#indo-iranian

[retrocausality]

Which language family does your native language belong to? 🌍

Slavic (Polish, Slovak, Russian, Serbian, etc.)

Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian, etc.)

Romance (Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, etc.)

Germanic (English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, etc.)

Indo-Iranian (Persian, Hindi, Urdu, etc.)

Uralic (Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, etc.)

Afro-Asiatic (Arabic, Hebrew, Somali, etc.)

Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, etc.)

Other (Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, etc.)

Voting ended onFeb 13, 2023

[mehilaiselokuva]

Finnish words by unusual language of origin

*note: this does not list all the languages that the word was borrowed from, only the oldest known origin of it

*also: if you've never seen a word on this list, please don't doxx me. These are all real words. I don't spread misinformation. Why do I still need to put this in my posts

Job: Ammatti (from proto-celtic *ambaxtos) Fun Fact: this is the same root that forms the english word “Ambassador”!

Wagon: Kärry (from proto-celtic *karros) Fun Fact: This is the root that forms the English word “Car”!

Poem: Runo (from proto-celtic *rūnā) Fun Fact: This is the root that forms the English word “Rune”!

Hikikomori: Hikky (from Japanese hikikomori 引き籠もり)

Clam: Simpukka (from Mandarin zhēnzhū 珍珠)

Goods: Tavara (from proto-turkic *tabar) Fun Fact: words descended from this root can be found as far as China and Siberia!

Dungeon, jail: Tyrmä (from proto-turkic *türmä) Fun Fact: This toot extends to Azerbaijan and even Yiddish!

Rauma (city name) (from proto germanic *straumaz meaning stream)

Cherry: Kirsikka (from ancient creek kerasós κερασός which might also have older forms) Fun Fact: this word is widespread, even appearing in Arabic.

God: Jumala (possibly from proto-indo-iranian) Fun Fact: This word could be related to Sanskrit dyumna द्युम्न if it is from proto-indo-iranian

[alvallah]

What we lost with Persianate modernity | Aeon Essays

Cultural exchange between Iran and India led to the creation of literary histories that inspired modern nationalism

Iranians’ and Indian Muslims’ different relationships to European philology explain why the two conceived of their languages in such contrary ways. This divergence reveals the historical contingency of the two narratives. It was not inevitable that Iranian nationalism would adopt the philological model of linguistic continuity, which is made clear by comparison with Indian Muslims’ conception of Urdu as a mixed language.

This history leads to several conclusions.

First, what appears today as national culture – unique and discretely bounded – is the product of exchange with others from beyond the borders of the nation-state. This is certainly true of modern Iran. Nationalism, and what I call ‘Persianate modernity’, is the veneer that hides the very conditions of cosmopolitan cooperation and exchange that generated national culture in the first place. This suggests something about culture: it has no inherent politics, no predetermined trajectory.

Culture is an empty vessel that can be attached to all kinds of political projects. Cross-cultural exchange similarly can serve reactionary ends just as well as progressive ones. At the turn of the 20th century, exchange between Iranians and Indians served to alienate Indians from the history of Persian literature. More recently, the idea of Indian Muslims’ cosmopolitan origins has marked them as outsiders to India – a narrative adopted by India’s prime minister Narendra Modi and other Hindu nationalists to help marginalise and disenfranchise millions of Indian Muslims.

Nor is ‘indigeneity’ inherently progressive, a fact also illustrated by India’s Hindu nationalists. They now describe themselves as an indigenous population besieged by Muslim allochthones, ie foreign intruders. Indeed, we find the language of indigeneity taken up by ethno-nationalists elsewhere in the contemporary world – from the European Right, claiming to defend its indigenous culture against foreign refugees, to Jewish supremacists in Israel, who insist on their own indigenous roots in the land.

[ezra-earith]

Finnish

Jumala God

IPA: /ˈjumɑlɑ/

From Proto-Finnic *jumala, from Proto-Finno-Permic *juma (“sky, god”), probably borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian.

Compare Sanskrit द्युम्न (dyumna, “splendor”), Sanskrit द्युमत् (dyumat, “bright; an epithet of Indra”).

WIKTIONARY

[banglanotebook]

THE DAYS OF THE WEEK in BENGALI (ft. Sanskrit Origins)

Like many other South Asian languages, Bengali’s days of the week get their names from Sanskrit terms for the planets. Each day of the week is named for a deified planet according to Hindu tradition. While other deities also receive worship on each day of the week, the ones mentioned here are the ones that lend their names to each day.

Below is some very basic info on the days of the week. Please note that names, auspicious days and the gods associated with each day may vary regionally and locally!

SUNDAY | রবিবার [rôbibar]

Ruled by the deity Surya (सूर्य [sūrya]), the personification of the sun

Ravi (रवि [ravi]) is one of many alternative names for Surya

This day is also traditionally the Christian holy day

MONDAY | সোমবার [sombar]

Ruled by the deity Chandra (चन्द्र [candra]), the personification of the moon

Soma (सोम [soma]) is a medicinal deity synonymous with Chandra and is therefore an additional name given to Chandra in some instances

Other deities honored on this day: Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati, sometimes Lord Ganesha

TUESDAY | মঙ্গলবার [mɔṅgôlbar]

Ruled by the deity Mangala (मङ्गल [maṅgala]), the personification of Mars

Other deities honored on this day: Lord Hanuman, Lord Ganesha, Goddess Kali

WEDNESDAY | বুধবার [budhbar]

Ruled by the deity Budha (बुध [budha]), the personification of Mercury

Other deities honored on this day: Lord Krishna (and his incarnation, Lord Vithal), sometimes Lord Vishnu, sometimes Lord Shiva

THURSDAY | বৃহস্পতিবার [bṙhôspôtibar]

Ruled by the deity Brihaspati (बृहस्पति [bṙhaspati]), the personification of Jupiter

Other deities honored on this day: Lord Vishnu, sometimes Lord Hanuman

FRIDAY | শুক্রবার [śukrôbar]

Ruled by the deity Shukra (शुक्र [śukra]), the personification of Venus

Other deities honored on this day: Shakti/The Mother Goddess (this day is dedicated to the goddess and her incarnations, Durga, Kali, etc.)

This day is also traditionally the Islamic holy day

SATURDAY | শনিবার [śônibar]

Ruled by the deity Shani (शनि [śani]), the personification of Saturn

Shani is honored because he is feared as he causes bad luck and misfortune. Some people devote themselves to Lord Hanuman to protect themselves from Shani’s ill-intent.

Other deities honored on this day: Lord Hanuman

I am still learning about this belief system so corrections and additional information is more than welcome!

[imperium-romanum]

Professor Stephanie Jamison to share how she finds women in ancient, often patriarchal, texts

Jamison, distinguished professor and of Asian languages and cultures and also Indo-European studies, will deliver UCLA’s 126th Faculty Research Lecture Wednesday, April 3.

For four decades, UCLA’s Stephanie Jamison has been somewhat defiantly seeking the stories of women among some of the oldest texts in the world. Jamison’s expertise lies in Indo-Iranian, especially Sanskrit and middle Indo-Aryan languages with an emphasis on linguistics, literature and poetics, religion and law, mythology and ritual, and gender.

Jamison will share some of what she has unearthed on April 3 as she delivers UCLA’s 126th Faculty Research Lecture titled “Looking for Women Between the Lines in Ancient India.” They will be names and stories of women we have likely never heard of before.

“It is often said that the kind of scholarship that I do, which is very traditional examination of written language, cannot be used to study women and marginal groups, because it’s just not there,” said Jamison, distinguished professor of Asian languages and cultures and also Indo-European studies in the UCLA College.

But Jamison would argue that the tools employed through traditional philology (the study of language in literary texts and other written records) are actually well suited for digging beneath the surface of text for exactly those stories, even among the works from colonialist and patriarchal cultures.

Continue reading

[henrydoeslanguages]

im filling the dead-language void created by the end of sem by learning manichaean sogdian im such a loser this is pretty cool

[ezra-earith]

Sanskrit

स्वर्ग • svargá

heaven, paradise

From Proto-Indo-Iranian *suHargás, from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ul̥-gʷḿ̥-s, (“going to the sun”): *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”) +‎ *gʷem- (“to step, arrive”) +‎ *-s.

WIKTIONARY