I’m Introspective

Check out the guest strip I did for Ryan Dow’s Introspective Comics:

http://ryandow.com/ic/2008/12/21/guest-strip-by-lupi/

I’ve been wanting to do a comic about pronouns for a while now (yes, I’m that lame) so it was a fun side project for me. Ryan doesn’t write comics about language, but he is a thoughtful and philosophical person, so I thought my rumination might fit the general mood of his site even if it doesn’t match the usual subject matter.

He just finished up an online graphic novel called Weekends With Carl. It’s an interesting character-driven story about an unlikely friendship, and if you haven’t already seen it, go to his website and check it out.

 

Kung Fu

This is what’s on my kung fu certificate.
It says that I’m awesome.

I’m totally going to waste time trying to translate it when I should be working on projects.

 

Everett True

When it occurred to me that the title character of A.D. Condo’s The Outbursts of Everett True is a dead ringer for my favorite lingustics professor, I had to do a linguistics-themed homage strip (it’s about the Eskimo vocabulary hoax).

You can see it on Steve’s site, along with lots of great Everett True comics from the old days.

 

More Islenska Myndasogar

Click to enlarge.

 

Islenska Myndasogur

The Icelandic funny pages! Click to enlarge. More later.

 

and on a happier note: balloons

Ein großer, ein roter, ein runder Luftballon
fliegt höher, immer höher, gleich fliegt er mir davon
doch an der Schnur, der langen, hol ich ihn mir zurück
jetzt hab ich ihn gefangen, da hab ich aber Glück

 

pronouns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

deutsch

1st pers.

1st pl

2nd

2nd pl

2nd form.

2nd form. pl

3rd masc

3rd fem

3rd neut

3rd pl

int.

nom

Ich

wir

du

ihr

Sie

Sie

er

sie

es

sie

wer

acc

mich

uns

dich

euch

Sie

Sie

ihn

sie

es

sie

wen

dat

mir

uns

dir

euch

Ihnen

Ihnen

ihm

ihr

ihm

ihnen

wem

gen

mein

unser

dein

euer

Ihr

Ihrer

sein

ihr

sein

ihrer

wessen

old english

1st

1st dual

1st pl

2nd

2nd dual

2nd pl

3rd masc

3rd fem

3rd neut

3rd pl

int m&f

int n

nom

Ic

wit

we

þu

git

ge

he

heo

hit

hie

hwa

hwæt

acc

me, mec

unc

us

þe, þec

inc

eow

hine

heo

hit

hie

hwone

hwæt

dat

me

unc

us

you

þe

inc

eow

him

hire

him, heom

hwæm, hwam

hwæm, hwam

gen

min

uncer

ure

þin

incer

eower

his

hire

his

hiera

hwæs

hwæs

modern english

1st

1st dual

1st pl

2nd

2nd dual

2nd pl

3rd masc

3rd fem

3rd neut

3rd pl

int.

nom

I

–

we

you

–

you, you all

he

she

it

they

who

acc/dat

me

–

us

you

–

you, you all

him

her

it

them

whom

gen

my, mine

–

our, ours

your, yours

–

your, yours

his

her, hers

its

their, theirs

whose

Some modern English dialects have 2nd person plural forms y’all, yous, or yins.

Old English 2nd person plural forms ge, eow, and eower became Middle English 2nd person singular ye, you, and your. They were once our polite or formal 2nd person pronouns, while thou, thee and thy/thine were informal. Now you and your are the informal 2nd person pronouns. You might say thou/thee/thy is our formal ‘you’ now…it’s considered so formal that we only use it when addressing a diety.

 

definite articles

for reference…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

deutsch
	masc	fem	neut	pl
nominative	der	die	das	die
accusative	den	die	das	die
dative	dem	der	dem	den
genitive	des	der	des	der
old english
	masc	fem	neut	pl
nominative	se	seo	ðæt	ðæ
accusative	ðone	ða	ðæt	ða
dative	ðæm	ðære	ðæm	ðæm
genitive	ðæs	ðære	ðæs	ðara
modern english
	masc	fem	neut	pl
nominative	the	the	the	the
acc/dat	the	the	the	the
genitive	–	–	–	–

teehee

 

trad. chinese

From a bilingual flier I found stuck inside a library book. I’ll see what I can figure out from it.

改變您的生活 ~ change your life
改變您的心臟 ~ change your heart
改變您的飲食 ~ change your diet
謝謝您 ~ thank you
我們為您祈禱 ~ we pray for you
我們愛您 ~ we love you
食物 ~ food
物 ~ thing
改變 ~ change
您的 ~ your
您 ~ you
生活 ~ life
生 ~ fresh
活 ~ lives
為 ~ for
我們 ~ we
我 ~ I

 

Windows

I became curious about this when I realized that German and Welsh have the same word for window: Fenster and ffenestr, respectively.


Old Norse (north Germanic) vindauga (wind-eye)

Old English (west Germanic) éagþyrel (eye hole)

Modern English (west Germanic) window

Norwegian (north Germanic) vindu

Danish (north Germanic) vindue



German (west Germanic) Fenster

Dutch (west Germanic) venster

Swedish (north Germanic) fönster

Latin fenestra

French fenêtre



Old Norse, Old English, Modern English, Modern Norwegian, and Danish all have some version of the native Germanic “wind-eye” word. Modern German has Fenster, which was borrowed from Latin (fenestra) some time before or during the Old High German period. Dutch and Swedish may have borrowed this word either from German, French, or directly from Latin. I don’t know much about the history of Swedish and Dutch, but it seems reasonable to assume that the word was first acquired by German speakers in Rhineland who were in direct contact (& conflict) with Romans, and later diffused northward into other Germanic groups. Note that the words Fenster, venster, and fönster are practically identical in pronunciation, and all three drop the middle vowel, forming the nst consonant cluster and reducing the word to 2 syllables.
Note also that English does have the words defenestration/defenestrate which are borrowed from Latin, but these are obscure learned terms, not used in every day speech like our Germanic window.


Here’s where it gets interesting:

Welsh ffenestr

Middle Irish fuindeog

Irish fuinneog

Middle Gaelic fuinneog

Gaelic uinneag

Manx uinnag

all the Celtic words for ‘window’ listed above are derived from Old Norse, except for the Welsh ffenestr. According to the dictionary, English got defenestrate directly from Latin. Welsh probably got ffenestr from English or Latin. But why did the Latinate word come into common usage?