Thursday, July 26, 2007
Drishtikon
The word literally translates to 'view' (drishti), 'point' (kon)
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The word literally translates to 'view' (drishti), 'point' (kon)
The metaphorical meaning is 'viewpoint' as well!!
huh. It is interesting how disparate languages in different continents bear such striking similarities, i.e employing the same metaphor to convey a certain meaning.Labels: languages
Friday, October 27, 2006
It's 'Alternative', Stupid!
I've grown weary of seeing almost everyone around me use the word 'alternate' when they actually mean 'alternative'.
Huh! :(
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I've grown weary of seeing almost everyone around me use the word 'alternate' when they actually mean 'alternative'.
Huh! :(
Labels: languages
Monday, March 27, 2006
Oxymorons
A few self-contradictory expressions that I could recollect off-the-cuff...
Cosmopolitan Nationalism
Evenhanded Fairness
Libertarian Conservative (William Safire considers himself to be one)
Authoritarian Communism (this one is no longer widely recognised as an oxymoron)
Pagan Fundamentalism
Contemplative Business Graduate
Do pour in with a few more....
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A few self-contradictory expressions that I could recollect off-the-cuff...
Cosmopolitan Nationalism
Evenhanded Fairness
Libertarian Conservative (William Safire considers himself to be one)
Authoritarian Communism (this one is no longer widely recognised as an oxymoron)
Pagan Fundamentalism
Contemplative Business Graduate
Do pour in with a few more....
Labels: languages
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
'Absolutely' Ridiculous
One of the tendencies among Indians is to gratuitously use adjectives/adverbs, to express a strong emotion. 'Absolutely' is IMHO the most abused of such words.
"It's absolutely amazing" is a sentence that one hears almost daily....Interestingly, the phrase 'relatively amazing' finds very few takers....Strange that Indians find most of the incredible happenings around them to be 'absolutely incredible'...Now, C'mon...not all incredible events can rank very highly on an 'absolute' scale of incredibility. Surely, there are many events that are 'relatively' incredible , i.e their incredibility pales in contrast to events that are 'absolutely' incredible!!!
Take for instance, the event of Venkatesh Prasad scoring a century at Perth which is 'relatively incredible' as its incredibility ceases to amaze us when juxtaposed with the event of Shiv Sainiks distributing Valentine Cards.
So, I urge the readers of this Blog to use the adjective - 'absolutely' sparingly as we live in a 'relative' world wherein very few things can actually be talked about in an 'absolute' sense.
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One of the tendencies among Indians is to gratuitously use adjectives/adverbs, to express a strong emotion. 'Absolutely' is IMHO the most abused of such words.
"It's absolutely amazing" is a sentence that one hears almost daily....Interestingly, the phrase 'relatively amazing' finds very few takers....Strange that Indians find most of the incredible happenings around them to be 'absolutely incredible'...Now, C'mon...not all incredible events can rank very highly on an 'absolute' scale of incredibility. Surely, there are many events that are 'relatively' incredible , i.e their incredibility pales in contrast to events that are 'absolutely' incredible!!!
Take for instance, the event of Venkatesh Prasad scoring a century at Perth which is 'relatively incredible' as its incredibility ceases to amaze us when juxtaposed with the event of Shiv Sainiks distributing Valentine Cards.
So, I urge the readers of this Blog to use the adjective - 'absolutely' sparingly as we live in a 'relative' world wherein very few things can actually be talked about in an 'absolute' sense.
Labels: languages
Saturday, November 26, 2005
William Jones
A name that most Indians haven't heard of. The original orientalist, proponent of the Aryan Invasion Theory and the person to whom we owe our understanding of the subcontinent's ancient history.
As a Philologist, Jones' crowning achievement was the indepth study of the classical Indian tests. He is best known for observing the affinity between Sanskrit and other Indo-European Languages. The following observation of his had wide-ranging implications on Indian history and altered our racial sense.
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists
Here are some examples that reveal a startling similarity between an oriental tongue and its distant occidental cousin :
Sanskrit Latin Meaning
trayas tres three
devas divus divine
sarpa serpens serpent
Words for 'father' in different Indo-European languages -
"father"
pitar (Sanskrit)
pater (Latin)
pater (Greek)
padre (Spanish)
pere (French)
father (English)
fadar (Gothic)
fa∂ir (Old Norse)
vader (German)
athir (Old Irish--with loss of original consonant)
It can be said that Sanskrit is much closer to Spanish in origin that it is to Tamil.
The more I read about William Jones' work, I find it increasingly hard to conceive the existence of a Pan-Indian race or an 'Indian' family of languages, as claimed by our obscurantist nationalists.
It's sad though that linguistic research of this kind that could provide a link to our obscured past doesn't get much press in our country.
Here's a fascinating page that explores this topic in greater detail
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A name that most Indians haven't heard of. The original orientalist, proponent of the Aryan Invasion Theory and the person to whom we owe our understanding of the subcontinent's ancient history.
As a Philologist, Jones' crowning achievement was the indepth study of the classical Indian tests. He is best known for observing the affinity between Sanskrit and other Indo-European Languages. The following observation of his had wide-ranging implications on Indian history and altered our racial sense.
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists
Here are some examples that reveal a startling similarity between an oriental tongue and its distant occidental cousin :
Sanskrit Latin Meaning
trayas tres three
devas divus divine
sarpa serpens serpent
Words for 'father' in different Indo-European languages -
"father"
pitar (Sanskrit)
pater (Latin)
pater (Greek)
padre (Spanish)
pere (French)
father (English)
fadar (Gothic)
fa∂ir (Old Norse)
vader (German)
athir (Old Irish--with loss of original consonant)
It can be said that Sanskrit is much closer to Spanish in origin that it is to Tamil.
The more I read about William Jones' work, I find it increasingly hard to conceive the existence of a Pan-Indian race or an 'Indian' family of languages, as claimed by our obscurantist nationalists.
It's sad though that linguistic research of this kind that could provide a link to our obscured past doesn't get much press in our country.
Here's a fascinating page that explores this topic in greater detail
Labels: languages
Friday, August 12, 2005
Arbit
The word 'voracious' yields close to 700000 search results on Google.
The phrase 'voracious reader' in quotes produces nearly 150000 results.
Hmm.Approximately one in four times,'voracious' is used in conjunction with 'reader'.
That's interesting. The ratio could well be half if one takes into account related phrases like 'voracious reading'. Can't think of any other adjective in the dictionary that exhibits such a strong association with a particular subject.
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The word 'voracious' yields close to 700000 search results on Google.
The phrase 'voracious reader' in quotes produces nearly 150000 results.
Hmm.Approximately one in four times,'voracious' is used in conjunction with 'reader'.
That's interesting. The ratio could well be half if one takes into account related phrases like 'voracious reading'. Can't think of any other adjective in the dictionary that exhibits such a strong association with a particular subject.
Labels: languages
Friday, June 10, 2005
Odd
I've been in Bangalore all my life. But somehow, the incongruity of a thoroughfare being named -'Avenue Road' never struck me until I read this. Very,very strange.
The institution in which I study-'University Visweshvaraya College of Engineering' is
another good example. God knows why it was named so.
Has anybody noticed similar oddness in any of the vernacular names for roads/institutions. Or are these instances merely indicative of the inability of the colonised people to wield the English language with finesse?
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I've been in Bangalore all my life. But somehow, the incongruity of a thoroughfare being named -'Avenue Road' never struck me until I read this. Very,very strange.
The institution in which I study-'University Visweshvaraya College of Engineering' is
another good example. God knows why it was named so.
Has anybody noticed similar oddness in any of the vernacular names for roads/institutions. Or are these instances merely indicative of the inability of the colonised people to wield the English language with finesse?
Labels: languages
