Experimental Blog #57

Comments on 2 books

"Biting the Wax Tadpole" - Confessions of a Language Fanatic by Elizabeth Little

This book is filled with remarkable and intriguing language facts. Such as.
#1 Although to know 15 to 20 languages seems to be considered a very impressive number by some "authorities," the author relates that a German man named Francis Sommer was reputed to be "fluent" in 94! languages when he died in 1978.
#2 It was most interesting to learn that our verb "to be" and the words "been" and the imperative "be!" come from some kind of "official infinitive" "beon." And our words "was" and "were" come from the word "wesan," while "am" and "is" come from a Latin root word "esser." She doesn't say where "are" comes from.
#3 It is unknown why, she says, that the words for the number 9 and the word for "new" are very similar in 6 Germanic languages, 5 Latin languages, 2 Celtic languages, plus Sanskrit and Persian, but not, apparently, in any Slavic languages.
Elizabeth Little also seems to imply that whether you think that, "Ich bin ein Berliner" means "I am from Berlin," or, "I am a jelly doughnut" depends mostly on your political sympathies.


"It's All Greek to Me - From Homer to the Hippocratic Oath, How Ancient Greece Has Shaped Our World" by Charlotte Higgins

The author of this book also succeeds very well in communicating her enthusiasm for her subject, the cultural history of Ancient Greece and its impact on us. Although the chronology of her narritive is sometimes a little bit unclear, her book covers the period of time from about 776 BC, the founding of the Olympic Games, or perhaps more importantly, from about 750 BC, the beginning of the Greek alphabet, to not in much detail beyond 399 BC, the death of Socrates, or, about 335 BC, the founding of Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens. This time span is somewhat less than 450 years.
Charlotte Higgins' account of the life and death of Socrates is very provoking. He never wrote anything, but he certainly must have been quite literate, and could have done so. Her comments on Plato, "arguably the most important philosopher the West has produced," and his "Republic", "bloated, uneven, chilling, funny, exasperating, beautiful, inspiring, deadly, and confusing," are also very provoking.
When did the "Golden Age of Greece" come to an end? As early as 404 BC with the final defeat of Athens by Sparta? Or more than a century later, when all of Greece was defeated and conquered by the expanding Roman Empire?