More Dead Languages!
In my search for information on old Celtic tongues, etc, I ran across a magnificent site:
Early Indo-European Online
This is a University of Texas resource including writings by the historical linguist, Winfred Lehmann, and more. The coolest part, however, is to be found on the sidebar of the page I've linked - lessons in 15 early Indo-European tongues. Of course the staples, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, are included. And Old English and Old French aren't that exotic. But unless you want to spend serious money, good resources for Old Irish are few and far between (apart from Stifter's Intro to Old Irish and EV Gordon's Old Norse). And then there are those that only the most hardcore amateur historical linguist will have delved into: Gothic, Old Church Slavonic and, under the Old Iranian label, Avestan and Old Persian.
Typically, the lessons consist of an introduction to the language, then ten readings with detailed parsings. The grammar of the language is introduced step by step, across the ten lessons. Finally, there's a master glossary with every word form in the lessons and a second glossary of base forms that, by virtue of the links, will show you every usage of the word throughout the readings in all its forms. The second glossary also includes reference to the Indo-European source for selected words.
The lessons do fall a bit short of what I'd like to see for dead languages, in terms of treating them like modern languages and bringing them alive. And the site assumes that you know a little bit about how Indo-European languages work, what linguists are talking about when they start chattering about phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon, and that you'll take the trouble to look up and learn more about, say, initial consonant mutations or verb-second languages on your own if these are unfamiliar. On the other hand, if you've got a little Latin or Greek, you should know enough to start wading in.
My favorite bit so far is from the Old Irish lessons (and you can tell how fast I'm wading by the fact this comes from lesson one): this image from the Compert Con Culainn, about a flock of birds:
Ba hálaind ocus ba caín in ténlorg ocus in ténarmhar boí leu.
Noí fichit én dóibh, rond argit eter cach dá én.
Cach fiche inna lurg fo leith, noí luirg dóibh.
Beautiful and delightful were the birds' flight and song,
Nine bands of twenty, and each two bound by silver chain.
Each band broke away in flight so there were nine trails.
(my own, doubtless inaccurate rendering)
And just in case this looks totally alien, here are a few words made more familiar:
noí, Latin novem, English nine
argit, Latin argentum, English silver
eter, Latin inter, between
dá, Latin duo, English two
If you're curious about languages of the past, this is a great site to visit, with the caveat that if you haven't done a language like Greek, Latin or Russian, you may want to start with Old English, Old French or Latin before tackling the more exotic offerings.
Early Indo-European Online
This is a University of Texas resource including writings by the historical linguist, Winfred Lehmann, and more. The coolest part, however, is to be found on the sidebar of the page I've linked - lessons in 15 early Indo-European tongues. Of course the staples, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, are included. And Old English and Old French aren't that exotic. But unless you want to spend serious money, good resources for Old Irish are few and far between (apart from Stifter's Intro to Old Irish and EV Gordon's Old Norse). And then there are those that only the most hardcore amateur historical linguist will have delved into: Gothic, Old Church Slavonic and, under the Old Iranian label, Avestan and Old Persian.
Typically, the lessons consist of an introduction to the language, then ten readings with detailed parsings. The grammar of the language is introduced step by step, across the ten lessons. Finally, there's a master glossary with every word form in the lessons and a second glossary of base forms that, by virtue of the links, will show you every usage of the word throughout the readings in all its forms. The second glossary also includes reference to the Indo-European source for selected words.
The lessons do fall a bit short of what I'd like to see for dead languages, in terms of treating them like modern languages and bringing them alive. And the site assumes that you know a little bit about how Indo-European languages work, what linguists are talking about when they start chattering about phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon, and that you'll take the trouble to look up and learn more about, say, initial consonant mutations or verb-second languages on your own if these are unfamiliar. On the other hand, if you've got a little Latin or Greek, you should know enough to start wading in.
My favorite bit so far is from the Old Irish lessons (and you can tell how fast I'm wading by the fact this comes from lesson one): this image from the Compert Con Culainn, about a flock of birds:
Ba hálaind ocus ba caín in ténlorg ocus in ténarmhar boí leu.
Noí fichit én dóibh, rond argit eter cach dá én.
Cach fiche inna lurg fo leith, noí luirg dóibh.
Beautiful and delightful were the birds' flight and song,
Nine bands of twenty, and each two bound by silver chain.
Each band broke away in flight so there were nine trails.
(my own, doubtless inaccurate rendering)
And just in case this looks totally alien, here are a few words made more familiar:
noí, Latin novem, English nine
argit, Latin argentum, English silver
eter, Latin inter, between
dá, Latin duo, English two
If you're curious about languages of the past, this is a great site to visit, with the caveat that if you haven't done a language like Greek, Latin or Russian, you may want to start with Old English, Old French or Latin before tackling the more exotic offerings.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home