-10-06T12:10:06.072+02:00The Dark Lord Goes Off-TopicA post neither about words nor images, more a sort of confession.<br />
<br />
Most people probably don't know I lead a double life. Actually, <b><i>most</i></b> people don't know I exist, but that's not the point. The point is, of the people who know me, the majority of them have no inkling of my <i>alter ego</i> existence.<br />
<br />
As it happens, I am known in some circles as <b><i>The Dark Lord of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea" target="new">Caspian</a></i></b> ("Dark Lord" or "D-LOC" for short). Just why I carry this dread title is, again, not the point. All you need to know is that with it come <b>AWESOME POWERS</b>. We're talking global reach, here.<br />
<br />
I probably shouldn't let on, but I'm starting to feel a little guilty. Let me use this pulpit to offer a blanket apology to those I've inconvenienced (or worse).*<br />
<br />
Here's the thing. From time to time, I convene working group meetings of colleagues from far-flung locations. I pick a venue, and then we all head there to <b><i><a href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/10/strategazing-new-word-of-day-feature.html" target="new">strategaze</a></i></b> about work stuff. Well, when the D-LOC begins assigning dates with specific locations, bad things can happen for the rest of you. I really need to stop toying with the space-time continuum, because here's what can happen:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I came to the Washington area in early Feb 2010, a month that might resonate with winter-phobic readers. (Hint: Google "snowmageddon" or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_2010_(disambiguation)" target="new">click here</a>.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>During the spring of 2010, Iceland went "boom" a little bit, to the tune of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jq-sMZtSww" target="new">Eyjafjallajokull</a>, whose name confused journalists the world over and whose ash plumes shut down Europe the weekend we prepared to head to Naples.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Early in 2011 I had planned to convoke a grand cabal in Bahrain; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring" target="_blank">we know how <b><i>that</i></b> turned out</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Barely a month or so later, I almost brought the US government to its knees; I was <b><i>this</i></b> close to shutting the government down... Thankfully, I relaxed my grip and Congress came to its senses, acted maturely and deliberately to plan out a far-seeing budget, and joined hands across the aisle to govern the nation wisely. <a href="http://www.myspaceantics.com/images/myspace-graphics/funny-pictures/shouting-match.jpg" target="new">Oh, wait...</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
(About the recent earthquakes, flooding, forest fires, and hurricanes that have bedeviled the U.S. this past summer, I must disclaim that I had no active part in that. I cannot, however, rule out the possibility that I might have dreamed about having conferences in those specific space-times while asleep. If so, my sincerest apologies.)<br />
<br />
Anyway...<br />
<br />
<b><i>I wanted to give the friendlies a sort of heads-up that I might be about to flex again.</i></b> I've scheduled another meeting in Washington next month, round about the time the US Gov't is scheduled to run out of money again. If you have somewhere else you can be mid-November, you might want to think about it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVp8bNmJgT0O3ytBoSvn34mMbMnDDNUg3Q_fJaXvCl3l0dofped_cWRUaew1379yR729sPGRUmkY5gcYj9_A3ewVhxWzAEkmrTt3sGFKwQTK_-SN4SZbtpIZqbdjR7YIxRLqCAOK6rJU/s1600/Caspian+Guardian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="new"><img border="0" height="300px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVp8bNmJgT0O3ytBoSvn34mMbMnDDNUg3Q_fJaXvCl3l0dofped_cWRUaew1379yR729sPGRUmkY5gcYj9_A3ewVhxWzAEkmrTt3sGFKwQTK_-SN4SZbtpIZqbdjR7YIxRLqCAOK6rJU/s400/Caspian+Guardian.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Dark Lord of the Caspian</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
-o-o-o-</div>
<br />
* Please note, I'm not being political and am not being flippant — or at least not too flippant, I hope — about the genuinely disastrous effects of these world events. I have nothing but concern and sympathy for those affected.Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-6609268490374960492011-10-15T10:49:00.001+02:002011-10-15T10:50:42.220+02:00Shots I Wish I'd Taken: Shadows In the Desert (Steinmetz)Speaking of <a target=new href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/10/seeing-things-that-arent-there.html">shadows</a>... Wow.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PChnfqHtkA7CMlFtKEDa5pfS_vH7rH5Esq-Hfhr4xATWbHvAP1_gyZoj_FIK5UA0Jg1HtKGWLEZic8ieexTIyPx1anLMPez67Ou-Wmrg5zKM2LbTA-Eit5Q_OJkMfl5La-yjlxSmBgA/s1600/GeorgeSteinmetz+NG-Turkiye+Camels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PChnfqHtkA7CMlFtKEDa5pfS_vH7rH5Esq-Hfhr4xATWbHvAP1_gyZoj_FIK5UA0Jg1HtKGWLEZic8ieexTIyPx1anLMPez67Ou-Wmrg5zKM2LbTA-Eit5Q_OJkMfl5La-yjlxSmBgA/s400/GeorgeSteinmetz+NG-Turkiye+Camels.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camels, shot by George Steinmetz for National Geographic, Feb 2005<br />
(This particular version borrowed from Snopes <a href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/camelshadows.asp">here</a>. <br />
Go to Steinmetz's <a href="http://www.georgesteinmetz.com/">website</a> for more fantastic images.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Thanks, Karey.Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-75017775317066446082011-10-12T22:11:00.004+02:002011-10-13T09:04:18.595+02:00Strategazing: New Word of the Day Feature!<span class="Apple-style-span">This post inaugurates an aperiodic Word of the Day feature. Don’t be fooled by the title. It’s more “Word of the day on the day that I post it”. If you actually got a word a day it might get boring.<br />
<br />
Our inaugural word is <b><i>strategazing</i></b>.*</span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">Strategazing /<b>stræt</b>əgezɪŋ/ (noun). A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau">portmanteau</a> word formed from bases <b><i>strategy</i></b> and <b><i>star-gazing</i></b> (some lexicologists hold the origin of the latter base to be <b><i>navel-gazing</i></b> -- either way, the effect is the same). Of or pertaining to the process of thinking big thoughts, purportedly with the aim of implementing them...some day...somehow. (In its purest form, <b><i>strategazing</i></b> leaves implementation to someone else.) Often accompanied by blind optimism and a total disregard for resources or timelines required for someone else to implement that big thought some day...somehow. (See also the related <b><i>Good idea fairy</i></b>.)</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">Now go forth and use this word! Impress your friends! <b><i>Strategaze</i></b> something up for someone else to make happen and then tell them there's a word for that!</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">-o-o-o-</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
* A Little Light Writing would like to thank the kind sponsors of today’s Word of the Day: <br />
<br />
<b><i>Strategazing</i></b> is brought to you by the Purveyors of Fine-Ideas-Just-for-the-Sake-of-Purveying-Fine-Ideas.</span>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-50613553839684739852011-10-07T17:04:00.001+02:002011-10-07T17:48:15.057+02:00Seeing Things That Aren't There<div style="background-color: transparent;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I scroll through my photo collection, something becomes very clear: I like to capture </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reflections</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">shadows</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In fact, after <a href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-trees.html">tree</a> images, such “projection” shots are probably the single biggest category of shots I take.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Click thumbnails for larger versions.]</span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-1YxpvlWWbfjEJNb-HM6Gw6JPKtH3pZXfN69qVq8_LNxCudpvPI9O2JTE0eRrPbMvqJr1KSyCP1mXLhvHPu67mbBGyFTtcFt5ksi237KuYoCTqeMDIe0FP9PN7Pv9lauGygDATTDOoc/s1600/Still_Life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-1YxpvlWWbfjEJNb-HM6Gw6JPKtH3pZXfN69qVq8_LNxCudpvPI9O2JTE0eRrPbMvqJr1KSyCP1mXLhvHPu67mbBGyFTtcFt5ksi237KuYoCTqeMDIe0FP9PN7Pv9lauGygDATTDOoc/s320/Still_Life.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still Life</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79VYjpgjTeCagjVSlSZ2ZKZ9wfz5oxQKXCbJbqO69tiUVUaXtU6q8CX9let9XuaE5WS96Gsv65XcLfml1Z25wWlqjbvK0qCtJSNVD8jCWGV4CfqdHDQHReacN55_lZsG0Pekyke4U2NM/s1600/Three_Stooges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79VYjpgjTeCagjVSlSZ2ZKZ9wfz5oxQKXCbJbqO69tiUVUaXtU6q8CX9let9XuaE5WS96Gsv65XcLfml1Z25wWlqjbvK0qCtJSNVD8jCWGV4CfqdHDQHReacN55_lZsG0Pekyke4U2NM/s320/Three_Stooges.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three Stooges</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQ1Kzmza2rYR6B-OEa8MT_O3ipqEFvgGaY-iIsiKXMmuKsOb1zvj7SGx8_sZgRvCW2u2X2nI_6BJOFW2gVCmunN_qwqsSXEovJdIXDNwA4NtWnDUjHoSsow9JFlH9buQ8WoB8DZi-dk0/s1600/Reflecting_Elegance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxQ1Kzmza2rYR6B-OEa8MT_O3ipqEFvgGaY-iIsiKXMmuKsOb1zvj7SGx8_sZgRvCW2u2X2nI_6BJOFW2gVCmunN_qwqsSXEovJdIXDNwA4NtWnDUjHoSsow9JFlH9buQ8WoB8DZi-dk0/s320/Reflecting_Elegance.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reflecting on Elegance</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I used to shoot stacks of chopped wood compulsively. I never met one I didn’t want to immortalize as a priceless and unique little rectangle. Ditto for steps and stairs...couldn’t pass a staircase without snapping it. Even as I pressed the shutter release, I knew it was not the photo I imagined. But *click* went the shutter.</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I no longer feel compelled to shoot these subjects. For some odd reason, many many stacks and stairs look alike. Exbhibit A:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoWNtUfX3x0ChVR1LOlBt8CyJz1o1Iu_vBGntUjXzAeVWEqdt9vwWDUbD6O7Hsq3YONC_d4HwIS9wHBYq2hbSABLdrSTG0ErkBWAg3vwsTTIiKswTD8oAHLJy6KQSrzT18_qi1T3nCfT4/s1600/woodpiles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoWNtUfX3x0ChVR1LOlBt8CyJz1o1Iu_vBGntUjXzAeVWEqdt9vwWDUbD6O7Hsq3YONC_d4HwIS9wHBYq2hbSABLdrSTG0ErkBWAg3vwsTTIiKswTD8oAHLJy6KQSrzT18_qi1T3nCfT4/s400/woodpiles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not that they don’t sometimes make great images; I’ve simply found that my compulsion to snap them rarely produces “keeper” shots. Now I’m a little more disciplined with those subjects.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkI9G7j4-kr5y-tzSmrWeQf7jRlAQQbtmLqSfd2eh8bMy-keJMFfZdvPJjrHnq06IdpwZbkTzmuRK7px0nD8HZe5ehezLDwJq7hj0R81suo3lo0aB5mSq58uwoYL0Gt78uFvwiXUkgupo/s1600/Starwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkI9G7j4-kr5y-tzSmrWeQf7jRlAQQbtmLqSfd2eh8bMy-keJMFfZdvPJjrHnq06IdpwZbkTzmuRK7px0nD8HZe5ehezLDwJq7hj0R81suo3lo0aB5mSq58uwoYL0Gt78uFvwiXUkgupo/s200/Starwood.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starwood</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGTkEV6JOSZ2G7EgaQgxN30LnW0sPqIGcZwNdgZkkcn9MG5WtVG506yVijgAru8x9cutHREwwukKdNk5cptcd-Iq1Jxw_uL7gV_UQpXQsDj9zZ4IOAj6FZ-281BHA-KRxVi99XstLMRzg/s1600/Woodwall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGTkEV6JOSZ2G7EgaQgxN30LnW0sPqIGcZwNdgZkkcn9MG5WtVG506yVijgAru8x9cutHREwwukKdNk5cptcd-Iq1Jxw_uL7gV_UQpXQsDj9zZ4IOAj6FZ-281BHA-KRxVi99XstLMRzg/s320/Woodwall.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woodwall</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkB6-F9UfTgqV07joRpyM2734N3Qtoz56MlV74tj5fnRngXB4L3WfQ8xvxAnFEpKAkhV4_7BapBXRyATAAT-FUaGwnL6CNII7sFbVlWqR8lMWLE379SJ1I6EamL5kv_THZAhqqSFhubUI/s1600/Woodchuck+Challenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkB6-F9UfTgqV07joRpyM2734N3Qtoz56MlV74tj5fnRngXB4L3WfQ8xvxAnFEpKAkhV4_7BapBXRyATAAT-FUaGwnL6CNII7sFbVlWqR8lMWLE379SJ1I6EamL5kv_THZAhqqSFhubUI/s200/Woodchuck+Challenge.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woodchuck Challenge</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With reflections and shadows it’s different. I not only shoot them compulsively, I notice them everywhere. And here I can say I’ve never — well, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">almost</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> never — met a reflection or shadow photograph I didn’t like. They’re </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">keepers! (Someone else’s eyes might glaze over, but I prize every such shot...)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TbuXuw491rrVTVG-3utloVf5zVftjUV4TXNNbIDw38fI4aQXYcFwsZVS1rNd0gigno4etikfGtUDzyjiXjh4vG5Xcwp-OTnAxpCOh4I8hCMvtndMlFiVSqzBBAi5-MI61Tbp4ATWxbc/s1600/s-squares.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TbuXuw491rrVTVG-3utloVf5zVftjUV4TXNNbIDw38fI4aQXYcFwsZVS1rNd0gigno4etikfGtUDzyjiXjh4vG5Xcwp-OTnAxpCOh4I8hCMvtndMlFiVSqzBBAi5-MI61Tbp4ATWxbc/s400/s-squares.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Intruder | Newport | Almost</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMH5BMtVOlV7uWEZ25i4KW2Wngm56LWA8RhiklX_qnnoojA66Ecwk8jRXu_Q1NJ_ZDq4PqSo35AXgtVLs-H5sfD1Yz3detfETRcYgmSubM7JKq7QhoN2NmDLa44NVqwii7uwiUoqfo6o/s1600/r-squares.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMH5BMtVOlV7uWEZ25i4KW2Wngm56LWA8RhiklX_qnnoojA66Ecwk8jRXu_Q1NJ_ZDq4PqSo35AXgtVLs-H5sfD1Yz3detfETRcYgmSubM7JKq7QhoN2NmDLa44NVqwii7uwiUoqfo6o/s400/r-squares.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Montblanc | Berlin Abstract | Kadett | Market Fountain (clockwise)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgP56pJIuczwJka8KGK8fePcpIub0QuGFiD8JNi7tHut8UW93JvL0OWJfbM4ubuz8xiokmVcPjPt6ACMO9B4bmOVZTzHvv4LXeEaINm10QC5uPT9fwE632WXg15nudPNKy38QidT3cioY/s1600/s-trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgP56pJIuczwJka8KGK8fePcpIub0QuGFiD8JNi7tHut8UW93JvL0OWJfbM4ubuz8xiokmVcPjPt6ACMO9B4bmOVZTzHvv4LXeEaINm10QC5uPT9fwE632WXg15nudPNKy38QidT3cioY/s400/s-trees.jpg" width="343" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trees</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Reflecting on Reflecting</i></b></span></div></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s so special about reflections and shadows? For me, I think the key thought is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">projection</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. These projections refer to something in the physical world, but they aren’t themselves the objects. It’s the fascination of visually capturing </span><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">something</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that isn’t really there</span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When we look at a reflection or shadow, we’re seeing a sort of ghostly suggestion of the original. It’s not even three-dimensional, more like a painting or drawing traced by light on a more physical canvas of water, glass, or a wall. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it’s a painting that changes constantly, maybe never to repeat itself exactly...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2KC3F7_GiIdp1r6_9yc5dEBAWJqxmWbKFRgHcPRrVKv2W2wJK4lffC6ksw25fUB5XvEHPzPT-JGKwryEcjAsV6AkDYVoxsb6Nuff5_lP6_98H7TIyhV3Y84avF_31iJ4VyDIWcbUR3Q/s1600/r-lakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU2KC3F7_GiIdp1r6_9yc5dEBAWJqxmWbKFRgHcPRrVKv2W2wJK4lffC6ksw25fUB5XvEHPzPT-JGKwryEcjAsV6AkDYVoxsb6Nuff5_lP6_98H7TIyhV3Y84avF_31iJ4VyDIWcbUR3Q/s400/r-lakes.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lakes</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-EAHpuIt7TpBXe2qTfb9zrxVBN-IZYo8Mt0S6EKr19MZ4MIG5w0qtnFF5aLX1YIS_HpDhIzN3NvbIv5SrrEvbxOEGLDZtmzBOoTIaXrze-KKqldS0nAwyyzTWuvJoHwKW6edvXH9Bks/s1600/s-lamps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE-EAHpuIt7TpBXe2qTfb9zrxVBN-IZYo8Mt0S6EKr19MZ4MIG5w0qtnFF5aLX1YIS_HpDhIzN3NvbIv5SrrEvbxOEGLDZtmzBOoTIaXrze-KKqldS0nAwyyzTWuvJoHwKW6edvXH9Bks/s320/s-lamps.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lamps</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCdAvsXt8sLzNdRT-LNv36A47tgXldsWq2sHBNGkw1vMzrxLVdaHlrbdkAZYzn3iEEW-51XvGhwZs38Z1VLANw2CV0FUwvtd2atmPoYxEWQEUi5L-uETP1CHlD_AvHJtwku6dyKllv8A8/s1600/r-windows-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCdAvsXt8sLzNdRT-LNv36A47tgXldsWq2sHBNGkw1vMzrxLVdaHlrbdkAZYzn3iEEW-51XvGhwZs38Z1VLANw2CV0FUwvtd2atmPoYxEWQEUi5L-uETP1CHlD_AvHJtwku6dyKllv8A8/s400/r-windows-l.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Windows</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYOKcs3odgVjo0z-jNC01YwZSRI13-UPqRrZBKd9yze4B921JNW00xkQtq5t7NkQVZa8N1qKIHSy95znjpiyOhG1PcjWhDZ4PWzd3iH5d_bDtq2C9f__My8XcPLC0GQSwqTW5uF3OCZQ/s1600/r-misc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYOKcs3odgVjo0z-jNC01YwZSRI13-UPqRrZBKd9yze4B921JNW00xkQtq5t7NkQVZa8N1qKIHSy95znjpiyOhG1PcjWhDZ4PWzd3iH5d_bDtq2C9f__My8XcPLC0GQSwqTW5uF3OCZQ/s400/r-misc.jpg" width="287" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miscellaneous</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtiVqRZuAGe8KTNfxxDNd7jOC1qQ21aDGjKY6E-a5balZRf_EAZ1GS58h9QjPNnjGakNS6Iye93S9j3o4pIKa_OV64UJa9_aYPfARxRn2_pbgscnPTl15uqzl_gyhUJOx56tT7kBluk8/s1600/r-windows-p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtiVqRZuAGe8KTNfxxDNd7jOC1qQ21aDGjKY6E-a5balZRf_EAZ1GS58h9QjPNnjGakNS6Iye93S9j3o4pIKa_OV64UJa9_aYPfARxRn2_pbgscnPTl15uqzl_gyhUJOx56tT7kBluk8/s400/r-windows-p.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Windows II</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu0l_kuM6f1V0MFnDn3-hrAG9yrItMEC_6ItxyD7EJQBShkFhqTM6rTMYMDBxbOTZyqPAsg-y7eR651RNymif9xFo_N3SerXj-GbjqFv652F2QqloiFNc7skc3l05JWCsCCPwGTXyRlCY/s1600/s-windows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu0l_kuM6f1V0MFnDn3-hrAG9yrItMEC_6ItxyD7EJQBShkFhqTM6rTMYMDBxbOTZyqPAsg-y7eR651RNymif9xFo_N3SerXj-GbjqFv652F2QqloiFNc7skc3l05JWCsCCPwGTXyRlCY/s400/s-windows.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Windows III</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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</span></div>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-22144807778025888832011-10-04T06:51:00.001+02:002011-10-06T12:22:22.407+02:00Welcoming Buildings ReduxSome time ago I posted a <a href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/04/welcome-to-casa-frankenstein-motel.html" target="new">series of photos</a> highlighting my penchant for taking shots of buildings from imposing angles. Here's another, from a recent whirlwind stroll through downtown Bruges.<br />
<br />
I chose the title to juxtapose the function of the church with its welcoming demeanor. This is Sint-Salvator (Holy Savior) Cathedral. It definitely screams "C'mon in!"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPt1UXvgbWD_CWsdzxx33dt3sfdicJMZpMCQucv7K1Aq3aBQgLOPXdIrE32NSGLITjP7sIBpwjPN1ELY3QLLhKcCXQbLLTb8FUv5Py-AN5kNuoS1bu78D2rFY66HECJHb7U69ycDpXbbY/s1600/Peace-Love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPt1UXvgbWD_CWsdzxx33dt3sfdicJMZpMCQucv7K1Aq3aBQgLOPXdIrE32NSGLITjP7sIBpwjPN1ELY3QLLhKcCXQbLLTb8FUv5Py-AN5kNuoS1bu78D2rFY66HECJHb7U69ycDpXbbY/s400/Peace-Love.jpg" width="266px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peace and Love</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-10518140679726769562011-10-02T17:45:00.001+02:002011-10-04T07:02:39.771+02:00Tide for a New Post<b>Yes!</b> I've heard the calls: <b>"More! More!"</b> So to keep my family safe from the clamoring mob, I've decided it's time to pay more attention to this blog.<br />
<br />
And what better way to start out than by reflecting on the word "time"? Because I've been doing that lately. It could have something to do with <a target=new href="http://pearlswirljournals.blogspot.com/">Kid Number 1</a> returning as a third-year university student. It could have even more to do with <a target=new href="http://www.yh-photos.com/ymages/ymages/Maddie/Maddie.html">Kid Number 2</a> entering as a freshman, of all things! Or it might relate to the changing of the seasons, or having my father visit us for the first time in a long while.<br />
<br />
Nah... It's because I've been chewing on the Dutch word for "time": <i style="font-weight: bold;">tijd</i>. The <b><i>-ij-</i></b> diphthong is pronounced something between the English <b><i>long i</i> </b>(as in "eye") and <b><i>ay</i></b> (as in "hay"). [Go <a target=new href="http://www.forvo.com/word/ij/">here</a> and click the play button to hear it.]<br />
<br />
I began thinking of the word "tide", wondering how "tide" becomes "time" in languages that are practically kissing cousins. Then it hit me: the German word for "time" is <i style="font-weight: bold;">Zeit </i>(pronounced "<b><i>tsite</i></b>"). Bingo! Zeit = tijd = time.<br />
<br />
At the same Zeit this following thought hit me: We have archaic words in English relating the -<b><i>tide </i></b>suffix to "time", such as "Yuletide" for "Christmastime". And then... and then...<br />
<br />
(Follow me, patient reader, on this voyage on the tijd of discovery...)<br />
<br />
Thinking of Yuletide brought me to "tidings of good cheer". Tidings are "news". So then I wondered how you got to "newsings" from "tidings". Cue the next slap on the head: The word for newspaper in German is <i style="font-weight: bold;">Zeitung</i>, literally "timings". [Special contest at the end of this post.*]<br />
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If <i style="font-weight: bold;">tijd</i> / <b><i>Zeit</i></b> are related to our English "time", is "time" in English related to our word for the comings and goings of waters along ocean edges? Seems clear that our use of the word "tide" for the four daily highs and lows must come from their regularity, thus allowing us to measure time.<br />
<br />
So, thinking that English "time" and "tide" — in addition to <a target=new href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/384000.html">waiting for no one</a> — are closely related, I rushed to <a target=new href="http://www.etymonline.com/">my OED</a>, to find:<br />
<b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
<b><i>tide (n.)</i></b>: O.E. tid "point or portion of time, due time," from P.Gmc. *tidiz "division of time" (cf. O.S. tid, Du. tijd, O.H.G. zit, Ger. Zeit "time"), from PIE *di-ti- "division, division of time," suffixed form of base *da- "to divide, cut up" (cf. Skt. dati "cuts, divides"). Meaning "rise and fall of the sea" (mid-14c.) is probably via notion of "fixed time," specifically "time of high water".<br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="font-style: italic;">time (n.)</b>: O.E. tima "limited space of time," from P.Gmc. *timon "time" (cf. O.N. timi "time, proper time," Swed. timme "an hour"), from PIE *di-mon-, from base *da- "cut up, divide" (see tide).<br />
<br />
Ta*da!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">-o-o-</div><br />
* Contest: A special prize for the first person who leaves a comment on this post drawing another blatant connection between newspapers and the English word "time". Or Russian, and doubtless countless other languages...Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-73908774632604771922011-04-20T01:48:00.000+02:002011-04-20T01:48:17.349+02:00Thinking About New Words<b>And now for a word from the real* OED</b> — the <a href="http://www.oed.com/" target="new">Oxford English Dictionary</a>, that grand old arbiter, the last court of instance, the very Supreme Court of what passes for correctness when it comes to English words. <br />
<br />
Actually, I should have started out by saying “<b><i>and now for some new words from the real OED</i></b>”. Every new edition of a dictionary adds words — neologisms and colloquialisms that have gained enough currency among speakers of the language to force lexicographers to take official notice of them. <br />
<br />
So every new edition sees language nerds and pundits make big noise about these newly minted official words. Such revisionism raises the hackles of some linguistic conservatives. To be honest, I can empathize with their conservatism. But it also helps validate the idea that a language grows, simplifies, and changes to reflect the living reality of the only truly important constituency: the folks who use it. <br />
<br />
With that, an excerpt from a more or less giddy New York Times opinion piece from 5 April celebrating that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/opinion/05tue4.html" target="new"><i><b>OMG</b></i> and <b><i>LOL</i></b> have made the OED</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>It’s wonderful to experience the ongoing corruption and evolution of the English language. Last month, <b><i>OMG</i></b> and <b><i>LOL</i></b> were inducted into the Oxford English Dictionary, along with the heart symbol — the first time a meaning enters our most exalted linguistic inventory via the T-shirt and bumper sticker.</blockquote><blockquote>They follow in the steps of other representatives of our electronic age. <i><b>Google</b></i> is there. So are <b><i>dotcom</i></b> and <b><i>wiki</i></b>. Chances are the meaning of <i><b>tweet</b></i> will soon spill out of its ornithological domain. The additions bring to mind the words of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Safire" target="new">William Safire</a>, The Times’ former master wordsmith, who climbed down from the conservative ramparts in the culture wars 25 years ago to accept that “words come to mean what most people think they mean, not what we say they ought to mean.”</blockquote><br />
Chalk another one up for language-as-reflection-of-its-speakers. But by no means do I think its speakers ought to just spold, mindle, or futilate their language. There are more or less accepted ways of using it at any time. The conventions <i>du moment</i> are not meaningless, even if sometimes arbitrary (why not start a sentence with but?). The rules reflect a shared view of the best ways at the moment to convey meaning through language, to the largest audience possible.<br />
<br />
I remember in grade school looking up the word <b><i>ain’t</i></b> in response to those adults who were trying to tell me it wasn’t a word in the acceptable sense. I knew that if it was in the dictionary, I had the weight of justice on my side, so I slept securely, keeping my moral superiority a comforting secret. Only later did I realize that conventions had their use. <i><b>Ain’t</b></i> may indeed be a word, but it <b><i>ain’t</i></b> for all occasions or audiences. Now I deliberately attempt to follow the conventions, because they (generally) produce sentences that sound best in my ear. If I knowingly deviate, it’s mostly to follow <a href="http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/300" target="new">Orwell’s dicta</a> not to say anything avoidably ugly or outright barbarous.<br />
<br />
Anyway, while part of my heart is with the linguistic conservatives because of my own joy at spinning words into meaning, another part is with the pragmatists who recognize (and celebrate) that any given edition of a dictionary is, at best, a snapshot of the culture. If such a venerable word maven like William Safire and such an august word treasury like the OED can do it, I sure can.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">-o-o-</div><br />
* I don’t know how many times the blogging gods dictate I’m supposed keep disclaiming my personal shorthand for the <a href="http://www.etymonline.com/" target="new">Online Etymology Dictionary</a>. But if it’s seven times seventy I’ve got some more disclaiming to do: I call that one “my OED” to distinguish it from <i>the</i> OED.Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1061898389481753655.post-12411986610642291932011-04-11T22:02:00.001+02:002011-04-11T22:03:23.156+02:00Welcome to Casa Frankenstein, Motel Bates, etc.Had a slideshow of my photos playing on a digital frame the other day and — I have to admit it — I found myself gazing at them. <br />
<br />
A few images cycled through and I noticed something I hadn’t before: I like imposing buildings taken at an angle. What’s more, I like them in black and white. Two flipped by on the frame and immediately they reminded me of others I’d taken. I found four in my archive without even trying.<br />
<br />
One of them ("Ministry of Intimidation") has already appeared in a different post, so I won’t repost it, but you can see it <a target=new href="http://write-light.blogspot.com/2011/02/color-or-black-and-white-part-1.html">here</a>.<br />
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The other three are:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a target=new href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBR9SjnJ9JcIb6-2jSWQpIXZjmLnpv2jUBkE8bsfniYTrPn4NkZeAYZi1nkvdtSOMPDIV8RaLGYb1eLOQ8hyfxJ4V3JAcEKPSNTef-RtjE9ZW182QRJLky3DLIxajnOOmf2kklJ5HGzDA/s1600/_MG_4020+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBR9SjnJ9JcIb6-2jSWQpIXZjmLnpv2jUBkE8bsfniYTrPn4NkZeAYZi1nkvdtSOMPDIV8RaLGYb1eLOQ8hyfxJ4V3JAcEKPSNTef-RtjE9ZW182QRJLky3DLIxajnOOmf2kklJ5HGzDA/s400/_MG_4020+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House of Learning (University of Stuttgart, Vaihingen)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a target=new href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9ARML1l1afI2t1KBoroVUNUqi9b-74CjrKDOTkPKagwErHstlIaDl5fFzAhCYqU-1FUCb_VQ8mkwAwmFHJVg1H6W6D3Kbbdg4D2s9qWg5K5Mj5PmAZ2s1deKHofqM6nRGYgFUJPguHA/s1600/_MG_4770+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9ARML1l1afI2t1KBoroVUNUqi9b-74CjrKDOTkPKagwErHstlIaDl5fFzAhCYqU-1FUCb_VQ8mkwAwmFHJVg1H6W6D3Kbbdg4D2s9qWg5K5Mj5PmAZ2s1deKHofqM6nRGYgFUJPguHA/s400/_MG_4770+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Frankenstein Slept Here (Bad Wimpfen "Blue Tower")</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a target=new href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCIvUdt2XybmWm4WPZr80oOdnxnrw5icNb2svotR2LzBDVAWAK-owfBlMv229zZT90KJ6_6CZNXY0a6FmsxXZMKm6h_MNuA6liF4gdckHetNDCR8CjVZw_-jUHCmz3fmpbf39dMULAXrQ/s1600/IMG_7779+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCIvUdt2XybmWm4WPZr80oOdnxnrw5icNb2svotR2LzBDVAWAK-owfBlMv229zZT90KJ6_6CZNXY0a6FmsxXZMKm6h_MNuA6liF4gdckHetNDCR8CjVZw_-jUHCmz3fmpbf39dMULAXrQ/s400/IMG_7779+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bates Mountain Retreat (Mer de Glace, Chamonix)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I wonder if I'm secretly into Gothic horror or something...Yash...http://www.blogger.com/profile/11282092258881595092noreply@blogger.com1