Yesterday, while doing research for a paper on medieval Dunhuang popular narratives (biànwén 變文 ["transformation texts"]), I did a Google search for the Peking Library, where some of the bianwen manuscripts are kept. Instead of the national library of China in Peking / Beijing in the PRC, I was led to the Pekin Public Library […]
My first acquaintance with the word "karaoke" was back in the 1980s, when I was visiting my brother Denis, who was then a translator for Foreign Languages Press in Beijing. He lived in the old Russian-built Friendship Hotel, a very spartan place compared to today's luxury accommodations in big Chinese cities. There wasn't much unusual, […]
In various publications and Language Log posts over the years, I have collected scores of old polysyllabic words (e.g., those for reindeer, phoenix, coral, spider, earthworm, butterfly, dragonfly, balloon lute, meandering / winding, etc.), which proves that Sinitic has never been strictly monosyllabic, although that is a common misapprehension, even among many scholars. The reason […]
To comprehend what's going on in this post, you have to understand the basics of what an "otaku" is. DEFINITION: (fandom slang) One with an obsessive interest in something, particularly anime or manga. ETYMOLOGY: From Japanese オタク (otaku, “nerd, geek”), from お宅 (otaku, honorific for “you”), originally the honorific version of 宅 (taku, “home”). [VHM: […]
Given this: "Measure words for robots" (9/4/21) and this: "Arigatō" (9/3/21), I could not help but think of this:
There's probably no other Japanese word that is better known to the world than "arigatō". In this little essay, Kaki Okumura attempts to explain why "there is difficulty" means "thank you". This is something that I have often pondered myself, but is that all there is to it? And what about the alleged Buddhist aspects […]
Yesterday I went to Philadelphia's famed Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians. I hadn't been there for about 35 years, so it was nice to reacquaint myself with some favored old exhibits (human beings with long horns growing out of their forehead, fetuses at all stages of formation and deformation, bodies with extra heads […]
My brother Denis and I have long been intrigued by the use of the prefix yǒu 有 ("there is / are / exist[s]") in a wide variety of circumstances in Old Sinitic: e.g., before the word for family temples (yǒu miào 有廟), before the names of barbaric tribes (yǒu Miáo 有苗), and before place names […]
A link from Michael Glazer, with the note "Bats have been getting a bad name recently epidemiologically, so it’s nice to hear them mentioned in a positive way": "Nathan Ruiz, "Young bats offer hope…", WaPo 7/27/2021. Well, OK, the full headline makes the real context clear: "Young bats offer hope as Orioles fall to Marlins". […]
All the talk of moseying and ambling propelled me into a customary mode of mind. Those who have taken classes with me know that, though I may start at a certain point in my lectures, it is difficult to predict how we will get to our intended destination, though we are certain to pass through […]
This is both one of my favorite words and one of my most enjoyable modes. Although I am normally very active and highly goal oriented, and walk almost as rapidly as a Singaporean (fastest in the world), occasionally I simply want to unwind a bit, especially when I'm with a like-minded friend, and just stroll […]
It is not my intention to stir up a firestorm, but I have for decades suspected that the names "Ashkenazi" and "Scythian" are related. Now, after having sat on this for years and letting it gnaw away at my inwyt for far too long, I've decided to seek the collected expertise of the Language Log […]