Author: Peter

One message David [Salo] got the other day from a high school student said that hearing the languages in [The Fellowship of the Ring] spurred an interest in linguistics, and could David recommend any colleges with good linguistics programs?

Now that is just cool. Wizard cool, if I may say so. The kid may well change his mind–but I doubt he’ll ever regret his interest.

Dorothea Salo, Influence

That kid reminds me of… well, me, although I was more taken by Jabberwocky. (Friends may find this heretical, but I only read The Lord of the Rings in university.) Perhaps because both parents are language teachers (between them they speak French, German, Spanish, and Slovak), or perhaps just because I have a predilection towards the trivial and the transmundane, I enjoy discovering versions of familiar works–music, poetry, books, etc.–in different languages, even those I don’t understand.

Which is why I was glad today to find a version of Jabberwocky that I’d never seen: a translation into French by Frank L. Warrin. (The page also includes Robert Scott’s German version, which I’ve loved for years: Es brillig war. Die schlicten Toven / Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben….) I’d love to hear Stephanie’s rendition of either… bien sûr avec son accent vaudois.

What is M-Dot? A producer of hot formed titanium parts and aircraft tailpipes? The state of Michigan’s Department of Transportation? Minnesota’s? An artist who uses Adobe Illustrator? The international symbol for the Ironman Triathlon (which can be worn as a badge of honor only by those who complete one of these races)?

None of the above (although the last is close). Ahem. The last one is exactly it. Silly me. Croptop has started a weblog.

(Yes, I’m aware that this is a lot longer announcement than the one for Mike’s, but he’s also posted two-thirds as many entries as Mike in only four days.)

I don’t have anything to say about Dorothea Salo’s post about phonaesthetics, I just need to record it so I can read further. She writes about invented languages, in fantasy, science fiction, and elsewhere: I’m curious to see how languages like Loglan and Esperanto stack up, and to try to apply her Law of Velar Villainy to a pre-pub fantasy novel I’m reading.

Also need to follow up on personality theories, both online and with my two psych friends (she’s got her doctorate, he’s a few months away).

I gave the matter some grave thought, and realized that after last night’s martini party there was nothing in my icebox except a bit of baking soda, a scrap of blueberry jam and a twig of burdock root.

Miss Lenni Jabour, The Story of The Third Floor (December 2002 edition)

I remember playing with burrs (the flowers of the burdock plant) as a kid on walks through the woodlots near my parents’ place, but hadn’t thought much further about them until seeing the text quoted above in Lenni’s story today. The things you’ll learn from reading (with a dash of Google):

• After experimenting for eight years with plastic models that he designed to mimic burrs, George de Mestral created Velcro.
• Only buy your burdock root from a reliable supplier; at least one has been known to substitute belladonna.
• The burdock root has many medicinal uses, such as using it as a treatment for scurvy.
• Burdock root is known in Japan as Gobo (not to be confused with Gobo Fraggle). It is considered an intensely yang vegetable.
• The most common burdock dish in Japan (and hence the world) is kimpira gobo (sauteed burdock), a slightly spicy carrot and burdock stir-fry.

I think I’ve found a project for when I go home at Christmas. It’s been a while since I was back in those woods….