tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36592052.post1575538382967148019..comments2023-10-26T20:40:47.532+11:00Comments on opɯdʒɯlɯklɑr: Scythiansopoudjishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02106433476518749382noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36592052.post-74130503584590024682009-04-02T11:10:00.000+11:002009-04-02T11:10:00.000+11:00I was about to look up basic colour terms in Farsi...I was about to look up basic colour terms in Farsi (as the closest living relative of Scythian I could think of), when I realised that no, basic colour terms do change in time, so neither Farsi nor Ossetian would tell me anything conclusive about Scythian. Even Old Persian wouldn't. (Do we even have colour terms from Old Persian?) <BR/><BR/>Then I started meditating on "blue", whose basicness in Modern Greek is debatable (μπλε is a loan from French, μπλάβος was a loan from (Italian?) but now is specialised to bruises, γαλάζιος is specialised to sky blue). <BR/><BR/>Then I started meditating on κυανοῦς in Ancient Greek, and how even though "cyan" in English has ended up blue-green, <I>kuanous</I> in Greek was the colour of the sea, and in fact <I>kuvane</I> in Tsakonian ended up meaning "black".<BR/><BR/>Then I boarded the train. I was <I>eudaimon</I> (good-daemon, fortunate) enough to get a seat, and incorporate some more misspelled omegas in the TLG lemmatiser. Now I'm at work, and I have some work blogging to do. Good morning!opoudjishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02106433476518749382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36592052.post-89930386045821726392009-04-02T06:29:00.000+11:002009-04-02T06:29:00.000+11:00Well, you could apply the principle of coinage: fo...Well, you could apply the principle of coinage: for every ten white pebbles, substitute a red pebble; for every ten black pebbles, substitute a gray pebble.<BR/><BR/>Of course, it may be that the Scythians were a Berliner & Kay two-color culture.<BR/><BR/>CAPTCHA: "demen", just a bit misspelled. "Call no man <I>eudaimon</I> until he is dead."John Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11452247999156925669noreply@blogger.com