docoflove1974

Quite...*sets stuff of fire* Crap, I have to stop doing that...I'm gonna really hurt myself if I keep it up.

Heh thanks, P! Oh second thought, let's not go to Camelot...'tis a silly place.

I don't know what you all think, but the portrait of McBurgercea is a knock-out

That is much later, Ramses. Right now, I just need a couple of genders for a couple of words. Not to mention the concept of zero!

And on the other side of the proverbial coin...some of us have to grade final exams today :/

I'd take Latin or any of its descendants, German, English, Greek...anything whose system of writing I can understand easily, and therefore cross reference with dictionaries. So inconsiderate, I tells ya.

There are certain words in Old Castilian that occur in my dataset which I have traced their etymology...and they are Arabic borrowings. Not unusual at all; because of almost 800 years of Moorish rule, and the close contact between the Romance-speaking Iberians, the Jewish shopkeepers and the Arabic-speaking Moors, there's about 10% of the Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan vocabularies which is Semitic (mostly Arabic) in origin. So, I have about 8 words in my dataset which are Arabic in origin, and I want to find out their gender in Arabic. I don't care so much about the gender inflection--Semitic inflection is different than Indo-European inflection, and they don't mix well. Often the word would be borrowed wholesale, and the gender that was associated with it would be applied (if possible). Do you have any idea who difficult it is to look up words in an Arabic-English (or Arabic-French) dictionary when it is: (a) organized according to the Arabic alphabet, not the English (or French); and (2) all of the Arabic words are written in Arabic script??? I can't find a blessed thing. And this is frustrating; Stanford must have 10 different Arabic-English dictionaries, plus 2 Arabic-French ones. I can't find a bleeping word. I have no idea where to start. Not even the first one. So, excusing me while I'm cranky...I have a headache from all the funny-looking symbols.

Pantagathus, you are my hero. Why I never thought to look at BookFinder, I don't know. Thank you!

Ah, the Appendix Probi...so many online versions...so much to choose from! (I'm in search of a good paper copy, and in something I can read the commentary on...any suggestions?) It's an amazing work--someone, whose name is lost to us, decided to sit down and document what he (I assume the author was not female?) heard. Tired of constantly correcting the people's speech pattern verbally, this auteur decided to write it all out...and publish it so that people can 'speak proper Latin'. Incredible document...not just for the pure linguistic content, but I think for the social aspect. --In total, it's almost all single words, not grammatical phrasal units. There are a few 'multi-word' entries, but they deal with modifier formation more than anything. All words are tackled, both content (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and functional (prepositions, adverbs) are in there. --Socially-speaking, it takes an incredibly anally-retentive and strict person to constantly make such notations. The attention to detail is quite extraordinary. My money is the author was a grammar/school teacher, an accountant (c'mon, they've always been nerdy and detail-oriented, and bit socially awkward), or perhaps just an upper-crust elitist who snubs their nose at the common folk and their vulgar speech. Great document, that one. I don't know how good it is, but here is a link to an online encyclopedia of Marcus Valerius Probus...a possible relative/ancestor of the Probi of the Appendix Probi.

I'm going to appeal to those of you who have more access/knowledge of Latin documents in printed form. I'm in search of a bound (modern) copy of the Appendix Probi. I know of the Willem Baehrens' 1922 Sprachlicher Kommentar zur vulg

That sounds about right...thanks, Aegyptus!

That research is being continuously done, and has been in the last 20-30 years. Strokes (usually) lead to lesions in certain areas of the brain, and when they're in certain 'language areas' (Broca's and Werneke's are the most commonly known, but there are many others) it affects language comprehension and production. But, yes, Princeps, any area of advancement in neuro-linguistics, let alone neurological sciences in general, is a big one.

When I was in Alicante in the summer of 2003, I was lucky enough to meet up with friends from that area who were history nuts, like us. They were pointing out all sorts of sites around the town that were ancient...including the town wall that was there before the Romans got there, and to which they added significantly. One town, Elche/Elx, has a very active Roman and Pre-Roman dig. I didn't get a chance to get out there, but I desparately want to go back, and in particular to Elche and other similar areas.

One day's mistake is another day's miracle...

IF (and this is a big if) this is really the case, that there is a single gene which is responsible for 'turning on' the language function in humans, well, that'd be a gi-normous leap forward in neuro-linguistics/cognitive linguistics. It could really lead to a better understanding about the neuro-inner-workings of the brain and how language is deciphered. Oh the possibilities! Link to BBC article

And doesn't the change in socio-economic composition affect this, too? Instead of a ruling elite with a decent artisan/merchant middle class, the change to serfdom/fiefdom, I think, accellerates this 'regression' (a good word, Kosmo). Such societies are closed by nature, often bickering (and even warring) with neighboring regions, I think helped with this 'darkening' of Europe.

This is just to start things off...I view this blog as a way to do a couple of things: --As ideas come to my head for possible future research, I'll place them on here...if nothing else than to philosophize on them for a bit. --To expound a bit on topics of the Romance languages (and perhaps others) which come up on UNRV. Since I'm in the middle of writing my dissertation, I'm either going to have no time to write often, am going to be fried when I do it, or will be on here often because I'm procrastinating (and I'm predicting option C will be most common ). So be patient, both with the frequency of the posts and the innanity that might ensue. I promise I'll try to keep things relatively lay-friendly, but am more than willing to do a 'Introduction to Linguistics' course in order to educate the public. Heck, it's what I do anyway So...enjoy!

Let alone that the 'other' sons in the monasteries tended to have longer and healthier lives!

Ah...well, then, with all the intermixing, I come back to my point...I doubt that there is any area of Italy which has a 'significant' DNA match with the Etruscans.

It still happens to this day, as many of us are well aware. I know that I'm very thankful for my upbringing: Catholic mother, but agnostic (technically Baptist) father, and both parents encouraged my brothers and I to form our own opinions. We were required to go through catechism school and be confirmed, true, but we were constantly asked to form our own beliefs. (As a funny side note, of the 3 of us, I believe I go to church most often...on Christmas Eve, because I love going to the children's mass! And I went to a few Southern (Black) Baptist masses and revivals when I used to live in Texas...which is a 'must do', in my opinion. I don't care what sect of Christianity you are, or whatever religion you consider yourself, to go in a house of worship and be with people who not only openly embrace their religion but are so joyful that it is darn near infectious in a positive way, well, it's something to behold.)

I guess the question would be: after Roman dominance, would there be any modern peoples who would have a 'significant' DNA connection to the Etruscans? I was under the impression that the Romans pretty much wiped out their former rivals?

Yes, this is what I had been taught, too. I must go through my stored books to find the source I had read which was a bit more illuminating (pardon the pun). Agreed. It seems to me--mind you, this is purely observatory, and I do not have sources to back this up--that this is how any culture 'illuminates' itself from a 'dark' period. It's not just the ability to read and have access to knowledge, but to have it disseminated from the very upper levels of society down to at least the middle-to-lower levels of said society. And while Charlemagne is key to this, I know the historians of Spain look at the Cluny monastic society who trapsed into Iberia, with the intent on 'liberating the Iberians from the clenches of the Moors'...in reality, by the time they got to that northern part of Iberia, the Castilians had already re-conquered that section. But the Cluny are favorably looked-upon and remembered for bringing in 'light' (aka books) which was hidden to them previously. It's at that point that you not only have the 'row of monasteries' (San Mill