by Zabaan | Jun 19, 2015 | Classical languages, Sanskrit, Yoga
This is the first in a series of articles intended for all those with an interest in yoga and in widening their understanding of Sanskrit words used in connection with its practise. Yoga has now for a long time been one of India’s best known export goods...
by Zabaan | Jun 18, 2015 | Hindi, Sanskrit
Just as colours exist in many-stepped gradations produced by the different capacities for light absorption possessed by different types of matter, so are the wavelengths of vowels shaped into tiers of light and shade by the high or low and front or back...
by Zabaan | Jun 17, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Old Norse, Sanskrit
This article is intended as a follow-up to yesterday’s article entitled Sanskrit words for animals: haikus of first impressions. Its subject is a device employed in traditional Germanic verse, such as the poetry produced by the Anglo-Saxons or of their...
by Zabaan | Jun 16, 2015 | Classical languages, Sanskrit
Sanskrit has many words for animals and trees that do nothing else than describe one of their characteristic features. These words always consist of a noun or adjective, to which the shortened form of a root is added (for this process c.f. the article...
by Zabaan | Jun 15, 2015 | Classical languages, Sanskrit
The word avatar is certainly, and especially since the advent of 3D cinema, one of the most commonly known Sanskrit words among people who otherwise have no dealings with the classical language of India. It is true, the word has by itself an ominous aura of...
by Zabaan | Jun 14, 2015 | Classical languages, Literature, Old Norse
The great wooden hall was the hub of ancient Germanic society as we find it depicted in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. It was the stage on which the all-important gift-economy was enacted, through which kings and retainers were tied together by the totemic...
by Zabaan | Jun 13, 2015 | Etymology, Hindi, Sanskrit
This is the first in a series of 101 articles intended as a short introduction of the system of vowel combination called sandhi, which Hindi has, in a fossilised form, inherited from Sanskrit. Since the system is fossilised, i.e. does no longer produce new...
by Zabaan | Jun 12, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Etymology, Learning and Teaching, Sanskrit
We all know that the plural of foot is not *foots but feet. This is, by the large majority of English teachers and speakers alike, dismissed as an irregular feature shared by a bunch of other equally irregular nouns, but the formation of the plural of foot actually...
by Zabaan | Jun 11, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Greek Mythology, Literature, Norse Mythology, Old English, Old Norse
According to Greek mythology the fate of each and every individual is determined by the cool and steady hand of three sisters, collectively known as the Μοῖραι (moirai). Their name is derived from the verb μείρομαι (mēromai), to receive as one’s lot. Each on her...
by Zabaan | Jun 10, 2015 | Ancient Greek, Classical languages, Sanskrit, Verb Conjugations
It will have escaped no one, that Germanic languages, such as English and German, have a very irregular conjugation of the verb to be. In English there is to be in the infinitive, but I am in the first person of the singular and then, out of nowhere, he/she is in the...
