Linguist. So I study lots of languages, and the Babel list over there is pretty arbitrary. I'd prefer to lower some of those higher numbers down half a point just to be on the safe side, but the 3-2-1 division roughly reflects something. Also ja-1 but only in romanization.
After a recent house move I got rid of lots of books on languages I knew I would never get anywhere with. So now I have books (in almost all cases more than one) on:
- Old English, Middle English, English, German, Dutch, Old Norse, Icelandic, Swedish
- Latin, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
- Ancient Greek, Modern Greek
- Czech, Polish, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian
- Welsh; Albanian; Persian
- (Standard) Arabic, (Biblical) Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian, Somali
- Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian
- Basque; Georgian; Turkish; Sumerian; Japanese; Chinese; Malay/Indonesian; Swahili; Bidyara
- British Sign Language
- Esperanto
EtymologyEdit
From Basque hiztegilari (“lexicographer”) < hiztegi (“dictionary”) + -lari (“(agent suffix)”)
I have no particular expertise in Basque (or any other of these languages), but I do own Larry Trask's history of it and the Croom Helm reference grammar, among others, and did evening classes with a native speaker. I haven't created an entry for the word hiztegilari because I don't know whether it's in live use or just a dictionary word.
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /is̻tegiʎaɾi/ invalid IPA characters (g), replace g with ɡ (in proper Basque)
- IPA(key): /ɪsˌtegiˈlɑːri/ invalid IPA characters (g), replace g with ɡ (in running English)
Let me use this space to record the IPA symbols for the apical sibilant s [s̺] (with an upended dental sign) and the laminal sibilant z [s̻] (with a box). I got these from the word mesedez, which conveniently had them the wrong way round. So I've fixed that. Further note to self: when copying, start at left and arrow two places right, or you only get the s.
FavouritesEdit
- Favourite combination of senses: かむろ (“bobbed hair; baldness; young girl attendant of a high-class prostitute”) Runners-up: ǀxâã (“dance; revere; menstruate for the first time; turn round and round (causing giddiness), hover (as a bird), swing”) and -GHAAZH (“make bubbles; shout; be sleeping”)
- Favourite local custom: წაწლობა (c̣ac̣loba, “An obsolete, sexual practice in Pshavi according to which a young boy and girl would sleep together without actually having sex, which was strictly prohibited.”) Runner-up: qhamuluṭéeli (“woman who secretly bakes ash cakes”)
- Favourite proof that Dutch is a fake language invented to mock English-speakers: broodrooster (“toaster”)
- Favourite category: Category:got:Commelinids. (Ulfilas did tend to bang on a bit about strelitzias, kangaroo paws, bananas, and cardamom.) Close runners-up: Category:Chinese_terms_borrowed_from_Somali ("zebra", to save you looking) and Category:hy:Armadillos (just contains the Armenian for "armadillo" ... so far)