Inspired by Language Log (and at times, being disappointed with its content too) I have started to log my own observations in South Asian languages.
My first observation is a simple one. I remember from my times in Varanasi, that the local dialects used "man karna" a lot. man kare to kar lo, man nahin kar rahaa. I was listening to an excerpt from Sunil Gangopadhyaya's ShreshTha galpa. I found that the same phrase is used a lot in Bangla too. The dialects in Bihar are quite similar to Bangla, but I wasn't aware that effects are reflected into far as Varanasi. The haven't heard this phrase being used in most of the khadi boli dialects and frankly not very frequently in literature either.
Urdu speakers hardly seem to use this phrase. I might theorize that man is not suited to Islamic metaphysics, but that is merely a speculation even though man is a Sanskrit word and has not much in common with Persian counterparts either.
Of course, usually one would find the official Hindi using an excessive lot of loan words from Bengali. In the excerpt itself, words like 'vastutaH','vyApAr','jal','nadi teere' that I hear in spoken bangla a lot, are reserved for official Hindi and are never used by Hindi speakers in their regular language (spoken Hindi would be replete with Urdu equivalents instead).
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
sanskrit dictionary
A great project. Finally we have a sanskrit dictionary that is really usable.
http://spokensanskrit.de/
A list of other interesting projects:
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/
http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_subhaashita/
http://spokensanskrit.de/
A list of other interesting projects:
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/
http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_subhaashita/
A track of BBC's language
| I really have no hopes from Fox News, CNN and such as far as the just use of language goes. The American media openly admits that they want to use connotative terms more than denotative ones, because it is indeed their utmost responsibility to engineer a thought (and not letting the readers cultivate one). A time when I was checking CNN website extremely regularly (probably every two minutes, for a 6 hrs) was when the shooting at Virginia Tech had happened. I had graduated from there only an year ago and I was concerned and dismayed not just because I still had friends studying there. 2 hrs after the shoot out happened, the news agencies had started checking the background of the student. The headlines of all major newspapers were reporting the details of Cho, the student responsible for the massacre. It was unveiled in a matter of minutes by CNN that, " The killer came from Korea at ten". The news item was up only for a few minutes, obviously because of its political incorrectness. But it was enough for me to infer how deeply aberrant our media correspondents really are. Saying that "the killer is an immigrant from Korea" is a lot different from saying "the killer came from Korea" even though the facts are exactly the same. The latter is akin to suggesting that Cho was a killer when he was 10. Him coming from Korea implies that the killers are more likely to come from Korea. Of course most people don't take it that far. But such subliminal manipulation does work most of the time (e.g. in engineering a sense of xenophobia in this case). However this happens to be a very poor example, the reason why the item was removed almost immediately. American media is full of such connotations in their reporting. Most of the times people won't realize that they are being fed the us-vs-them ideology while they are casually reading the newspapers. My own friends have gone from mid-conservative to extreme right just by choosing to be more informed about the world events. It is not hard to find an American who thinks that everyone except some European countries hates America. The propaganda machines once employed in South American and other satellite countries are now so mainstream that it is hard to be unprejudiced about almost anything. I myself have admittedly started to have a skewed view of the Muslim world, after being fed years and years of negative stereotyping. | I had assumed for a long time that the news in Britain and other European countries would be able to survive this extreme right scheme. But unfortunately that isn't the case for BBC. BBC has repeatedly followed the same tactics as major American media over time. I would've thought that this, apart from usual sarcasm was reserved only for the third world countries, but it surely isn't the case, after I started taking a closer look at the coverage of war and economy at BBC. ( For an example on the third-world country, if BBC finds some villagers in the most backward parts of Bihar, India performing a witchhunt, the headlines might be - Indian witch-hunt being curbed by the govt ) . I would try to log more real examples by editing this post, but here are a few recent ones : "Passenger's arm sucked down French train toilet" -Mind you, it is the french train toilet, not the train toilet in France ( but the british have a good sense of humor of course) Two Britons found guilty of having sex on a Dubai beach - The britons were guilty of breaking the law, not of having sex. The preference of word "downturn" over "recession" is actually official for BBC. That might I say, is only the tip of the iceberg. -- BBC just came up with an item that is very close to the example that I had provided: Pakistan "child wedding" halted -- Food body says 'avoid Irish pork' -- Ancient Persians 'gassed Romans' - As the report says it were the roman soldiers that were gassed. Indian Owl Problem. Apparently Indians like to sacrifice owls for their "black-magic" rituals. I hadn't known about it and still don't know anyone would would do something like that, but according to BBC that is something widely popular in India. Rather funny to see this 16th century style smearing of Indian "pagan" practices. |
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Mishra's travel to Hong-Kong - why aren't there enough writers in HK
Mishra finds the answer to be very simple - (In HK)"economic benefit is the core value for all decision-making, and development is the sole ideology." There isn't quite as much inspiration for any artistic pursuit.
Well Mishra certainly is good at defending his well-maintained position on the improper economic growth in Asia. He manages to get his stance through in all of his writings - that the recent development of Asia is not linked to its culture. It really is a sort of clash between its past and the present - the reason why, as he articulates, the recent development of East isn't quite as fulfilling as the era of enlightenment had been to Europe. Thus he finds the paradigm of emerging-superpower(s) to be fundamentally flawed. Sometime he has asserted that the results of this neo-richness can be far more undesirable than a bit of discontent arising out of hedonistic pursuits i.e. when the reconstruction proves to be detrimental to the civilization either through undermining of human rights or with forced continuation of decayed systems.
Except the way he puts these points I do share these views with him. I only wish I had the energy, flair and time as Mishra's to explain that to more people. Here on nytimes travel mag, he talks about the neo-richness of Hong-Kong. He explains how HK has surpassed New York but still longs to produce a writer of international fame.
The Money Pit
He is convinced that,
"a society of such material plenitude would eventually foster spiritual longings that could not be appeased by the mere accumulation of goods — a historical lesson that may be useful to remember as Hong Kong hurtles, as apparently heedlessly as ever, toward the future. "
Well Mishra certainly is good at defending his well-maintained position on the improper economic growth in Asia. He manages to get his stance through in all of his writings - that the recent development of Asia is not linked to its culture. It really is a sort of clash between its past and the present - the reason why, as he articulates, the recent development of East isn't quite as fulfilling as the era of enlightenment had been to Europe. Thus he finds the paradigm of emerging-superpower(s) to be fundamentally flawed. Sometime he has asserted that the results of this neo-richness can be far more undesirable than a bit of discontent arising out of hedonistic pursuits i.e. when the reconstruction proves to be detrimental to the civilization either through undermining of human rights or with forced continuation of decayed systems.
Except the way he puts these points I do share these views with him. I only wish I had the energy, flair and time as Mishra's to explain that to more people. Here on nytimes travel mag, he talks about the neo-richness of Hong-Kong. He explains how HK has surpassed New York but still longs to produce a writer of international fame.
The Money Pit
He is convinced that,
"a society of such material plenitude would eventually foster spiritual longings that could not be appeased by the mere accumulation of goods — a historical lesson that may be useful to remember as Hong Kong hurtles, as apparently heedlessly as ever, toward the future. "
Red!!!
A great shot. I wonder where this is.
It is hard to find buildings like these. I wish people were being more creative at least when building their own houses. Urban architecture seems getting lost into vapid materialism one bolstered with Home-Depot products and Ikea furniture.
I tend to think that modern architecture tries to please everyone a bit too much and thus like most others who do that comes up with things that are bland and possibly characterless. It could be that it is guided too much by science in its attempt to project a realism that is rationally justified and has minimal attributes.
I don't see anything wrong with minimalism but if people were just a bit more creative and just preserved the idea of building a house and not just buying or acquiring it, the houses would have become more beautiful by themselves. Beauty lies in beholders eyes after all.
Who knows we probably would have escaped the current financial crisis had the idea of a house as a place to live and not to gamble had prevailed.
It is hard to find buildings like these. I wish people were being more creative at least when building their own houses. Urban architecture seems getting lost into vapid materialism one bolstered with Home-Depot products and Ikea furniture.
I tend to think that modern architecture tries to please everyone a bit too much and thus like most others who do that comes up with things that are bland and possibly characterless. It could be that it is guided too much by science in its attempt to project a realism that is rationally justified and has minimal attributes.
I don't see anything wrong with minimalism but if people were just a bit more creative and just preserved the idea of building a house and not just buying or acquiring it, the houses would have become more beautiful by themselves. Beauty lies in beholders eyes after all.
Who knows we probably would have escaped the current financial crisis had the idea of a house as a place to live and not to gamble had prevailed.
random bit about Hippocrates
Apollo, the god of healing, fell in love with a human, Coronis. In his absence, Apollo sent a white crow to look after her. When the crow informed Apollo that Coronis loved another man, Apollo's rage turned the crow black.
To avenge her brother, Apollo's sister shot Coronis with an arrow and, as she lay dying, Coronis told Apollo that she was bearing his child. Although Apollo could not save Coronis, he rescued the unborn child, Asclepius. Hygieia, the goddess of health, and Panacea, the goddess of cures, are the daughters of Asclepius.
According to legend, Hippocrates was a descendent of one of Asclepius' sons.
I find it very interesting that a lot of words in our modern languages are based on names of goddesses. Fortuna bears the roots of the word fortune while the word panacea is unchanged both in meaning and form.
In my own native tongue (Sanskritic Hindi) this tendency is much more prevalent possibly due to absence of Christianity or late arrival of monotheism in the area. As I was telling a friend a few days back the word for power is actually name of a goddess and is of feminine gender. Male acquire power by worshipping the goddess. Shakti, the goddess, is power itself, that incarnates herself in every woman.
But that is only one observation I have made from the above note on Greek paganist roots to modern medicine. I would follow up with other notes later...
To avenge her brother, Apollo's sister shot Coronis with an arrow and, as she lay dying, Coronis told Apollo that she was bearing his child. Although Apollo could not save Coronis, he rescued the unborn child, Asclepius. Hygieia, the goddess of health, and Panacea, the goddess of cures, are the daughters of Asclepius.
According to legend, Hippocrates was a descendent of one of Asclepius' sons
In my own native tongue (Sanskritic Hindi) this tendency is much more prevalent possibly due to absence of Christianity or late arrival of monotheism in the area. As I was telling a friend a few days back the word for power is actually name of a goddess and is of feminine gender. Male acquire power by worshipping the goddess. Shakti, the goddess, is power itself, that incarnates herself in every woman.
But that is only one observation I have made from the above note on Greek paganist roots to modern medicine. I would follow up with other notes later...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thomism by Russell
According to St. Thomas the soul is not transmitted with the semen, but is created afresh with each man. There is, it is true, a difficulty: when a man is born out of wedlock, this seems to make God an accomplice in adultery. This objection, however, is only specious. There is a grave objection which troubled St. Augustine, and that is as to the transmission of original sin. It is the soul that sins, and if the soul is not transmitted, but created afresh, how can it inherit the sin of Adam? This is not discussed by St. Thomas.
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell
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