Dariko

Sapphires have always fascinated me with their vivid, rich blue colour since the first time I saw them in my life. It was an Internet stock photo, but still impressive. After reading Princess Diana's biography, this gemstone has forever been associated for me with her famous ring. As you have understood, today I want to write about საფირონის [sɑpʰiɾɔni] ეტიმოლოგია (the etymology of sapphire).

The word საფირონი entered the Georgian language during the Old Georgian period. Actually, it was borrowed from Ancient Greek due to the translation of Christian biblical texts. I'll make a fishbone for better understanding: Semitic (סַפִּיר) -> Ancient Greek (σάπφειρος / sáppheiros) -> Old Georgian -> Modern Georgian (საფირონი). There are other linguistic theories: one suggests a connection to Sanskrit, and another - to the ancient Mesopotamian Assyrian/Akkadian language. In Georgian culture and history, sapphires were used by Georgian royalty and nobles. Due to their associations with the heavens and the sky, many sacral items were decorated with sapphires too.

That's it for today. I still am a busy bee with all the exams and writing my thesis. I wish luck to everybody who is graduating - you can do it!

“Burn the midnight oil” means “to work or study late into the night, long past usual hours.” The idiom’s origin dates back to the 17th century, when people used oil lamps to continue studying or working after dark. Actually, the concept is much older: the Latin verb lucubrare (“to work by candlelight”) had existed long before the English idiom appeared.

The earliest known printed occurrence is credited to the English author Francis Quarles in his 1635 work Emblemes: “Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle.”

Not only have people been getting burnt out for centuries, but their lamp oil was burning out as well. The idiom also reminds me of the trend where students would not stop studying until their candles went out.

By the way, Russian, German, and Georgian do not seem to have idioms similar to this specific one. If you know any languages that do, please leave a comment - I would like to broaden my horizons while drilling exam material.

Due to my busy study timetable, I can't keep up with a healthy study-life balance or write new pages in my commonplace book. Nevertheless, the desire to practice my writing skills is my main motivation to continue posting.

Today's post is dedicated to the word “pearl” in Georgian and its etymology. “Pearl” in Georgian is მარგალიტი [mɑrɡɑlitʼi]. The word მარგალიტი is derived from Old Indo-Iranian, which later yielded the Middle Persian word morwārīd. In Proto-Iranian, the word for “pearl” supposedly meant “born from the shell of the bird.”

Fun fact: the English name Margaret is also a descendant of this Proto-Iranian word.

Or how I found out about my first state final exam at university after 1,5 hours of it's beginning...

So, fun fact about Russian universities: most of exams are oral, at least for linguistics and Humanities in overall, this exam wasn't an exception. Before getting messages from my groupmates I had a one hour long walk, great weather, great mood. 30 minutes later I was hurrying to get to my university - turned out that my exam's time shifted and all information about that was in the different social media group where Ihave deleted my acc long time ago... Imagine that: me, without any clues what will be on this pedagogy exam, running like a death is chasing after me.

Thanks God I passed it and got an A, though it was indeed a bittersweet moment when I understood that nobody thought to write/call me immediately. Nevertheless, my mindset changed; interpersonal communication is much more difficult than I believed and atomized society is no jokes.

Well, I am still on horse's back and my motivation for finishing this bachelor's degree without complications is only getting stronger.

P.S. I don't think that other people must look for me and help me anytime I need it. Although, this type of moments makes me a little bit cynic, giving a helping hand is becoming an option to choose for me, not an immediate action.

I bet that every language learner once asked themselves: "What words are most important in my native language? Do a foreign language that I learn has different important words?" Well, happy to acknowledge you, one clever fella already thought about it and created a Swadesh list and here I am, telling you what it is and where to find it.

A Swadesh list is a compliation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. That is a list of forms and concepts which all languages, without exception, have terms for, such as star, hand, water, kill, sleep and so forth. The number of terms is small - a few hundred at most, or possibly less that a hundred. The inclusion or exclusion of many terms is subject to debate among linguists; thus, there are several different lists, and some authors may refer to "Swadesh list" that was named after the US linguist Morris Swadesh.

Different sources for Swadesh lists:

#Linguistics #Thoughts #History

Etymology of "lemon" and "Zitrone"

Both terms ultimately trace back to the same Meditarrean/Middle Eastern origins, where the fruit was popularized by Arab merchants around the 10th-12th centuries.

Instead of team Edward or team Jacob today you need to choose what team you are: team lemon or team Zitrone:

Team "lemon": The word likely derives from the Persian līmū or līmūn, which is a cognate of the Sanskrit nimbū (meaning "lime"). It was adopted into Arabic as laymūn or līmūn and then into Italian as limone. The English word emerged around the late 1400 (Middle English lymon) via Old French limon.

Team "Zitrone": The German Zitrone is derived from the Latin word citrus, which originally referred to the citron fruit. In many languages, Zitrone is a cognate of "citron". The term often causes confusion, because in French, citron means a lemon. Similar to Zitrone, other languages like Dutch (citroen), Polish (cytryna), and Swedish (citron) also share this Latin-based root.

P.S. I am team Jacob.

#Linguistics #Education #Thoughts

George Zipf - Word Length and Frequency

Words that are used together more frequently tend to be shorter - speakers naturally economize energy when speaking or writing, so commonly used words become shorter over time.

1. Classic Zipfian insight:

high-frequency words like "I, you, and" are extremly short;

low-frequency words like "photosynthesis are longer.

Zipf noted a rough inverse relationship: word length ~ 1/word frequency

In other words, the more a word is used, the shorter is tends to be.

2. Modern extension: informativeness

Recent research has refined Zzipf's idea:

it's not just frequency that predicts length;

a word's informativeness is an even better predictor.

Example:

"the" - very little information -> short

"equilibrium" - a lot of information -> longer

This aligns with information-theoretic approaches: word length ~ informativeness of word in context.

3. Why it happens

There are 2 main pressures in language revolution: Economy of effort (Zipf's original principle) and communication clarity: longer forms for informative, less predictable words to ensure they are recognized.

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Grammaticalization as a Linguistic Phenomena

Grammaticalization is the process by which lexical items (words with concrete meaning) and constructions gradually become grammatical elements in an language.

Lexical words -> auxiliaries, affixes, particles, or other functional elements

Free phrases -> bound grammatical forms

Concrete meanings -> abstract grammatical funstions

Key principles

Frequency-driven change:

Frequently used words and expressions are more likely to grammaticalize

Repetition promotes phonetic reduction, semantic bleaching, and fusion.

2. Semantic bleaching:

Words lose some of all of their original meanings.

Example: English will originally meant want/desire, now marks future tense.

3. Phonetic reduction and fusion:

Independent words gradually merge into single units. Example: English going to -> gonna (future marker)

4. Obligatorification:

Once grammaticalized, the new form often becomes a mandatory part of grammar.

Schema: Lexical word -> frequent collocation -> fixed expression -> phonetic reduction -> grammatical element

Most of notes frome commonplace book were posted and I have controversial feelings: I wanted it to happen, but busy study period of graduating student will not give me enough time for consistent process of learning, writing and then posting a result. If you have questions or just interesting ideas, please ask me, I will happy to answer!

Well... I literally wrote a scientific article on the characters' Irish dialects just to justify watching the series for the third time in a row.

#Linguistics #Education #Thoughts

In short, the phrase reminds us that:

It captures in one sentence the dynamic, evolutionary nature of human language. In other words, it is the process of grammaticalization.

Examples:

I am going to read a book -> I'm gonna read.

I have das Buch geschrieben (I have the book written). Over time, the combination of haben + part participle fused into past tense form, and today it functions as a normal grammatical category.

Я буду писать (I will write), быть + verb became a fixed grammatical form expressing future tense.

daicqeba, დაიწყება - The preverb da-/და- means "it starts" and is grammaticalized: concrete spatial meaning (down, away, towards completion) -> resultive meaning -> pure aspectual marker (no lexical meaning; just signals PERSPECTIVE).

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We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language

Linguistic relativity is the idea that the language we speak influences the way we think, perceive, and categorize the world.

Language does not determine thought, but shapes it.

The concept is usually associated with the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, named after 2 American linguists: Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. They argued that the grammatical nd lexical structures of a language guide habitual patterns of thinking.

Two versions of the Hypothesis:

Strong: Linguistic Determinism

Claim: Language completely determines thought. If a language lacks a word or a grammatical category, its speakers supposedly cannot think about that concept. Considered too extreme.

Weak: Linguistic Relativity

Claim: Language does not imprison the mind, but it directs attention, influencesmemory, affects categorization, makes some distinctions easier & others harder. Language differs in vocabulary, grammar, obligatory distinctions, metaphors, ways of structuring experience.

We can think anything in any language - but different languages make us notice different things.

I highly recommend you to read A Myriad of Tongues for easier understanding how language shapes our fundamental perception of fundamental concepts.

#Linguistics #Thoughts #History

#Linguistics #Education #Thoughts

Spatial and Temporal Orientation in Language

Cognitive linguistics distinguishes three primary ways in which languages describe space, movement, and time:

1. Egocentric (ego-centered)

○ The speaker is the reference point.

○ Directions are relative to the speaker: left/right, front/back.

○ Space and time are perceived from the observer's position.

Example: The chair is on my left.

2. Object-centric (object-centered)

○ Objects or events are the reference point.

○ Directions and positions are described relative to other objects.

○ Common in scientific, formal, or descriptive contexts.

Examples: The cup is to the left of the table. Temporal relation: before the war (sequence of events, not relative to the speaker).

3. Geocentric / Absolute

○ Coordinates are fixed in the world: north, south, east, west.

○ Independent of the speaker or objects.

○ Speakers constantly maintain an absolute sense of orientation.

Example: The cup is east of the plate. Time metaphor: The past may be east, and the future west. Pictures or events are oriented according to cardinal directions, regardless of body position.

Life may look dull, but not when you read books and learn something new!