docoflove1974

Call me weird, but my bed-time-reading is currently Herodotus' The Histories. It's pretty much the only chance I get to read for pleasure. I'm currently on Book 4, all about the Scythians, and I'm trying to place them geographically. In (chapter?) 11, he describes whereabouts the people are from (he says they're nomadic tribes from Asia), that they are in the Black Sea area, near where the Cimmerians and the Cappadocians were. When I look at the map in the book (the Penguin volume, in the front of the volume), I don't see the Scythian kingdom labeled on there. So, 2 questions: 1) Was Scythia really in the area of the Cimmerians, or elsewhere? 2) That's near where the Hittites were said to be located...if I recall correctly. Did they come in and take over the area from the Anatolian tribes? (I haven't gotten too far into book 4, so bear with me!) Thanks!

I swear, the Basques will claim anything and everything...

Oh the things you find as you pack your crap up... So, in packing up my files (the filing cabinet's gonna get moved this week), I found a resource that I've had, and completely forgot about. It's a linguistic overview of the western Roman Empire: Polom

Happy birthday, MPC! Enjoy the day!

Los Angeles Los Alamos Los Altos (and that's just the ones off the top of my head) So, he of the Land'O'Smog...

What, is Caesar gonna get run through again?

Eh, just have the drinks...make merry, be merry...

It's contagious!!! Run away!!!

Happy birthday, PP...enjoy the day and the night...and any other impending celebrations!

Ooh...I want in on this! This Saturday will be full of relaxing, I hope...with any luck, there will be few comments on the chapters, and the process will all but be complete! That's cause for a celebration, if any! Nephele, do you still have my info? Or do you want me to send it to you again?

So it wasn't just a very sill Monty Python sketch?

Yeah, but many in rural China (and, through migration, much of eastern Asia) also have some sort of bean curd to add to the protein level in their diet. If I recall, lentils are high on protein, and I would guess other legumes would be, too, but what else would supplement their protein needs?

I planted ~200 bulbs of daffodils, tulips and narcissuseseses in the fall...most all of the daffodils are flowering, many of the tulips are showing off their wares, and the narcisusseseses are about to shine their glory. I love it when hard work pays off!

It's gloriously sunny with a mild breeze, here in Baghdad-By-The-Bay, complimented by cool nights. Ah, nice.

Will do, Ursus...thanks!

Have a good one, Viggen! Enjoy your day!

Define 'babe'

They're all politicians...they're all silver-tongued, double-edged, and all full of shyte. The only time they're useful is if you want something done...and if you know their game and how to play it successfully. Otherwise, meh.

Thanks, Ludovicus. Maybe the references contained within can help me further.

All youse New Yawk peoples talk funny.

Quick question: I'm looking for a good source which discusses Romanization. The Barbarians Week from the History Channel has my gears turning. Any takers?

Yeah, that's the point. Classical Latin is 'considered' to be predominantly SOV order, albeit with plenty of free word order. Vulgar Latin, too, is thought to be predominantly SOV, but with common SVO word order. (Just for reference, by the time we get to Late Latin, or around the 4th c. CE, the order is predominantly SVO.) But, I was under the impression that the soldiers were 'trained' in Classical(ish) Latin as a lingua franca, or at least that's how they spoke for the most part, as well as the (educated) elite. Maybe someone who is more 'in the know' on Romanization, but I would have expected speech patterns from these two groups which ressembled C.Lat. more? Again, I was going by first impressions, so I could be totally wrong here.

So I was paying more attention to the languages in tonight's episodes (on the Franks and the Lombards), and I had a series of questions...perhaps someone else picked up on this: --When the 'Romans' spoke, it almost seemed like they were using Classical Latin words, but in Subject-Verb-Object (i.e. later Romance) word order. However, this is first impression only; I didn't tape them, so I couldn't go back and hear the speech again. --With regard to Frankish, I understand that we have few (from what I understand, very few) texts to get some idea of the Frankish language. But they had the Lombards speaking a Germanic language, too...I didn't think we have anything in Lombard? --The Visigoths in the Iberian Peninsula were said to be somewhat bilingual in both their Germanic language and Latin, due to their prolonged contact and work with the Romans. Because of this, once they took over in Iberia, it's noted (Penny 1991 is just one of the latest, but it's discussed in Menendez Pidal, among others) that the Visigoths moved to exclusively using Ibero-Romance as their language over the generations (no one is sure how long this took). The documentaries didn't represent either the Franks or the Lombards as being 'bilingual', for the most part, although I'm sure that it would have been the norm among the nobility. Still...I find that aspect very odd...this is a huge aspect linguistically of the history of the Romance languages, that despite the Germanic tribes (among other groups) who invaded and took over control of the land, the Romance languages were maintained. The closest we see in tonight's episodes is the Franks taking over Romanized towns and 'continuing Roman way of life'. But, in my biased opinion, language must be mentioned! I'm sure there's more, but I'm a wee tired right now. Any other thoughts?