History Nerd & Aspiring Polyglot

My phdblr & langblr • History PhD student • Currently learning French, German, Spanish, and Icelandic • High quantities of linguistic study notes

[polyglotinthegreenwood]

9/100. Saturday, 01.09.2021 — [FRANÇAIS]

Lazy evening study with my precious boy, Hastings.

[theclassicsreader]

so, i've finished my dissertation!

[jagborimumindalen]

The key is to go to this dude early so you can get around.

[polyglotinthegreenwood]

6/15 days of productivity — 05.26.2026

{•} Decided to venture out to a different spot to study. The weather was so gorgeous that I sat outside with a glass of Zweigelt with my notebook and my copy of Linguistics in a Colonial World.

{•} Listened to three episodes of History in Slow German podcast.

[academic-vampire]

𝔬𝔫𝔠𝔢 𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔢

[rudan-a-sgriobh-mi]

Is fheàrr leam an Geamhradh, a chionn cha bhi i ro theth agus is toil leam sìde fhliuch. Fuirichidh mi a-staigh le uinneag fhosgailte nuair a bidh an t-uisge ann agus gabhaidh mi tlachd anns an taise.

I prefer the winter, since it isn’t too hot and I like wet weather. I will stay inside with an open window when there is rain and enjoy the moisture.

[polyglotinthegreenwood]

5/15 days of productivity — 05.25.2026

{•} It was a gorgeous foggy spring day — perfect for staying in bed, drinking coffee, and reading books.

{•} Read six more chapters of The Woman in White.

{•} Listened to two episodes of the podcast, History in Slow German: #168 Benjamin Franklin, #171 Trail of Tears.

[lizystudying]

travelling in a foggy weather is a good example for studying on the train

[polyglotinthegreenwood]

4/15 days of productivity — 05.24.2026

{•} Read five chapters of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins for the Goodreads challenge (Marathon Reader).

{•} Listened to more of Das geheimnisvolle Verbrechen in Styles on Audible.

{•} I’ve purchased several more linguistic studies and German language books since last summer. They’ve sort of remained on my coffee table since then, so as a part of my Spring cleaning, I reorganized my bookshelf to make room for them.

[dailygerman]

der Überblick | Overview - day 110

das Notizbuch - notebook der Rucksack - backpack, rucksack der Rückblick - review die Aufgabe - assignment, task die Prüfung - exam der Unterrict - class; tuition der Schultag - schoolday das Praktikum - internship die Ausbildung - education, training, apprenticeship

Related vocab we've already reviewed:

der Lehrer, die Lehrerin - teacher, instructor der Erzieher, die Erzieherin - educator, kindergarten teacher unterrichten - to teach studieren - to study (at university) der Schreibtisch - desk

Bonus vocabulary:

die Schule - school die Universität - university die Berufsschule - vocational school, trade school die Fachhochschule - technical college der Student, die Studentin - student lernen - to study, to learn

[dailygerman]

Reasons, Results, and Conclusions

I've noticed a weirdly high number of words about cause, effect, reasons, results, endings, and so on in my vocabulary lists. As a way of remembering the differences between them I thought I'd gather them all in one place. Hopefully this is helpful to someone other than me. And if you know more German than I do and see a mistake, please correct me!

das Ziel - goal, objective der Grund - reason die Begründung - reason, justification schließen - to close abschließend - closing, concluding ausschalten - to turn off ausmachen - to turn off aus sein - to be (switched) off, to be over, to be ended (etwas) ergänzen - to complete (something) ausfüllen - to fill in, to complete halten - to stop, to keep beenden - to finish das Ende - end, stop, finish die Endung - ending (of a word), end endlich - at last, finally vorbei - past, over aus und vorbei - over and done with, all over das ist alles - that's all, that's the end of it

Edit: After posting this I found two more words among my flashcards!

der Abschluss - close, conclusion das Fazit - conclusion, result

[yvanspijk]

Kingly kin

The word king has a fascinating story to tell.

Its Proto-Germanic ancestor *kuningaz was derived from the word *kunjan, which became English kin. A king was a descendant of royal or divine kin.

The word *kunjan, in turn, stemmed from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning ‘to produce’. This root, through Latin and Greek, gave us many words, including genre, nature, genital, genesis, pregnant, and gonorrhea.

The early Germanic cognates of king were borrowed into the Finnic and Slavic languages, becoming Finnish kuningas (‘king’), Polish ksiądz (‘priest’), Serbo-Croatian knez (‘prince’) and many others.

Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more.

[dailygerman]

reisin - to travel

[german-enthusiast]

i love the phrase "wieder was gelernt" it's just so huh. yeah. alright. knowledge unlocked. moving on!

and its brother "man lernt nie aus" - so true. you really never stop learning new things. such a grounded way of recognizing that. go off i guess

[polyglotinthegreenwood]

3/15 days of productivity — 05.23.2026

{•} Pulled out a few secondary scholarship articles that I did not finish reading last semester (foundational to colonial American studies and early women’s history).

{•} Spring cleaning — bedroom closet and bathroom.

[polyglotinthegreenwood]

2/15 days of productivity — 05.22.2026

{•} Organized my comps practice readings for women’s history (18th & 19th century) subfield.

{•} Worked on my German comprehension. Started listening to the German dramatized audiobook of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I read the English version several years ago, so it helps already knowing the plot as I listen to it in my target language. I must say that the dramatization is a great way to absorb the German language! You are listening not only for the pronunciation and grammar usage, but also emotional prosody and paralinguistic cues. So much fun!

[sandersstudies]

I think a fun way to have he/she pronouns would be by helping other avoid the ambiguous antecedent problem and taking on the pronouns that are less represented in the current group.

[sandersstudies]

Neopronouns? More like Nemopronouns am I right

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post