{"id":70250,"date":"2025-08-03T06:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T11:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=70250"},"modified":"2025-08-03T06:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T11:02:52","slug":"radio-garden-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=70250","title":{"rendered":"Radio Garden, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don't know why, but the first time I came upon this marvelous site, in Mark's March 5, 2021 post<\/a>, it didn't make much of an impression on me.\u00a0 Maybe I was too busy to explore it at that time or was just not in the right mood.\u00a0 Four days ago, however, when my old Peace Corps buddy, Bob Kambic, called it to my attention, Radio Garden just blew my mind away.\u00a0 I kept exclaiming, \"This is the most exciting, happiest day of my life!\"<\/p>\r\n

\"Radio<\/a><\/h3>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

At the click of your mouse, you can listen to nearly 8,000 stations all around the earth.\u00a0 Bob said, \"It reminds me of the early days of the internet where you got unfiltered information free.\"<\/p>\r\n

It reminded me of ham radio, for which I bought a pretty good set, but you had to have a well-tuned antenna, plus lots of patience and diligence to find interesting stations.<\/p>\r\n

The link that Bob sent took me to Yellowknife, Canada, capital of the Northwest Territories, here<\/a>.\u00a0 From Yellowknife, I was off and skipping across the globe:\u00a0 the hills of Nepal where I could listen to Nepali language and joyful songs, the Australian outback where I could hear Strine and aboriginal languages, to the Seychelles far from anywhere else (French, English, and Seychellois Creole), Weno in the Federated States of Micronesia (enchanting music!), Samoan on Pago Pago, English in Youngstown (57 miles from my home)…. Vilnius (Lithuania) keeps popping up, and it is very easy to reach my favorite station of all, 88.5 WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\r\n

BTW, in scanning the world, I often get stations that are not obviously marked, e.g., Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.\u00a0 Those are especially welcome surprises.<\/p>\r\n

It's also fun to swirl around the planet, from mountain heights to oceanic depths, accompanied by the sounds made by humans wherever they live.\u00a0 Except…, there are few stations available where repressive governments rule.\u00a0 Look at the difference between China (only a handful of stations [almost exclusively Mandarin] for 1.4 billion people) and India (hundreds of stations [in dozens of languages] for 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\r\n

That oceanic blue globe with green and brown landscape whose surface is dotted with electric green circles suspended in cyan space is for me a Radio Paradise:<\/p>\r\n

From Middle English<\/a><\/span> paradis<\/a><\/i>, paradise<\/a><\/i>, paradys<\/a><\/i>, from Late Old English<\/a><\/span> parad\u012bs<\/a><\/i>, borrowed from Old French<\/a><\/span> paradis<\/a><\/i>, from Latin<\/a><\/span> parad\u012bsus<\/a><\/i>, from Ancient Greek<\/a><\/span> \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2<\/a><\/i> (<\/span>par\u00e1deisos<\/span>)<\/span>, ultimately from Proto-Iranian<\/a><\/span> *paridayjah<\/a><\/i>. From *pari-<\/a><\/i> (<\/span>\u201c<\/span>around<\/span>\u201d<\/span>)<\/span>, from Proto-Indo-Iranian<\/a><\/span> *pari-<\/a><\/i>, from Proto-Indo-European<\/a><\/span> *per-<\/a><\/i>, + *d\u00e1yjah<\/a><\/i> (<\/span>\u201c<\/span>wall<\/span>\u201d<\/span>)<\/span>, from Proto-Indo-Iranian<\/a><\/span> *d\u02b0\u00e1y\u0237\u0301\u02b0as<\/a><\/i>, from Proto-Indo-European<\/a><\/span> *d\u02b0ey\u01f5\u02b0-<\/a><\/i> (<\/span>\u201c<\/span>to knead, form<\/span>\u201d<\/span>)<\/span>.<\/p>\r\n

Doublet<\/a> of parvis<\/a><\/i>. Displaced<\/a> Old English<\/a><\/span> neorxnawang<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\r\n

i.e., a garden, cf. Garden of Eden<\/p>\r\n

(Wiktionary here<\/a> and here<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n

Rapturous reception!<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n