Notes de Voyage

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!)

And here is the music score.

10 years ago at 10pm in a swimming pool of Kuala Lumpur, the idea of what would become the constructed language Laramin loomed in a mind...

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".

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.
• Chinese Etymology with Dr. Wieger's book (French), an in-depth etymological introduction, based on the seal script, the Shuowen and critical views of it.

• 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.

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 are all the graphics !

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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!

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.)

References:

• http://www.chineseetymology.org
• Pleco Chinese dictionary app

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.

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.

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In the wake of some discussions about new Esperanto writing systems, I had the idea of recycling my old Alfuni script for the reduced scope of Esperanto sounds.

(click on the picture to download the TTF font)

• 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.

Here is a quick summary of several creations around Vietnamese:

• A Korean-inspired phonetic script: KoreoViet
• More recently, a Japanese-inspired reconstruction of the ancient script Nom, for learning purpose! If you know a bit of Chinese, that will gives you some keys to consolidate Vietnamese with what you know : Neo Nom

The webmaster just gave me the green light for adding my constructed script into the big collection of his website Omniglot. (KoreoViet is an extension of the Korean writing system to transcribe Vietnamese.)

Certains rêves révèlent parfois des réalités et connexions cachées de notre inconscient. A ce titre là, ils peuvent s’avérer plus "vrais" que le monde éveillé où règnent souvent les préjugés et dissimulations, par convention ou pudeur.

Homère a symbolisé cette idée dans l’Odyssée par un jeu de mot entre Corne/Ivoire (en grec Keras/Elephas) qui sonne avec Réalise/Trompe (en grec Krainoo/Elephairomai). Les rêves prémonitoires ou révélateurs venant par la porte de corne, tandis que ceux qui ne réalisent pas ou égarent viennent par celle d'ivoire.

Gates of Horn and Ivory

Cette idée m'est revenue ce matin à la suite d'un tel rêve. La veille au soir j'avais regardée le film "L'Histoire sans fin" qui parle aussi de l’équilibre entre imaginaire et réalité (le livre plus que le film apparemment, qui se conclue sur la liberté grisante de l’imagination). On m'a aussi récemment offert le livre "La création du monde" de Jean D'Ormesson, qui évoque cette référence de l’Odyssée.

Navigating across languages sometimes causes words to jump from one to another, especially with concise expressions. I owe "mamajujamente" to my Mexican friends who crafted it from Taiwan!

And here is an attempt to develop (or reconstruct?) English words from an apparent regular pattern linking pairs of verbs. Verbs on the first columns are acting on a object (transitive), whereas those on the second column act on themselves, or at least without object. (intransitive).

Interestingly in the 3 first lines or examples, we find that there is a shift from vowel E to A between the 2 columns. (phonetically we can convert raise=[rejz], rise=[rajz], lay=[lej], lie=[laj] ,bait=[bejt], bite=[bajt], braid=[brejd], bride=[brajd])

Following this rule, I (humbly) propose the following extensions:

Voici un coffret que j'ai fait confectionner l'année dernière, dans l'idée de rassembler 100 échantillons de parfum dans une petite boîte.

Etant donné que mes souvenirs se fixent particulièrment grâce aux odeurs, ce coffret joue un peu le rôle d'album photo, ou encore de compilation de musique. Il s'utilise comme un catalogue de voyage où l'on peut choisir la destination sous forme de lieu, d'instant, de couleur, d'humeur...

C'est aussi un peu comme un manuel de géographie grâce auquel je révise de temps en temps quelques senteurs exotiques, ou des groupes d'arômes difficiles à distinguer: "Burundi, Rwanda, Ouganda, lequel est plus rond? Plus vif? Plus suave? C'est comment déjà un parfum Chypré? Et poudré? Fougère? Vert?"

Je suis sûr qu'en entraînant régulièrement ses sens à discerner et nommer les choses, on gagne en acuité et largeur de perception; une sorte de supplément d'éveil. Cet entraînement est similaire à l'apprentissage ou approfondissement d'une nouvelle langue, ou encore la découverte de nouveaux concepts, comme une visite sur Wikipédia peut en offrir !