Tag: разное

О людях-придурках магических ритуалах, правильных названиях, блестящей монополии и о том, что следовало переназвать птицу, когда Гоголь умер.

[Tarahumara] are said to use the same word for “dancing” and for “working”—obviously because the distinction between these two activities is not immediately apparent to them, since in their scheme of things dance and agriculture serve essentially the same purpose of providing the means of livelihood. The growth and prosperity of their crops seems to them to depend as much or more on the correct performance of their dances, their magical and religious ceremonies, than on prompt and proper attention to the soil.

In the Kate language, which is current in New Guinea, there is a word bilin, which denotes a certain kind of grass with tough stems and roots that are wedged firmly in the soil; the latter are said to hold the earth together during earthquakes, so that it does not break apart. When nails were first introduced by Europeans, and when their use became popularly known, the natives applied this word to them—as also to wire and to iron rods, in short, to everything that served the purpose of holding things together.

Georg von der Gabelentz, in his book on the science of language, mentions the edict of a Chinese emperor of the third century B.C., whereby a pronoun in the first person, that had been legitimately in popular use, was henceforth reserved to him alone.

The dead may, at any moment, be literally “invoked,” the moment those who survive him speak his name. As everyone knows, the fear of such visitation has led many savages to avoid not only every mention of the departed, whose name is tabooed, but even the enunciation of all assonances to his name. Often, for instance, an animal species whose name a defunct person had borne has to be given a different appellation, lest the dead man be inadvertently called upon by speaking of the beast.” In many cases procedures of this sort, entirely mythic in their motivation, have had a radical influence on language, and modified vocabularies considerably.
Ernst Cassirer, “Language and Myth”

It is funny to note that in several translations of the Ecclesiastes the Preacher states calmly and solemnly that all is in vain, and only the Italian version shouts and throws its arms about 🙂

Из попавшихся мне версий перевода  Экклезиаста о том, что всё тлен, только итальянская версия орёт и размахивает руками 🙂

Vanitas vanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes. Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas. (Vulgata)

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities ; all is vanity. (King James)

Fumée de fumée, dit Qhoèlèt : fumée de fumée, tout est fumée. (Chouraqui)

Est ist ganz eitel, sprach der Predigter, est ist alles ganz eitel. (Luther)

« Vanità delle vanità ! – dice Kohelet – Vanità delle vanità ! Tutto è vanità ! » (Galbiati)

A notable Irish joke is that it is not possible to translate mañana into Gaelic as the Irish “don’t have a word that conveys that degree of urgency”. (W)

Известная ирландская шутка гласит, что слово “завтра” невозможно перевести на гэльский, так как у ирландев “нет слова, передающего такую степень срочности”.

“Tense is most often marked on verbs, but not always. The California language Hupa has tense-marking on nouns. Thus, for example, the word for ‘house’ has three tenses: a present tense “xonta” (house which now exists), a past tense “xontaneen” (house which is now in ruins) and a future tense “xontate” (house which is not built yet). English, of course, has nothing like this, and we have to use different words to achieve the same effect: one might consider, for example, that “ex-wife” is the ‘past tense’ of “wife”, while “fiancée” is its ‘future tense’! ”

“Language: The Basics” by L. Trask