Language Learners' Library

[bugcat]

I know we did some of these before, but:

Vocabulary Challenge: The Mine & Smithy

1. clay
2. chalk
3. flint
4. salt
5. peat
6. coal
7. jet
8. marble
9. opal
10. quarry
11. lantern
12. miner
13. mineshaft
14. ladder
15. copper
16. bronze
17. brass
18. iron
19. steel
20. silver
21. gold
22. electrum
23. furnace
24. fire (n.)
25. hammer
26. tongs
27. melt
28. mine
29. smith
30. smithy

Japanese Culture

1. temple
2. meditation
3. Buddhism
4. calligraphy
5. painting
6. garden
7. carp
8. chimes
9. soldier
10. warlord
11. caste
12. ceramics
13. glaze
14. tea
15. island
16. sea
17. river
18. fish
19. monster
20. robe
21. rice
22. mountain
23. emperor
24. cat
25. mat
26. lute
27. flute
28. sandals
29. suicide
30. woodwork

Merchantstock

1. coin
2. jar
3. salt
4. wine
5. sauce
6. grain
7. olives
8. oil
9. figs
10. spirits
11. mead
12. beer
13. cider
14. scrolls
15. wax
16. incense
17. myrrh
18. gunpowder
19. gems
20. limestone
21. flour
22. barley
23. mirrors
24. combs
25. arrows
26. antiquities
27. bows
28. slaves
29. herbs

Terrain

1. plain
2. plateau
3. upland
4. lowland
5. floodplain
6. swamp
7. saltmarsh
8. forest
9. rainforest
10. scrubland
11. beach
12. desert
13. archipelago
14. savannah
15. taiga
16. atoll
17. salt flat
18. mountainside
19. delta
20. snowy wasteland
21. lava field
22. crater
23. steppe
24. countryside
25. marsh
26. fen
27. islet
28. spit
29. mudflat
30. sea ice

Grammar challenge: Make at least three sentences from the words of each section (so 15 sentences in all.) You may supply your own verbs.

[bugcat]

In this post, I bring you simple hyogaiji from Jisho. They’re all ten strokes or less.

I’ll hide the meanings so it’s like a pop quiz.

01. 莒 02. 茈 03. 苓 04. 芡 05. 苻 06. 栘 07. 鬯 08. 茷 09. 芾 10. 枡

11. 匣 12. 玟 13. 挭 14. 汕 15. 哈 16. 玼 17 玷 18. 玥 19. 津 20. 舩

21. 枋 22. 舮 23. 枦 24. 枩 25. 枸 26. 枏 27. 陦 28. 范 29. 峇 30. 洎

Answers

1. hemp 2.red-dye plant 3. mushroom 4. waterlily-like plant 5. kudzu-like plant

6. fruit tree 7. spiced licquor 8. flutter 9. flower 10. measuring box

11. box 12. streaks in jade 13. fishbone 14. net-fishing 15. school of fish

16. flaw in a gem 17. flaw in a gem 18. pearl 19. harbour 20. boat

21. raft 22. prow 23. wax tree 24. pine tree 25. quince tree

22. cedar 27. island 28. bee 29. mountain cave 30. soup

By the way, I have to ruin one: whoever chose 蜂 as Joyo instead of 范 should have got a smack in the face.

[Vsotvep]

津 is the only one I know, but that’s probably because it’s actually a joyo kanji (it’s the tsu in tsunami).

Also, in a way 范 is less obvious than 蜂 to me, since 蜂 contains 虫, which means insect (and other creepy-crawly).

[bugcat]

Vocabulary solution

The Mine & Smithy

I. creta II. creta III. silex IV. sal V. peta* VI. carbo VII. gagates VIII. marmor IX. opalus X. metallum

(*) British Vulgar Latin

XI. laterna XII. cuniculator XIII. faux XIV. scala XV. aes XVI. aes XVII. aes XVIII. ferrum XIX. adamas XX. argentum

XXI. aurum XXII. electrum XXIII. furnus XXIV. ardor XXV. forceps XXVI. malleus XXIV. defluo XXVIII. cuniculus XXIX. faber XXX. taberna ferraria

Japanese Culture

I. templum II. meditare* III. gymnosophismos** IV. ???*** V. pingendum*** VI. hortus VII. carpa VIII. ???**** IX. miles X. dux*

XI. classis XII. lateramen XIII. ???** XIV. thea XV. insula XVI. mare XVII. flumen XVIII. piscis XIX. monstrum XX. vestis

XXI. oryza XXII. mons XXIII. imperator XXIV. felis XXV. matta XXVI. lyra XXVII. tibia XXVII. caligae XXIX. suicidium XXX. materiatura

(1) This is a gerund.
(2) Blanket term for Indian aescetics. Also I used a Greek ending because I didn’t know the Latin one.
(3) Probably a Latinisation of Greek kalligraphia
(4) Another gerund.
(5) Could adapt campana (bell)
(6) Commander
(7) Something to do with vitreo (I glaze)?

Merchantstock

I. nomisma II. cadus III. sal IV. uinum V. ius VI. grana VII. bacae VIII. oleum IX. fici X. alcohol distillatus

XI. hydromel* XII. ceruesia XIII. sicera XIV. pergameni** XV. cera XVI. incensum XVII. myrrha XVIII. pulvis pyrius XIX. gemmae

XX. calx XXI. farina XXII. hordeum XXIII. specula XXIV. pectines*** XXV. sagittae XXVI. ???**** XXVII. arcus XXVIII. servi XXIX. herbae

(1) Unusual combination of Greek hydro and Latin mel
(2) I think Sanonius criticised this, but I can’t find his response
(3) Apparently pecten also meant pubic hair
(4) Something to do with relicto (I abandon), root of English relic?

Terrain

I improvised in all quoted items.

I. campus II. planitia III. “terra alta” IV “terra demissa” V. adluuies VI. palus VII. aestuarium VIII. silua IX. “silva pluvia” X. “campus rusci”

XI. littus XII. heremus XIII. ??? XIV. “campus herbidus” XV. “silva niuea”* XVI. “insula demissa” XVII. “campus salis” XVIII. “clivus montis” XIX. “insula fluminis”

XX. “heremus niueus” XXI “campus lavae” XXII. crater XXIII. campus XXIV. arua XXV. palus XXVI. palus XVII. “insula parva”** XXVIII. ??? XXIX. “campus caeni” XXX. “crustallum maris”

(1) Both taiga and tundra are loanwords from Asian languages.
(2) I don’t think a diminutive would sound right here.

[bugcat]

I think I’ll start making kanji posts to keep the Japanese-learners interested.

Here is a list of kanji about birds.

Joyo: 鳥

1. bird

Jinmeiyo: 鴻 鳳 凰 燕 禽

1. goose 2. male phoenix 3. female phoenix 4. swallow 5. bird / captive

Hyogaiji: 鵈 䳑 鷽 寉 鸎 鸇 鵒 鵩 鵂 隻

1. kite (bird) 2. pheasant-like bird 3. dove 4. crane 5. mango-bird
6. hawk 7. mynah 8. buzzard 9. horned owl 10. counter for birds

Special mention: 喿 (chirping)

As a foreigner, I like seeing the characters that break the pattern, like 燕.

[stone.defender]

@bugcat

As a foreigner

Japanese uses only some Chinese characters frequently. By posting a lot of not popular kanji, you talk more about Chinese language than of Japanese.

@bugcat

I like seeing the characters that break the pattern

More interesting that pattern exists - many bird words have 鳥 radical
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Index:Chinese_radical/鳥

[bugcat]

Hmm, what’s gonna be a good challenge for today?

[bugcat]

@Sanonius

I’d like to try translating Ysengrimus (ie. Reynard the Fox), because 1) it’s a real Latin work and 2) the subject matter is playful.

But I’ve heard that the Latin is quite difficult. And also it’s Medieval Latin. What do you think?

[Barbanaira]

I don’t know, I really don’t know that work. “medieval” and “playful” implies a low-register vocabulary with lots of double-entendre and secondary meanings and/or late latin vocabulary you don’t learn in school or from dictionaries.
I just found this page here with some works considered “easy” by the bloggist. The noctes atticae are probably something you’d like.

From Hyginus, there is some kind of mythological dictionary, also in rather easy latin.

[bugcat]

Oh, I can’t find Ysengrimus for free anywhere. And a review said “written in very sophisticated Latin with brilliant but misused rhetoric” so yeah, maybe no.

[bugcat]

What do you think about De Agricultura and De Re Rustica as beginner material? These are books about farming (as you obviously know.)

De Agricultura, though, was written in 160BCE so it might be a bit dated?

I know that the tradition in England has always been to explicitly prepare students to read The Gallic Wars.

Those books you linked look interesting, btw.

[Vsotvep]

• 隻 is joyo again, I know it. It’s also used as a counter for ships. The usual counter for birds is 羽 (わ)
• 鷹 is the kanji I know for hawk (たか, I learnt it from 三鷹, which is a city in Tokyo).
• 鶴 is the kanji I know for crane (つる, I learnt it from 舞鶴, a city in Kyoto).
• 鳶 is the kanji for kite (とんび), one of them stole my hamburger once…
• 鵞鳥 is the kanji for goose
• 鳩 is the kanji for dove

I didn’t go through the rest, but I’m not sure if you got the right kanji for them…

Note that in Japanese, animal species are usually written in katakana. Only the most well-known species have kanji that are familiar to most Japanese.

@bugcat

I like seeing the characters that break the pattern, like 燕.

Which pattern is it breaking?

[bugcat]

It doesn’t use the 鳥 kanji.

[Vsotvep]

I think 燕 is a pictogram. Also, here’s something that will blow your mind:

燕 means “swallow (bird)”, 嚥 means “swallow (as in the verb)”

[bugcat]

Huh. I wonder how that happened. Did they calque the bird name from us or did we calque it from them?

[Vsotvep]

I think it’s a coincidence

[bugcat]

I did some research on Wiktionary.

English swallow (verb) derives from Old English swelgan.
English swallow (bird) derives from Old English swealwe.
So we can see that they converged on form, not diverged in meaning.

Japanese 燕 is allegedly a pictogram of a swallow.
It has an onyomi of en and a kunyomi of tsubame, tsubakura, or tsubakuro.

Japanese 嚥 has no etymology given.
It has a kunyomi of nomu… but an onyomi of en.

So it is the onyomi that is significant here.

Interesting… this suggests that the connection between 燕 and 嚥 is related to Chinese, not Japanese.
It is probably the case that 燕 is the phonetic component in 嚥, the latter being a phonosemantic compound. The semantic component 口 makes sense.

[Vsotvep]

@bugcat

English swallow (verb) derives from Old English swelgan .
English swallow (bird) derives from Old English swealwe .
So we can see that they converged on form, not diverged in meaning.

In Dutch “to swallow” is “slikken”, but the etymology of “swallow” is probably the same as the Dutch “(ver)swelgen”, which is more like “devour”.
The bird is called a “zwaluw”.

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Of course it’s related to Chinese, they are Chinese characters.

[bugcat]

I guess it may be just an interesting coincidence. Though, perhaps in both languages observations of large flocks of swallows devastating fields of crops may have played a role in the linguistic convergence.

[bugcat]

Braille kanji