East meets West

This something I've noticed for a bit; maybe a month or two. In Japanese, the word for Japan (Nippon/Nihon 日本) means 'the sun's origin' , and when written, the first sign means sun/day and the second base/root. This, of course, means that they regarded themselves as the furthest east, and understandably so, as you would have to go a pretty long way to find land if you sailed east from Japan. This is also why Japan is sometimes known as 'The Land of the Rising Sun', and the reason for the flag [1].

So, in English, where did our words for 'east' and 'west' come from? What was east, and what was west? Did one mean 'the rising sun', and the other, 'the setting sun'? And does this mean that the words for 'east' and 'west' are universal in different languages in etymology?

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology says that 'west' comes from the same root as Latin 'vesper', meaning evening, and perhaps comes from a base meaning 'to go down', and thus 'the direction in which the sun sets'.[2]
East is less ambiguous, and comes from the Proto-Indo-European root '*aus-', meaning 'dawn'.[3]

So far, so good. But that's just English.

In Latin, the words for 'east' and 'west' are 'oriens' and 'occidens' ('the Orient' and 'the Occident' comes from this) literally mean 'rising' and 'setting'.

The Arabic words are 'الشرق' (ash-sharq) and 'الغرب' (al-gharb), from the roots 'شرق' and 'غرب', meaning 'to rise' and 'to set'. The Urdu word 'مشرق' (mashriq) comes from the Arabic 'الشرق' , and the name for the daily prayer at sunset 'مَغْرِب‎' (maghrib) shares the same root as 'الغرب' .

Everything matching perfectly - wonderful. But I got a slight surprise when I looked at Bengali.

According to Sailendra Biswas's 'Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary' the words 'পূর্ব' (purbô [IAST: pūrba]) and 'পশ্চিম' (pôshchim [IAST: paścima]) have secondary meanings of 'preceding, previous, past' and 'subsequent, ultimate, last' respectively. [4]
This gave me something to think about. I think that this might be because when alluding to the dawn/sunrise during the day it is in the past, and for sunset it is in the future. Also, the sunrise is the first thing during the day, and the sunset is the last.

That's how far I've gotten so far. I didn't add French, German, Spanish etc because they share the same root as the English.

15/11/08 edit: it's been a long time, and nobody reads this anymore, but for my own peace of mind, I've improved some of my citations. Nothing else.

Meme

In spite of the fact that Jug keeps forgetting to officially tag me : 'cause Jug tagged me.
6 weird things you probably didn't want to know about me:

1. I have a piece of pencil graphite embedded in my left palm - a friend of mine got annoyed with me six years ago. We were both dead shocked, and thought that he had killed me. Still alive so far, though.

2. Over 50% of what I watch on TV is cartoons. Really, they're seriously underrated. 'Gotta catch 'em all!'

3. I dabble in various languages and aspects of linguistics, and I've just taken a book called 'The Sanskrit Language', written in 1955, and am planning on going to Jug's lectures next week. It's a hobby, really, but I enjoy it.

Gosh, six weird things? I'm not that strange! Oh wait, maybe I am...

4. I have a complex 'world' of my own, in which the house and garden are made up of countries, which have alliances, economies, diplomacy, technology, politics, and every so often, wars and battles, which often involve fire and 'missiles' made of newspapers and a generous supply of matches.

5. I cannot take my jumper/coat off outside of my house. Don't ask me to. I won't.
NO.

6. I can 'unhinge' my throat or something which allows me to drink water or something else by just pouring it down. Pops calls it my 'party trick'. I don't do fizzy drinks, though. They make my eyes water.

Edit: I forgot to tag anyone - I tag Bikey + NTMS.

Bullies? Teachers? Same thing, really.

It's been a while, hasn't it. Though everyone has gone to the protest thing, this time isn't really the best moment to blog, because I have poodles of homework. Essays are the bane of my existence, but they insist upon giving me a French essay, an English essay, and a History essay, the former two being in for Monday.

I have a new form tutor. And he has an evil eye. When I say an evil eye, I really mean an Evil Eye Of Doom And Despair. Normally, he's not that bad, but if you annoy him, he turns his Evil Eye upon you, and lets it rip:
"Why is there always muttering from that particular corner?! Right, that's it, go sit over there!" The Eyes were on Evil Mode, and his hands were indicating an barren, empty expanse of wasteland - the front desk.
And to cap it all, he had Talks with me after that lesson, because I also had had a warning slip from my Physics teacher, about me giving in homework late.*

My new Biology teacher has been to Zimbabwe for six years, and ntms and I have come to the conclusion that he bullies our Chemistry teacher in the dinner queue.
The information was released bit by bit :
The first hint we got was that, upon asking our C. teacher about the exam last summer, he said, tearily, that he couldn't tell us because he didn't know - the other teachers never tell him anything.
Next was that this year we had drawn one of our Chemistry lessons just before lunch, and he said he wanted to finsh quickly because he never gets to be at the front of the queue.
And yesterday, our Biology teacher said that he always likes to be at the front of the queue, and asked for a show of hands for support of this dictum. Ha! We have a case against you, The 'Great' Doctor Warnes!
Argh. Duty has been shirked. Blogging has not added to the word count of my French essay. Your fault, Cow.

* More on this will appear in Blog : The Return of The Post

Those pearls of wisdom were written and thus were meant to have been posted a week ago. However, our Internet being what it is, I only get to post on my blog at my dad's factory. If that post was food, it would turn into ash in my mouth.

Anyway, the Nine Day Crisis is over now, with the History essay but a dim memory. The Big Event Of La Mia Settimana is the Handyman Physics Saga.

It all started fourteen years ago, when a spectre visited a dream and said, "WoooooOOOOOOOOoooooo! You are not to put your Physics boooooOOOOOOOOoooook in Mr Hand's pigeon-hoooooooooOOOOOOOOOooole! If you doooOOOOooo, there will be consequences!", and disappeared with a flash of lightning.

Being the dutiful person that I am, I forgot to do so two times running, and recieved a detention (or PS (Punishment School), as my school calls them). Half hour detention, small potatoes, eh? That's what I thought. I was foolish too, in my day.
Well, I went and plum forgot about the detention, and came back from school. My mother then did say, "That wasn't so bad - quite a short detention."

Death and Despair were of the order for the rest of that day.

The next day I awoke to a lift from an uncle of mine. On my way to school, having heard my story, he announced that my doom was nigh, boosting my morale for a meeting with the Handyman. However, he did not start sharpening his 30 cm ruler at all! He said, "Thy penance is accepted. Arise, relieved of your burdens.", and simply changed the date of my PS, and sent me on my way.

Oh yeah, found a hilarious article in the latest Eurobangla, but more on that next time.

It's that time of year again...

First of all, I just want to say that it's possible that I have been deceiving you. Jug has flogged me twice* for not saying so already - we have Broadband! Zooks hurrah, and all that, but it still would be nice to have a house computer, because I have to bat my eyes etc every time I want to go on the Internet.

*This is a joke

The Gibbon, 'twould seem, has either given up or forgotten about that cursed report card.
Anyway, I decided to say something about revision, now that the exams, darn them, are a-coming.( Be warned -it's not going to be a post from which you leave a better person. I don't expect it to even be long).
From a very young age, this general period of time is going to be exam time, and some people tell you to revise, and everyone else tells you to revise, and it's going to stay like that for around twenty years. In my school, for instance, everyone seems to have started revising for the exams ages ago and think that I am doomed, or stupid.
Argh. I really don't have the patience or enough in my head to write this. I give up.

Anyway, the house should be empty soon, or at least of everyone except me and my parents, and I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. (Don't tell this to my sisters. Oh, wait, they're reading it.) I'm not too sure why, but anyway...

I only blogged because I had so little time and so much to do. Strike that - reverse it.

Computer blues

I apologise, for not blogging for the last week or so, but I blame it on the Internet here at home. Broadband having been taken off at the end of last September, eight months ago, we have had to make do with dial-up connection between the hours of 10pm and 8am since then. Moreover, coming back from B/D a few months ago, I found that Jug and Cow or someone had killed the computer – probably grabbed an axe with murderous intent, though they all deny it. Anyway, this means that I can go on the internet if:
- it’s after 10 at night
- it’s before 8 in the morning (requiring superhuman effort on my part)
- I have someone’s laptop that is set up with our dial-up connection
People have been discussing this problem, and Broadband may be coming, but a computer seems to be yet a distant speck upon the horizon. And so for now, life looks to be an arid desert of dial-up at night and nothing by day.
Oh yeah, I’m going to London tomorrow, hopefully, but the world seems to be bent on postponing it for a day. Coming back by train on Saturday, so the trip can’t be extended because of a late start. That’s all, really.

We are the winners of Eurovision!

We are! We are!
We are! We are!
I just loved Lithuania's entry - it was so fun and football song-ish, and very original! Unorthodox, but not quite as much as the
"So come and join us or go straight to Hell!" of Finland. It was really, as Jug would say, compelling - the death metal and masks were really scary. The tongue flicky thing the main singer did when they got the 12 points in the voting was a bit odd as well, but Finland deserved to win with such a lead.
However, Russia certainly did not deserve to come second. I've forgotten the tune, but I do remember not liking it that much. It's all politics - the minor former Soviet countries giving Rusisch the 12 points most of the time.
I also enjoyed Serbia's, Lejla, but Britain's, though the song was ok, the subject was a bit cheesy - "it's been so long since they were teenagers" or something and the rapping wasn't that good. I liked the German one - very cowboy, rodeo, and there was the whole toe tapping, invisible lassoo twirling thing. The Irish ballad was really boring.
The voting was interesting, the system and all, and I enjoyed the very serious-looking people turning out to be jokers - the Polish representative - "and 12 points to... Poland! No, I'm not serious." and some other guy gabbling in different languages.

Lo-o-nely

I'm at home, feeling alone and unloved. Everyone has left to go and see Da Vinci, and left me to man the fortress by myself. I've also just read ntms's blog, which has spurred me on to blog a bit.

First of all, that IT guy is soooo rude. One time, I was walking up the stairs to the IT room and he brushed past me, with what must have been a smirk on his face. Having come up, I realised that he had just locked the IT lab. Grr.

18 out of 30 History presentation. 100% Booker (my partner)'s fault. What did he say before the Easter holidays? "Don't worry, I'll do the presentation and you can do the handout." Komme ich back after the holidays, the day we have to do our presentation, he hands me the floppy disk and says, "You do all the talking. There's no script, so you'll have to make it up as you go along or something." So I, with great presence of mind, head to the ICT lab and copy all the words on the presentation on to Word, and print it out.
Come the time when our presentation had to be - er - presented, I read off the paper, and tried to add in bits. But particularly nasty were the parts where the entire thing made no sense and I had already started reading before realising:
"Though this cost Hitler 48,000 Tiger Tanks and - hmm - $21 billion in research alone [at this point the sentence ran out], err, he still, uh, I dunno-"
Thus I concluded.

A in Geography - that's that project thing I was panicking about about before. Very pleased by that.
1500m run - gah. I came 31st out 32. It was quite funny because the person behind me (widely prosperous, huffing and puffing so much that I was scared that he'd blow my house down) was getting shouted encouragement from the PE coach, and was getting really annoyed. Time - 10:08 minutes.

The Gibbon (my form tutor, miserable, red-faced) is threatening me with detention because I lost my monitoring form which, might I add, was new and only had one day and one period on it. He's already given me a warning slip. The 'reason of detention' form will look really stupid, though. "Raiyan has lost his report card." Oh no! Call the cops!

Signing off here, me