As we left China, it was an opportunity to update some of these personal "research" documents:
Etymology of Chinese Characters It proposes and illustrates 3 more sinogram generation mechanism, on the top of the 6 traditional ones. These categories gives effective (and at least non-fictional!) mnemonics to learn Chinese characters.
Neo Nom 新喃 , initially started as a Japanese-inspired reconstruction of the ancient Vietnamese script Nôm, this document now aggregates many other comparisons between chopstick languages (Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) The Neo Nom system is meant to be an etymological markup in interlinear texts, helping readers who know Chinese to get an immediate sense of the etymology of the Vietnamese text. Besides the Nom script, this document also includes phonetic correlations of initial and final consonants, tones, some lexicon lists (false friends, waseikango, homophones, etc.)
Kunyomi Dictionary, a new study started in 2017. It explores the Japanese indigenous vocabulary with a focus on phonetics rather than kanji, with the goal to give overall correlations between Kunyomi readings (and their offspring developments) and their semantic fields. Rather a work-in-progress proof of concept, looking for similar existing research, because though it's fun to reinvent the wheel, I'd rather travel further on the shoulders of giants.
And here are the other documents, without update:
KoreoViet 韩越南字 , A Korean-inspired phonetic script for Vietnamese.
Voc Pro, a vocabulary list for professional context (technical, office) with translations in Vietnamese, Chinese, German, Spanish, and Bahasa.
Waseikango 和制汉语, a list of the Chinese words created by Japanese, Chinese and westerners during the XIXth century to describe new western concept. I’ve compiled the list myself from 2 sources.
Shuowen 说文解字 , an online XLS copy of the ancient etymological dictionary, with 11,100 entries. I’ve heavily customized it to analyze the text through excel functions and extract data systematically.
Hylian becomes more real! After an extensive re-harmonisation of the script and a full development of the prefixes, I have finally translated all the legend of Zelda 5, Ocarina of Time.
This is a graph I made using Gephi to show the number of Duolingo users learning which language from which. Colours represent language families.
English of course stands out as a hub. Duolingo users can learn any language from English, except Catalan and Guarani (from indigenous around Paraguay) which are learned from Spanish. Asymmetric drains are seen towards French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Italian to some extent. The network rather follows geographic proximity, with the notable exception of the Arabic>Swedish stream, accounting for the great effort of migrants to integrate Swedish society.
(click on the graph for a bigger picture with explanations)
Data review on June 2021 didn't show much change.
This is an example of semi-structured graph based on a data matrix. The interesting aspect of it is that the shape of the graph emerges from its inner structure, by optimizing the proximity and arrangement of the nodes linked together. Like letting the data spontaneously express itself and grow into a particular pattern.
Here is my worksheet about biblical lexicon, a clean compilation of various treasures i've found: Strong concordance lists for Hebrew and Greek with translation counts for KJV and NASV, along with the complete KJV with Strong numbers.
All in all, this allows word counts through the use of excel functions.
Enjoy!
Mi kunhavas chi tie kelkajn datumojn pri la vortorigino de Esperanto. Mi surbazis de la laboro de Andras Rajki el jaro 2006. Li studis grupon de 4000 vortoj kaj serchis la similajn vortojn el la latina, franca, itala, germana, jidisha, nederlanda, angla, rusa, pola kaj lituana lingvoj. Tiuj lingvoj estas konsideritaj tiel "lingvoj de Zamenhofo" char estas la lingvoj kiuj Zamehof pli-malpli kapablis kaj vershajne uzis por krei la internacian lingvon.
Andreas Rajki studas per sia vortprovizo la kompreneblecon inter tiuj lingvoj. Lia samecaj kondichoj estas iom striktaj (priskribitaj chi tie) Ekzemple li jughas ke "perfekta" ne sufiche similas "perfetta", "distanco" ne sufiche al "distanza" aw "distantia", "historio" al "istoria", kaj "havi la "haben", aw "trinki" al "drink". Do oni povus rekalkuli pli grandajn porcentojn de interkomprenebleco se inkluzus tiajn prununcajn variajhojn.
En tiu bilda rezumo ni povas vidi kaj la granda plejparto de Esperanta vortorigino estas la franca kaj latina. Preskaw 80% devenas de la romanaj lingvoj. Sed plej interesa estas ke tiu vortaro tamen tre bone kompreneblas de la parolantoj el la germanaj aw slavaj lingvoj.
English:
I'm sharing here some information about Esperanto etymology. The work is based on data published by Andra Rajki in 2006. He studied a set of 4000 words for which he looked for similar words from Latin, French, Italian, German, Yidish, Dutch, English, Russian, Polish and Lithuanian. Thos languages are considered "Zamehof languages" since Zamenhof knew them and probably used them to create the International Languages.
Andras Rajki studied the mutual intelligibility between these languages. His similarity conditions are somewhat strict (details here) He decided that "perfekta" wasn't similar enought to "perfetta", "distanco" neither to "distanza" or "distantia", "historio" to "istoria", and "havi to "haben", or "trinki" to "drink". We could then recalculate larger percentages of intelligibility if we'd include those variations of pronunciation.
In the picture we can see that the vast majority of Esperanto vocabulary comes from Latin and French. Nearly 80% come from Romance languages. However it is even more interesting to see that this lexicon is still well intelligible to speakers of Germanic or Slavic languages.
Here is a new translation, taking piecemeal the famous legend from Zelda 5 "Ocarina of Time".
This short text is full of interesting paradoxes. It puts together the ideas of beginning and what was before. The concept of origin is rendered by SMR (from Somaria, creation or start), and that of antecedence by the preposition KR, derived from KKR (from Kokiri, youth or morning roost). That antecedence is part of a cycle imitating the sun and four cardinal points: Est-South-West-North, NotYet-Already-Still-NoMore, Before-Inside-After-Outside. These two contradicting time models, the linear and the cyclical, are closely knit together like a primal bomb ready to expand.
Time is rendered by BRN (from Labrynna, the oracle of Time), with its abstract sense. The concrete one would be "moment".
Finally, "the chaos that was Hyrule" is paradoxical since Hyrule, the cosmos, basically means harmony. Hence "chaos" is constructed as "un-hyrulish". A cosmos yet very un-cosmic, a formless nothing yet to become something.
Here is a compilation of pictures and notes, about Vietnamese walls and inscriptions. Posters, ads, mysterious glyphs and undecipherable symbols. My notebook of Indiana Jones in Vietnam!
Esperanto was born in the late 19th century, and traditional customs back then was to give it a flag.. and an anthem! During the 100th congress in Lille in 2015, i've noticed with a friend of mine that the music of this anthem is quite military, a coulour in serious contradiction with the peacefulness of the lyrics.
Here is an arrangement with a new melody, slightly similar to the original, but in a form of waltz:
Click on the picture to listen (to the nasty piano-flute duet of mine!)
Voici enfin une copie intégrale en PDF de ce dictionnaire plein de révélations, pour 10Mo seulement. Le texte est passé en reconnaissance de caractère et peut donc être recherché par mot-clef avec CTRL+F.
Grandsaignes d'Hauterive, Dictionnaire des Racines des Langues Européennes (1948)
Voici une copie du livre écrit en 1916 par le père jésuite Dr. Léon Wieger, qui discute de l’étymologie chinoise, essentiellement sur la base du dictionnaire antique Shuowen 说文解字, avec quelques distances critiques.
Léon Wieger, Caractères Chinois (1916)
(Cliquez sur la photo pour ouvrir le pdf)
Une lecture fascinante, qui tord le cou à quelques mythes. Par exemple 明 qui est en fait la combinaison de 囱 + 月, la lumière de la lune à travers une fenêtre, et donc pas de soleil comme on le croit à la vue de la forme moderne. Oncle Hanzi est du même avis..
Wieger propose aussi que 字, représentant un enfant dans une maison, signifie d'abord "enfanter", puis "caractère d’écriture composé", considérant les 字 comme descendants des caractères simples 文. (voir p298) C'est le sens de 说文解字 : "discuter le 文 simple, et analyser le 字 composé".
Neo-Nom a method to transcribe Vietnamese into modern Chinese characters, in order to immediately show the equivalences between the two languages. The aim is to help people learning either language to make connections with the other. It also indirectly draws connections with Japanese and Korean.
Here is a list of articles and documents related to Chinese or Vietnamese:
Etymology of Chinese Characters, with proposes and illustrates 3 more sinogram generation mechanism, on the top of the 6 traditional.
Neo Nom 新喃 , a Japanese-inspired reconstruction of the ancient script Nôm, for learning purpose! If you know a bit of Chinese, that will gives you some keys to consolidate Vietnamese with what you know.
Waseikango 和制汉语, a list of the Chinese words created by Japanese, Chinese and westerners during the XIXth century to describe new western concept. I’ve compiled the list myself from 2 sources.
Shuowen 说文解字 , an online XLS copy of the ancient etymological dictionary, with 11,100 entries. I’ve heavily customized it to analyze the text through excel functions and extract data systematically.
KoreoViet 韩越南字 , A Korean-inspired phonetic script for Vietnamese.
Voc Pro, a vocabulary list for professional context (technical, office) with translations in Vietnamese, Chinese, German, Spanish, and Bahasa.
Le psaume 2 est particulier par son intensité et sa concision en 12 versets. Plusieurs mises en musiques ont été réalisées, et c'est la mélodie de Thomas Tallis qui m'a inspiré cette traduction versifiée :
Pourquoi ce bruit dans les nations? Ces peuples aux projets vains ?
Pourquoi les rois ont défié l’Éternel et son Oint ?
Brisons, disent-ils, leurs liens, leurs chaînes ! Du joug, soyons sauvés!
Mais Dieu dans les cieux se moque bien d’eux, de leur orgueil insensé.
.
Puis il leur parle en sa colère, fureur et épouvante !
C’est moi qui ai sacré mon roi, sur Sion, montagne sainte.
Décret du Seigneur : Tu es mon fils, engendré en ce jour.
Demande-le moi, je te donnerai les nations pour toujours.
.
Sceptre de fer, tu les bris’ras, tel le vase du potier.
(1) Why fum'th in fight the Gentiles spite, in fury raging stout?
Why tak'th in hand the people fond, vain things to bring about?
(2) The Kings arise, the Lords devise, in counsels met thereto,
against the Lord with false accord, against His Christ they go.
(3) Let us they say break down their ray of all their bonds and cords
We will renounce that they pronounce their laws as stately lords
(4) But God of might in heaven so bright Shall laugh them all to scorn
The Lord on hie shall them defy they shall be once forlorn?
(9) With iron rod as mighty God, all rebels shalt thou bruse:
And breake them all in pieces small, as sherdes the potters use
(10) Be wise therfore ye kinges the more, Receive ye wisdomes lore:
Ye judges strong of right and wrong, advise you now before
(11) The Lorde in feare your service beare, with dread to him rejoyce:
Let rages be resist not ye, him serve with joyfull voyce
(12) The sonne kisse ye lest wroth he be, lose not the way of rest:
For when his ire is set on fire, who trust in hym be blest!
Voici enfin la flamboyante version de Heinrich Schutz , baroque, sur les paroles de la bible Luther : (1) Warum toben die Heiden und die Leute reden so vergeblich?
(2) Die König im Lande lehnen sich auf und die Herren ratschlagen miteinander wider den Herren und seinen Gesalbten.
(3) Lasset uns zerreißen ihre Bande und von uns werfen ihre Seile.
(4) Aber der im Himmel wohnet lachet ihr. Und der Herr spottet ihr.
(5) Er wird einest mit ihnen reden in seinem Zorn und mit seinem Grimm wird er sie erschrecken.
(6) Aber ich habe meinen König eingesetzt auf meinem heilgen Berge Zion.
(7) Ich will von einer solchen Weise predigen, dass der Herr zu mir gesagt hat: Du bist mein Sohn, heut hab ich dich gezeuget.
(8) Heische von mir, so will ich dir die Heiden zum Erbe geben und der Welt Ende zum Eigentum.
(9) Du sollst sie mit einem eisern Zepter zerschlagen, wie Töpfe sollst du sie zerschmeißen.
(10) So lasst euch nun weisen, ihr Könige und lasst euch züchtigen, ihr Richter auf Erden.
(11) Dienet dem Herren mit Furcht und freuet euch mit Zittern.
(12) Küsset den Sohn, dass er nicht zürne und ihr umkommet auf dem Wege. Denn sein Zorn wird bald anbrennen. Aber wohl allen, die auf ihn trauen.
This week I've got some ideas about playing cards to stimulate multi-lingual workshops! The principle is basically to tell stories using several languages..
It is played with "Story cards" showing pictograms suggesting several ideas and words, "Language cards" indicating the tongues to be used, other "Mode cards" indicating tense (past present future) or focus (work jargon, emotions, slang, formal, etc.), and "Action cards" consumed to switch languages and modes.
Several playing styles came to my mind as i was crafting the first items:
Circle of Interpreters: players form a circle, languages are chosen as link between each player of the loop. Each has 3 story cards in hand. One by one, they lay a story card, and tell the scenario to the player on their left according to the required idiom. The next one adds another story card to the sequence and translates the whole narrative again to his neighbor. This game is rather collaborative, but we may give penalties to incorrect interpreters! This playing style only requires each player to speak 2 languages.
Free for All: players sit around 3 central decks of cards showing Languages (those that all players can speak), Modes, and Story. Each player has 5 story cards and 3 action cards. A first speaker is selected randomly, and starts telling a (logical!) scenario by laying down his story cards on the story deck. At least one sentence must be made for each card. At any point of time, another player can raise one of his story cards, and will take over the speaker at the end of his sentence. Logical junctions and grammatical correction are necessary, but complains from other players must be made in the same language! If the contribution of the contender is proven incorrect, he takes back his card. Any player can use action cards to switch tongues and modes, even in the middle of a sentence! The winner is the one using up all his story cards.
Practically speaking, printed paper was fixed on beautiful poker cards with tape. Kings Queens Jacks are kept to serve as "Action cards". Jacks and Queens switch to the next language of the pile, while Kings allow to select any tongue directly.
Here is an embarrassing and wonderful question! Language is about sharing, listening and talking, and that implies inviting the others to speak one of these languages, but crossing the thin line between sharing and showing off is quick…
A fair answer should quantitative, giving the gradual levels of mastery. For me it would be between 3 and 8. Mwaaahaha!
Like other written languages, Chinese has built a system of connections between meaning, sound, and shapes. Its partly ideographic nature enables some direct links between meaning and shapes.
It has been proposed in one of the earliest Chinese dictionary (Shuowen 說文解字) that Chinese characters are created following 6 methods (LST 六書通). Here I'm proposing 3 more!
Esperanto, the most successful created language for international communication, has been a wonderful encounter for me! It is the easiest language I know, while still being very accurate and elegant. But above all, its simple and powerful structure gave me the passion of learning foreign languages (and also create some..)
As a living language, it is subject to evolution, under the guidance of the Akademio.
Below are few ideas. Some are reasonable evolutions <Konsentebla>, others are downright utopias <Revolucieca!>
亼 represents an inverted mouth, pointing downwards, while 口 is an upright mouth. The characters using it generally bear the idea of gathering and harmony.
合) . . 合he2 means "conjunction, to fit, together". Here 2 mouths are meeting to talk, hence the idea of union. Characters using 合 for its meaning include: 答da2 "to reply, respond" (where 合 can mean "correspond", with the bamboo key used in 符合), 答da1 "to be in agreement", 翕xi4 "to agree", 㒆chi4 "to gather together", 洽qia4 "to blend with, be in harmony", 䆟ke4 'corresponding, appropriate", 恰qia4 "just, proper", 拾shi2 "to pick up, collect, tidy up", 拿na2 "to take, hold" ("close one's hand on something?" since 合 can mean to close by joining two corresponding parts, like windows.) The idea of closing might have generated these variations keeping both the sound and idea: 盒he2 "small box", 蛤ge2 "clam", 颌he2 "jaw".
侖) . . In the character 侖lun2, the mouth 亼 reads a book 册, meaning "discussion, consideration", and nowadays "logical coherence". The variations are: 论lun4, "debate, discourse" (giving 理论 "theory" and 论文 "thesis"), and 伦lun2 "normal human relationships, coherence". They use 侖 both for its sound and meaning.
龠) . . 龠yue4 is an ancient flute, with the mouth 亼, a bamboo flute body which became 冊, and 3 holes 品. The Shuowen comment underlines the multiplicity of sounds and musical harmony: "樂之竹管三孔以和眾聲也 從品侖侖理也". 龠 is also a unit of volume (50ml) worth half of 合ge3 (100ml). 龠 serves as semantic part for the idea of "blow" in 龡 chui4, the archaic form of 吹.
和) . . 和 is today an homonym and nearly a synonym of 合. 和 means "and, union, peace, harmony", with an archaic writing 龢he2 = 龠yue4+禾he2. 禾 is used for the sound. Just like in 龡, 龠 was simplified into 口.
龤) . . 龠 is also used to write 龤 xie2, which is homonym and nearly synonym of 谐xie2 and 协xie2, "harmony and agreement". We can note here the phonetic proximity between 和, 合, 协, 谐, and 龤, close to the middle Chinese pronunciation preserved in Vietnamese as Hiệp (合, 协, 谐, and 龤).
集) . . 亼 can also be read as an archaic variant of 集 ji2, meaning "collection, to gather". In 集 we see birds 隹 gathering on a tree 木.
令) . . In 令 ling4 "order, to command, to cause", the summoned order, the mouth 亼 is giving order to a kneeling man 卩from above. Here "order" bears the dual meaning of "command" and "organization".
命) . . 令 has its variation 命 ming4 "life, fate, command, to assign", same as above, like a cinema director assigning roles.
會) . . 會hui4, traditional form of 会, is composed of 亼, 曰 (yue1: speak), 丷, and 日. Following these components, we can trace back the logical connections of the various meanings: 聚会 to meet up, 会议 to discuss, 理会 to understand, 会 to know how, can, and future certainty. An archaic form of 会 is 㣛ta4 "to walk, to meet, to gather, to be able, to realize". 会 can also be pronounced kuai4 and mean "accounting, to balance an account", again: gathering and harmonizing!
That's it for now!
If you see some mistakes or important missing things so far, let me know. Thanks!
PS: I call (improperly for sure!) "Variations" of a character the combination of a given source character used both for its meaning and sound, together with a specification key. E.g. :
仑 => 论, 伦
合 => 盒, 蛤, 颌
令 => 命
分 => 份
In cases where the sound changes significantly, the resulting character becomes some kind of 会意字 (compound ideogram)， although the construction is clearly in 2 steps (first 亼 + 口 => 合, then 合 => 答, 洽, 䆟, 恰, 拾, 拿, etc.)
After the 2 scripts of last September, which were adapting the principles of Alfuni to specific situations, here is the latest version balancing a wide range of sounds, with minimalist graphical variation. Some will blame a lack of contrast, but i do like the regularity and harmony it gives!
(as usual, the table links to the TTF font, for those who'd like to write with it, or tweak it further!)
One key originality of this script is to propose a logical link between consonants and vowels. This idea first came in 2008 with the Phono-Braille.
It also proposes a selection of tones and punctuation, but the table is already big..
Version 1 of the tutorial of my Hylian language was sent to the Nintendo staff in Kyoto last October. The release CC license allows utilization of the language even partially and modified, including for commercial purpose. An inside contact is following up what they're doing with it.
Through the creation of the Hylian language, I've drawn correspondences between space (cardinal points) and time (sun, moon, seasons, life). More recently with the attempt to encompass all fields of education into 4 groups, I've been suggested a comparison with the European 4 elements. That triggered an extension of the initial "cardinal cycle" into something connecting all the Eurasian continent!
The Chinese cardinal points introduces a 5th item, central to the 4 others. This suggests similar central points, with transcendent character compared to the 4 others.
One thing at least is not universal: the link between the cardinal points and the moments of the day (through the position of the sun), which is only valid in the northern hemisphere. North-South is reversed in the southern hemisphere!
We see that Chinese culture is built between cycles of even and odd number. On one hand the Yin-Yang duality, the cycle of 4 seasons, and 4 cardinal points, often combined with the 8 combinations of the Taoist trigram. On the other hand, the cycle of the 5 agents, 5 music notes, 5 tastes, and then extended into the cycle of the 10 heavenly roots through multiplication by Yin-Yang.
However with the 5 agents, the "earth" holds a status similar to the others, not central.
For those who saw the movie "Divergent", we can also match the 5 factions following this order: Amity (farmers), Dauntless (fighters), Candor (judges), Abnegation (selfless servants), and Erudite (scientists).
The recent reading of the Wikipedia article on Jedi (the Star Wars frenzy can spark meaningful thoughts!) has lead me to realize how various fields of teaching and education can complement each others. Jedi are said to be "Polymaths", a word implying the mastery of many fields of knowledge, and at the Renaissance, mastery of arts as well. Since Jedi, like most Asian monastic traditions, blend rather physical training and wisdom, I came out with the following map of education:
The 4 fields of learning (Sport, Art, Science, Wisdom) are linked to 4 components of the person (Body, Heart, Mind, Soul), and nurture them with 4 types of food or accomplishment (health, beauty, science, peace).
Further, 4 types of historical teaching are proposed, giving emphasis on pairs of fields.
Sport+Art : Antique education as proposed by Plato
Art+Science : Renaissance polymath, like Da Vinci
Science+Wisdom : Medieval scholastic
Wisdom+Sport : Asian monachism
It is to be noted that back then, the definitions of the 4 fields were not as restrictive as shown here. For instance, Asian monks haven't excluded science but have been including part of it into their wisdoms.
The horizontal axis is about Power: Can and Know, "Pouvoir et Savoir". By combining horizontally Sport and practical Sciences, we could also imagine another very pragmatic education model: a nation of robots with no emotions (Equilibrium) nor conscience ! (Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World)
The vertical axis is about Feeling: Conceive and Receive, The combination of Art and Wisdom: people alternating between nerdy passionate creation, and peaceful selfless bounty to one another.
Maybe an accomplished man has to explore and balance all these fields?
I've integrated this map into the broader cardinal cycle.
Here is a version of my universal script Alfuni, simplified to fit a 7 segment digital display. This script is not strictly phonetic as it is mostly meant to offer a panel of characters to write most languages of the world. Letters can bear several phonetic values. The script can even be used with simple literal match, eg: write "Fountains" instead of the phonetic "Fawtenz", especially when Alfunepta doesn't have the required sounds.
The TTF file is available by clicking on the picture.
Here is the usual 1st article of the universal declaration of human rights, as sample text (literal match is used):
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Plosives are tall, fricatives are deep, africatives are therefore both tall and deep.
Mute are straight, voiced are crooked.
Nasal and approximant are marked by a hook
Vowels are small
Letters within a word can be grouped without ambiguity, which saves space. I also introduce the consonant Dz, for the sake of symmetry.
Simplifications include the combination of vowels into the consonant table, a feature that i tend now to always keep (W and U, Y and I, clearly match. H and A match in Arabic)
Here is the 1rst article of the universal declaration of human rights:
Ĉiuj homoj estas denaske liberaj kaj egalaj laŭ digno kaj rajtoj.
Ili posedas racion kaj konsciencon, kaj devus konduti unu la alian en spirito de frateco.
100th esperanto world congress in Lille, France, with over 2700 participants. Wonderful experience of friendly encounters, presentations, debates (fully in esperanto!), concerts, and dances Mirinda sperto de amikemaj renkontoj, prezentadoj, diskutadoj (tute esperante!), koncertoj, kaj dancadoj !
My constructed language now explores the possibility of links with the melodies of the Zelda universe, looking for known words and roots, and then extracting new roots to create new words!
