What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages

[Vijay]

It seems there is similar semantic development involved in narlgon to the one involved in tiroumanom: narlgon means specifically plays involving scenes of the Mahabharata and not just any play.

That makes sense. That seems to be the general pattern with loanwords from Indian languages into English, too (as well as lots of other loanwords in general). Sometimes, the semantic evolution goes in weird directions, too; congee seems to be associated with Chinese cuisine these days even though it's a Tamil word and just means rice with the water it's boiled in.

I'll check the others out as well.

Thanks! I recommend the well-known movie I mentioned btw. It would probably be a good idea for a lot of Indians to see it (especially if they haven't already). It's about an interfaith family caught up in religious violence. The Malayalam song is a Salil Chowdhury song, and there's also a Bengali version.

[Travis B.]

Beast by KMFDM. (Unlike Lust, this one is in English.)

[Pabappa]

Ive mentioned a few times that i like the sound of Mandarin Chinese, and that it makes a good language for Christmas music.

e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLBdv5Pi09U

It sounds so cold and clear. I have no interest in learning the language because the vocals are just another instrument and I like it this way.

[Raphael]

I'm currently reading George Packer's Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, and I just have to share this line that I just read:

"That's always been the weak spot of our Foreign Service---other countries."

[Vijay]

A Kashmiri song called "Ha Ashki Tshuro Rashk Kerthas," sung by a Kashmiri singer named Shazia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCll_QHyr_w

A much lower-quality (and older) recording of this song by Lata Mangeshkar was probably the very first song I ever heard even a part of in Kashmiri.

[mèþru]

Surfin' Bird by The Trashmen (1963)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GizTr6QLfc

[Raphael]

I was about to start reading some really great books!



Then I woke up and discovered that I hadn't gotten those books at all, because it was all just a dream.

[Travis B.]

True Faith by New Order

[Vijay]

Warning: Beware of loud flute music, especially at the beginning of this clip!

This is a Ladakhi song (with poor sound quality and audio abruptly cut off at the end, sorry) whose title is Romanized in the title as "phangsay ghar chat gramoo." However, almost all the video footage is taken from the song "Dhol Baaje" in the Bollywood movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FCj48tM370

[Salmoneus]

Update on the Nabokov: I get to feel mildly chuffed that I spotted a Goethe allusion coming. [I get the impression that 'making people mildly chuffed at their own erudition' is a big part of the appeal of this sort of book].

On the other hand, he's now gone from "using exotic words to show how clever he is" to "using words he just made up and assuming nobody will dare call him on it for fear of looking ignorant", which kind of annoys me...

[Travis B.]

Update on the Nabokov: I get to feel mildly chuffed that I spotted a Goethe allusion coming. [I get the impression that 'making people mildly chuffed at their own erudition' is a big part of the appeal of this sort of book].

On the other hand, he's now gone from "using exotic words to show how clever he is" to "using words he just made up and assuming nobody will dare call him on it for fear of looking ignorant", which kind of annoys me...

How do you translate a word someone just made up into a foreign language, anyways?

[Linguoboy]

How do you translate a word someone just made up into a foreign language, anyways?

Verdaustig war's, und glaße Wieben
rotterten gorkicht im Gemank.
Gar elump war der Pluckerwank,
und die gabben Schweisel frieben.

»Hab acht vorm Zipferlak, mein Kind!
Sein Maul ist beiß, sein Griff ist bohr.
Vorm Fliegelflagel sieh dich vor,
dem mampfen Schnatterrind.«

Source: http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/jabberwo ... index.html.

[Travis B.]

How do you translate a word someone just made up into a foreign language, anyways?

Verdaustig war's, und glaße Wieben
rotterten gorkicht im Gemank.
Gar elump war der Pluckerwank,
und die gabben Schweisel frieben.

»Hab acht vorm Zipferlak, mein Kind!
Sein Maul ist beiß, sein Griff ist bohr.
Vorm Fliegelflagel sieh dich vor,
dem mampfen Schnatterrind.«

Source: http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/jabberwo ... index.html.

I thought that was the Jabberwocky before I even saw the link.

[Salmoneus]

How do you translate a word someone just made up into a foreign language, anyways?

Verdaustig war's, und glaße Wieben
rotterten gorkicht im Gemank.
Gar elump war der Pluckerwank,
und die gabben Schweisel frieben.

»Hab acht vorm Zipferlak, mein Kind!
Sein Maul ist beiß, sein Griff ist bohr.
Vorm Fliegelflagel sieh dich vor,
dem mampfen Schnatterrind.«

Source: http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/jabberwo ... index.html.

I read the Scott version about ten years ago, and despite not (really (any longer)) speaking (any) German, I still know a few lines by heart. Germans might not like it, it seems, but to an English reader it's almost as good as the original:

Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch!
Die Zähne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!

Er suchte lang das manchsan' Ding;
Dann, stehend unterm Tumtum Baum,
Er an-zu-denken-fing.

Eins, Zwei! Eins, Zwei! Und durch und durch
Sein vorpals Schwert zerschnifer-schnück,
Da blieb es todt! Er, Kopf in Hand,
Geläumfig zog zurück.

etc...

[Vijay]

Balti is a variety of Tibetan spoken in the Pakistani territory of Gilgit-Baltistan in Kashmir. This is a song in Balti by Munawar Hussain Khapluvi called "Ngasi Bewafa Yanglahar Gizmi Zir Hai," the Balti version of a Pakistani song in Urdu called "Idhar Zindagi Ka Janaza":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-7_8Iwl2Bo

[Birdlang]

Some albums someone from Pakistan got me.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Karobaar
(Both Bollywood OSTs, Indian filmi is very popular over there)
Laaj by Huma Khawaja (Pakistani pop singer, recorded in 2002 and has lots of auto demo song beats from an electronic keyboard in the music, includes a song that sounds like La Isla Bonita by Madonna).
Dangerous Ishhq album as well
More Bollywood and Pakistani albums too

[rotting bones]

I finished Leave it to Psmith by PG Wodehouse, the best crime novel I've read in the English language. If you're starting to read it, believe it or not, it is in fact a crime novel. Better still, it's a meta-crime novel, a crime novel where every active character has read crime novels, this fact itself adding to the confusion. Is there some relation between Psmith stories and some of Stephen Fry's comedy sketches?

[mèþru]

I watched In Between, an Israeli drama about the lives of three Palestinian women living together in Tel Aviv. It's a really amazing movie. The dialogue is a mix of both Hebrew and Arabic.

[Moose-tache]

Well, it's happening. After decades of procrastinating I, officially the last person on planet Earth who has not read Robin Hobb, have started reading Assassin's Apprentice. I feel like the gal who hasn't seen Star Wars throwing up her hands and saying "enough." So far the very sensorial writing style meshes well with the main character's abilities, but I'm only a few chapters in. I just wanted to give everyone a chance to tut and harrumph about someone being allowed to go on living having not yet read the Farseer Trilogy.

[Ryusenshi]

Is Robin Hobb so famous that "not having read her" is so remarkable? I mean, I imagine having this sort of reaction for Star Wars (which I've seen a million times) or Harry Potter (which I haven't read). But, according to this page, Robin Hobb sold about 3 million copies, which is far short of a GRR Martin, and even below some Star Trek or Dungeons & Dragons novels.

For the record, I have read the Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy and Tawny Man Trilogy, then somehow lost the plot. I think I have some unread books somewhere...

On-topic: I've started reading Alice in Wonderland. I mentioned on the old forum how introductions for "classics" tend to spoil the plots (because you already know them, don't you?). Well, this edition outright says that if you're reading Alice for the first time, "we strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction". That's honest, I guess.