cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

You're viewing

cahn's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Hee. My German vocab is fine as long as it's all about einmarschieren (invading/marching in) and Belagerung (a siege) and Aderlass (bloodletting), but it's going to be hilarious next time I'm confronted with a menu or public transportation in Germany. "Can somebody just attack someone or put some leeches on them or marry them off to someone twice their age, so I know what's going on?" :'D

From:

luzula

You can even probably puzzle out some very specific Swedish words now! : )

belägring = siege
åderlåtning = bloodletting

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Awesome! Even better, if I can't puzzle them out, I can remember them once I learn them! (What I've found while studying German is that my Germanic historical linguistics background doesn't always allow me to puzzle out words, but once I look up their meaning, I can remember a word much better if I recognize it as related to something I learned back in my dead-Germanic-language-studying days.)

ETA: In conclusion, as I meant to say, I can see that I'll soon be able to talk to the ghost of Charles XII. ;)

Edited Date: 2022-04-28 09:36 pm (UTC)

From:

luzula

Oh, what dead Germanic language did you study?

When I read that Linneaus book, it was interesting to compare 18th century Swedish with 18th century English. There were some cool similarities! For example, the Swedish word which is currently spelled "bra" was spelled "brav" back then, showing it's relation with English/Scottish "brave/braw". and I found a word "fäj" which I didn't find even in the most comprehensive Swedish dictionary, but which the notes explained meant "fated to die". That is, it's the same word as English/Scottish "fey"!

ETA: What would you ask his ghost, if you could?

Edited Date: 2022-04-30 02:11 pm (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, what dead Germanic language did you study?

All of them. Old English, Middle English, Gothic, Old Norse/Icelandic, Old High German, Middle High German--okay, not a lot of Old Saxon, but I did look at the Heliand once, just for completist purposes, when I realized I was missing Old Saxon. :P

showing it's relation with English/Scottish "brave/braw". and I found a word "fäj" which I didn't find even in the most comprehensive Swedish dictionary, but which the notes explained meant "fated to die". That is, it's the same word as English/Scottish "fey"!

Yay! I can also tell you that having a smattering of Scots* is tremendously helpful in my German studies, for exactly this reason! Just like you, I wouldn't have recognized "fäj", but once the notes told me the answer, knowing "fey" would have helped me remember it forever!

* Well, and Tolkien. Tolkien helps. :D (The man actually *knew* all the dead Germanic languages, and didn't just study them without actually learning them.)

Edited Date: 2022-04-30 02:17 pm (UTC)

From:

luzula

I left this tab open and now our exchange about "ejaculate" reminded me of it. I admire your dedication to language studies!

I obviously know Swedish and English, and I took French in school, and also studied some Latin back then, and spent a summer studying Quenya. But that's about it!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Ghost: Eh, nothing comes to mind. I was just making a joke that my Swedish vocab is well on its way to being as useless for modern practical purposes as my German vocab. ;)

ETA: According to my word-counting tool, salon just crossed the 3-million word mark today, meaning we're averaging a little over a million words a year. :DDD

User	Words	Comments
selenak	1,301,850	3,192
mildred	1,236,616	4,821
cahn	303,052	2,729
felis	99,625	415
luzula	23,715	144
prinzsorgenfrei	15,344	78
gambitten	13,116	36
Everyone else	7,931	67
Total	3,001,249	11,338

Whenever I see this, I think, "Gambitten, come back!" :(

Edited Date: 2022-04-30 05:55 pm (UTC)

From:

cahn

Ha, wow! This is all pretty impressive (but of course especially you and

selenak) :)

Whenever I see this, I think, "Gambitten, come back!" :(

I agree!!

From:

selenak

Speaking of

gambitten, Mildred, can you track down their explanation as to how and when the "she cried, but she took?" line about MT got attributed to Fritz and who actually said it, and post that at Rheinsberg?