Your speculative rendering of Sakha through the metaphysics of Spinoza - "it dogs, barkingly and me-wardly" - reminded me of Borges on the language if Tlön, whose philosophical presiding spirit was not Spinoza, but Berkeley: " 'The moon rose above the river.' is 'hlör u fang axaxaxas mlö', or literally 'upward behind the onstreaming it mooned.'"
As you recover from your unfortunate tangle with the Bucharest train system, you can at least console yourself that you're following in a tradition that goes all the way back to Thales, as related by Plato in the Theaetetus:
"Why, take the case of Thales, Theodorus. While he was studying the stars and looking upwards, he fell into a pit, and a neat, witty Thracian servant girl jeered at him, they say, because he was so eager to know the things in the sky that he could not see what was there before him at his very feet. The same jest applies to all who pass their lives in philosophy."
I hope there were no Thracian servant girls to jeer at your misfortune.
It's so strange to hear our (Turkish) distant cousins in Sakha also add i's in front of some borrowed words like we do. Even though it's not formal usage, one can hear this in villages or in old books. Mostly it's words that start with two consecutive vowels which is against the rules (steam-istim, Sparta-Isparta) but also for example lemon-ilimon. Thousands of years and miles later, we're still doing same stuff.
There's an interesting review of Kim's book at https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018.09.58/. Other books brought to mind by your essay are Abu-Lughod's "Before European Hegemony" and of course Benveniste's book on Indo-European languages which I read a big part of more than 40 years ago.
You discreetly hid your legs behind the tail end of this post, Justin, and slow reader that I am--especially when the intricate complexities of Russian and Sakha are involved--I've only just got to them now. Yikes. I hope you're on the mend. I'm a short walk from the Buttes, should you need anything dropped off or picked up. Түргэнник үтүөрүҥ!
Interesting, as always. But the Italian "biancheggiare" is much the same as the Russian белеть. ("...e sotto il maestrale / urla e biancheggia il mar...", Giosuè Carducci, San Martino), not to be confused with "sbiancare", "to whiten".
Thank you. I always admire the way you "navigate complexities". And please, take care of your foot! One Cheburashka Чебурашка is enough. Warm regards from B.A.
Your speculative rendering of Sakha through the metaphysics of Spinoza - "it dogs, barkingly and me-wardly" - reminded me of Borges on the language if Tlön, whose philosophical presiding spirit was not Spinoza, but Berkeley: " 'The moon rose above the river.' is 'hlör u fang axaxaxas mlö', or literally 'upward behind the onstreaming it mooned.'"
As you recover from your unfortunate tangle with the Bucharest train system, you can at least console yourself that you're following in a tradition that goes all the way back to Thales, as related by Plato in the Theaetetus:
"Why, take the case of Thales, Theodorus. While he was studying the stars and looking upwards, he fell into a pit, and a neat, witty Thracian servant girl jeered at him, they say, because he was so eager to know the things in the sky that he could not see what was there before him at his very feet. The same jest applies to all who pass their lives in philosophy."
I hope there were no Thracian servant girls to jeer at your misfortune.
A worthy successor to the late Guy Davenport. Good work.
It's so strange to hear our (Turkish) distant cousins in Sakha also add i's in front of some borrowed words like we do. Even though it's not formal usage, one can hear this in villages or in old books. Mostly it's words that start with two consecutive vowels which is against the rules (steam-istim, Sparta-Isparta) but also for example lemon-ilimon. Thousands of years and miles later, we're still doing same stuff.
There's an interesting review of Kim's book at https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018.09.58/. Other books brought to mind by your essay are Abu-Lughod's "Before European Hegemony" and of course Benveniste's book on Indo-European languages which I read a big part of more than 40 years ago.
You discreetly hid your legs behind the tail end of this post, Justin, and slow reader that I am--especially when the intricate complexities of Russian and Sakha are involved--I've only just got to them now. Yikes. I hope you're on the mend. I'm a short walk from the Buttes, should you need anything dropped off or picked up. Түргэнник үтүөрүҥ!
Interesting, as always. But the Italian "biancheggiare" is much the same as the Russian белеть. ("...e sotto il maestrale / urla e biancheggia il mar...", Giosuè Carducci, San Martino), not to be confused with "sbiancare", "to whiten".
Thank you. I always admire the way you "navigate complexities". And please, take care of your foot! One Cheburashka Чебурашка is enough. Warm regards from B.A.
white lets and sails sea
a flap
a challenge undenied