Alarmar

Alarmar parece ter adquirido uma nova acepção recentemente, a de prover algum edifício, público ou privado, com alarme. Meu dicionário, desatualizado, diz que alarmar significa espantar, assuntar, sobressaltar. Parece-me um verbo correto baseado no substantivo alarme, que merece a sua entrada própria no dicionário, se é que já não a tem.

Animate nouns

Animate nouns seem to be given prominence in the grammar of many languages. Masculine nouns in Slavic languages, for example, are different from masculine inanimate nouns in that they have the same form as the genitive - singular and plural, except Czech, whereas inanimate nouns have the same form as the nominative:

Czech: Koupil jsem si nový počítač. - I bought myself a new computer. Počítač, masculine inanimate noun, has the same form in the nominative.
Můj počítač je nový. - My computer is new.

Feminine animate nouns in Russian have the same form in accusative and genitive plural:
Я поприветствовал учительниц. - I greeted the (female) teachers.
Записки учительниц лежат на столе. - The notes of the teachers/The teachers' notes are on the table.

Spanish and Romanian, and Portuguese to a much lesser extent, "draw attention" to their animate nouns in the accusative by using a preposition (a in Spanish and Portuguese, pe in Romanian):
Spanish: No conozco esta ciudad. - I don't know this city. Ciudad is an inanimate noun, no a added.
No conozco a esa señora. - I don't know that lady. Señora, animate, needs a.

Romanian: Nu cunosc acest oraş. - I don't know this city. Oraş is inanimate. No pe.
Nu o cunosc pe acelă doamnă. - I don't know that lady. Doamnă is animate. Pe required.

Romanian has another interesting feature, which can be seen in the aforementioned sentence. The o before the verb literally means her ("I don't know her that lady"). That object pronoun, which agrees with the object, is required when the object is animate. Another example, this time with a masculine noun:

Nu îl cunosc pe acel domn. - I don't know that gentleman. Îl (him) is masculine like domn.

And that brings us to Macedonian, which behaves in a similar way, except that a pronoun is required whenever the object, direct or indirect, is definite:

Го не знам градов. - I don't know this city.
Jа не знам дамана. - I don't know that lady.

Го, like Romanian îl, is used with masculine and neuter direct objects; ja is used with feminine direct objects.

Both Romanian and Macedonian require that an indirect pronoun be used in case there is a definite indirect object represented by a noun:

Romanian: I-am dat o maşină a fiului.
Macedonian: Му дадoв кола на синот.
English: I gave a car to my son./I gave my son a car.

In Macedonian му is required as an indirect object pronoun in the presence of a an indirect object masculine noun.

And that takes us back to Spanish, which allows for the same duplication, although it is not mandatory in most cases:
Le di un coche a mi hijo. = Di un coche a mi hijo. - I gave my son a car.

Where le is the indirect object pronoun.

Interesting.

Relâmpago

Talvez pelo fato de o Brasil ser o recordista mundial em número de relâmpagos é que há tantas palavras em português que se referem ao mesmo fenômeno atmosférico: relampaguear, relampadear, relampejar e relampear. Com tantas palavras diferentes, duvido que continue válida a máxima de que um raio nunca cai duas vezes no mesmo lugar.

Insaudável

Pela primeira vez em 26 anos de vida ouvi a palavra insaudável da boca de um amigo meu, profissional da saúde, que a pronunciou por três vezes durante a refeição que compartimos hoje à noite. Insaudável, no contexto em que a usou, e nas 35 ocorrências (bem pouco, deve-se dizer) a que nos leva D. Google, refere-se a comidas, principalmente a pizza, pelo que pude observar, e a comportamentos que não contribuem para um bom estilo de vida. A palavra, apesar de pouco comum se se levarem em consideração os vestígios deixados na rede, parece-me bem formada por recorrer a um prefixo mais que produtivo em português, in, que dá idéia de negação. Agora resta saber se esse insaudável se formou a partir do unhealthy do inglês ou se originou no bojo do idioma. Mas por que não recorrer a insalubre ou, acabo de descobrir, insalutífero, duas palavras de longa tradição no vernáculo?

Espavento

Acabei de descobrir essa palavra. Descubri que além do significado que se dá ao spavento italiano, de susto, em português também significa ostentação, luxo, como em O Santo Amaro fora festejado com espavento na freguesia da sua invocação. Vésperas, missa cantada, duplo sermão, e procissão à volta das igrejas, nada faltara para solenizar a festa. (A Morgadinha dos Canaviais, de Júlio Dinis). O mesmo dicionário dá espavento como derivado do italiano spavento, mas pergunto-me como foi possível surgir esse segundo significado que não tem a palavra original em italiano. Talvez a ostentação de algum lugar tenha feito com que alguém se surpreendesse, se assustasse tanto? É possível. Também vejo que como sinônimo do verbo espavantar há o delicioso verbo engalanar, que infelizmente não é tão usado. Todavia, recordo-me tê-lo visto numa canção em língua castelhana, que dizia El día que me quieras, la rosa que engalana, se vestirá de fiesta con su mejor color...

Bát se, craindre

It is interesting to note that two unrelated languages, Czech and French, share a similar construction when it comes to fearing something:

Czech: Bojím se, aby rodiče nepřijeli pozdě.
French: Je crains que mes parents n'arrivent tard.
English: I am afraid that my parents might get in late or I am afraid lest my parents (should) get in late.

In both Czech and French there is an "unnegated" ne.

Mathematics never ceases to amaze me

A new way to multiply.

Complessificare

Sull'argomento "bambinese", il linguaggio usato dai genitori e nonni quando si rivolgono ai bambini, ho trovato questa parola stranissima e bruttissima. Non sarebbe più facile dire complicarsi, come si è sempre detto? O anche qui hanno voluto complicare la parola pronunciandola complessificando? Preciso che complessificare non si trova in alcun vocabolario da me consultato. Lo stesso sito, inoltre, fa uso di bebé e bebè. Si vede che non hanno messo troppa cura nello scriverlo.

Il linguaggio dei genitori verso i propri figli si modifica e si complessifica naturalmente seguendo la crescita del bimbo.

Link

Google riporta 537 occorrenze per complessificare. Una nuova parola starà formandosi? Meno male che ne dà 346.000 per complicare.

Palec, prst, палец, прст

Polish palec and Russian палец mean finger/toe. Today it came to my attention that Czech also has palec, but it means thumb. Czech for finger/toe is prst and Macedonian is прст. Interesting.

Amor

Amor incredibilis sensus. Puto amorem advenire solum cum in communione cum Deo simus. Amor est Domini manifestatio potestatis eius in vitis nostris. Et incredibilissimum est sensum sublimem experiri et reciprocationem in alio reperire. Est paucorum privilegium, sed ego feliciter in hoc circulo includor et contentissimus sum.

Una e pulcherrimis poesibus summi scriptoris et poetae linguae lusitanae Luís Vaz de Camões ait:

Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver

Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver,
É ferida que dói, e não se sente;
É um contentamento descontente,
É dor que desatina sem doer.

É um não querer mais que bem querer;
É um andar solitário entre a gente;
É nunca contentar-se de contente;
É um cuidar que ganha em se perder.

É querer estar preso por vontade;
É servir a quem vence, o vencedor;
É ter com quem nos mata, lealdade.

Mas como causar pode seu favor
Nos corações humanos amizade,
Se tão contrário a si é o mesmo Amor?

Hoc argumentum mihi in memoriam affert fragmenti Sacrorum Scriptorum:

Vulgate (Latin): 1 Corinthians Chapter 13
1 Si linguis hominum loquar, et angelorum, caritatem autem non habeam, factus sum velut æs sonans, aut cymbalum tinniens.
2 Et si habuero prophetiam, et noverim mysteria omnia, et omnem scientiam: et si habuero omnem fidem ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habuero, nihil sum.
3 Et si distribuero in cibos pauperum omnes facultates meas, et si tradidero corpus meum ita ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habuero, nihil mihi prodest.
4 Caritas patiens est, benigna est. Caritas non æmulatur, non agit perperam, non inflatur,
5 non est ambitiosa, non quærit quæ sua sunt, non irritatur, non cogitat malum,
6 non gaudet super iniquitate, congaudet autem veritati:
7 omnia suffert, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet.
8 Caritas numquam excidit: sive prophetiæ evacuabuntur, sive linguæ cessabunt, sive scientia destruetur.
9 Ex parte enim cognoscimus, et ex parte prophetamus.
10 Cum autem venerit quod perfectum est, evacuabitur quod ex parte est.
11 Cum essem parvulus, loquebar ut parvulus, cogitabam ut parvulus. Quando autem factus sum vir, evacuavi quæ erant parvuli.
12 Videmus nunc per speculum in ænigmate: tunc autem facie ad faciem. Nunc cognosco ex parte: tunc autem cognoscam sicut et cognitus sum.
13 Nunc autem manent fides, spes, caritas, tria hæc: major autem horum est caritas.

Laudemus amorem!

Tempo de número

Hoje, pela primeira vez na vida, ouvi no supermercado uma senhora perguntar ao caixa: Que dia de número é hoje? Por nunca a ter ouvido antes, pareceu-me estranha essa expressão, mas a atendente respondeu-lhe imediatamente: São 16 de novembro. E assim segue a língua, inovando como sempre e indo ao sabor da vontade das pessoas que dela fazem uso.

Is God all-powerful?

God is not all-powerful as he cannot build a wall he cannot jump.

More paradoxes here. I loved them when I was a child.

Earth at night

This picture speaks volumes about geography and development.

What I liked most:
How lights trace the Nile.
Vast expanses of China, Brazil, Canada and Australia that are dark.
Pockets of prosperity in Africa.
The Trans-Siberian Railway.

Segundo, récemment vu

There ought to be a name for that word that keeps creeping up after you hear it for the first time, or hear it again after a very long time. What prompted this thinking was the Portuguese word segundo, ordinal number meaning second but also preposition meaning according to. What do the two concepts have in common that they are given the same name? As far as I know, only Italian has one single word for these two things: secondo. Even our Spanish cousins have two words: segundo (number) and según (preposition). Does that mean that Portuguese and Italian speakers, when reporting somebody else's words, are second in spreading it? There must be an explanation. I have spent innumerable sleepless nights thinking about this, and so far no plausible explanation has shaken me and slapped me on the face saying "It's right in front of you, you moron". Anybody got any idea?

Oh, yes, going back to the word, I suggest récemment vu (recently seen). We already have déjà vu (already seen) and I've even heard déjà entendu (already heard), déjà mangé (already eaten) and déjà bu (already drunk). Here's the word in play:
Funny you should say that word. These récemment vus never cease to amaze me, I wonder if I should see a shrink or pay more attention to the world around me.

I think that works!

Oh, and I haven't said why I mentioned segundo earlier in this post. I'd been meaning to write something about it for days and didn't get to it until finally today I heard the word three times with the according to sense and decided I should stop stalling and get down to work.

Where the Internet ends

Here. It got me thinking!

Understand? Do I really?

Let's face it: Czech is a weird language. Starting by its name: Czech. Why does it sound like check/cheque? Does that point to the Czechs' predilection for checks instead of cash? Don't know, beats me. What about the Italian name: ceco? It's a homophone with cieco, blind. Does that mean that an unfathomable number of checks are issued daily by a bunch of blind Czechs who don't know who the hell they are writing those checks out for?

And now we shall consider (yes, I can be posh sometimes) a pretty basic verb, rozumět, to understand (I just love those upsidedown hats, don't you?) Any normal person in his right state of mind (go ahead, call me a chauvinistic pig) would think that verb is followed by your regular accusative, but no! Czech doesn't like to be seen in company of its Slavic brethren. It goes for the dative instead. Here are a few examples - from a guy who still doesn't know where to place his Czech critical clitics (I'm not taking any suggestions, thank you).

Russian: Я хорошо понимаю русские книги. - Accusative.
Polish: Dobrze rozumiem ruskie książki. - Accusative.
Macedonian: Добро разбирам руски книги. - Accusative.
Czech: Dobře rozumím ruským knihám. - Dative, ladies and gentlemen!

Go figure!

Maoism Moneyed

Communism has always been a state-run corporate interest. Mr. Prachanda's Maoist movement in Nepal, like any other regimes that have called themselves communist, is now on sale.

See OhmyNews.

The People of Poets, Thinkers and Readers

Do you want to keep me busy for a couple of hours? Give me some statistical data!

According to the Index Translationum project of the UNESCO, German is by far the most frequent target translation language. The methodology is a bit weird, though. They count publications of translated books and not translations.

The database contains cumulative bibliographical information on books translated and published in about one hundred of the UNESCO Member States since 1979.

Anyway, Germany rocks. You can feel it in German trains and buses; remarkably many people are immersed in reading.

The Anglo-Saxon world comes across as culturally self-sufficient. Anglo-Saxon publishers dominate the world scene and yet, German (100 mil. native speakers) beats English (425 mil. native speakers) 2.5 : 1.

Another UNESCO list features the most translated authors. Their definition of a book must be quite permissive because even booklets consisting of 10 pages qualify. I wish I knew where V. I. Lenin, who made it into Top 5 and outperformed both Danielle Steel and William Shakespeare, would end up if only decent sized books had been counted. For Christ's sake, it is a list containing data starting 1979, long after the peak of ideological fervor! Ah, I see: Looks like quite a few of the books were meant for export although they appeared in Moscow or elsewhere within the former USSR.

More stats here. I am sure I will get to play with the expert mode one day.

Afternoon

Some people say I am a linguist (which isn't right, in the first place), but how hard is it for a supposed linguist to come to realize that afternoon is composed of after + noon? Inexplicable.