Hey reader, Filip speaking (writing?). Ready for second lesson of Theory of Knowledge? Well, I'll jump into it either way.
Our ToK professor called Theory of Knowledge "Theory of Everything", and although Stephen Hawking and the guy who directed that movie would disagree, I find that to be true most of the time. By forcing me to write this blog ToK gave me a perfect tool to share a part of me with you (since my lazy self would keep procrastinating new posts). But it also brings some tasks with itself, like homework.
My homework for today: find 5 words from 5 lesser-known languages, and translate them.
I know, I know; I promised a positive post this time around, and nearly extinct languages are pretty negative. But my ToK professor demands it, so please endure it for a little bit (I'll throw in a few interesting facts along the way, scout's honor!)
Okay, number 5: Transylvanian Saxon
As the name suggests, this language was spoken by Saxons (AKA Germans) who settled in Transylvania in the Middle Ages, in modern-day Romania. But most of them moved to USA, Canada, Germany and other Western countries, leaving a small number behind. And then Nicolae Ceausescu (this guy) literally sold them (yes, SOLD them) to West Germany during his rule (and for a nice amount of cash per sold Saxon).
Ainu was spoken on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, with other variants being spoken on Sakhalin and Kuril islands. Fun fact: in 2007. only 10 native speakers were alive.
Number 3: Manx
Manx isn't from China or something (as it may sound), it is actually from the Isle of Man, between UK and Ireland. Now, the last native speaker of it died in 1974, so you may be tempted to call it extinct, but the people are trying to revive it. Today, around 100 people speak it fluently, with 50 more children being educated in it since 2011. Nothing like some good ol' Celtic to spice up the life, eh?
A very poetic word (the Beatles agree).
According to Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (what a name!), this word also means "tomorrow", which is less poetic. Seems very bizarre to have one word for two different time markings, right?
Aaand number 1: Kasong
Kasong is a Cambodian language so forgotten that there are no monolingual speakers of it (everybody uses Thai) and even the ISO list of codes for languages has no code for it. To compare, that list adds a three-letter code to pretty much every known language, spoken or extinct, except Kasong. Weird, huh? Anyways, over 50 years ago native Kasong speakers were forbidden from speaking their language because the government of Cambodia thought it interfered with the official language, Thai. The speakers became ashamed of the language. Yay, human rights!
The word is...
*drumroll*
fɛ:t.B - "twins"
Obviously, that isn't how you write it, but I found no other ways to write this but phonetically. So, feast your eyes on one of the most random and unknown languages in the world.
At last, to more fun subjects. Still here? Great.
These languages all help save the culture of their people through oral literature they keep. All nations' epic songs wouldn't be remembered for long if their original languages haven't been kept in one way or another in new languages. For example, Nordic epic song "Beowulf" was saved in English, influencing J.R.R. Tolkien to write "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", which in turn influenced all fantasy writers (including George R. R. Martin, who wrote " A Game of Thrones" and made me and a ton of other previously normal people addicted). And imagine how many more stories were told in other languages, and are waiting to be taken and edited into a new bestseller. Remember Ainu language? They had (and maybe still have) a huge treasury of epic songs they used to sing. The ceremonies of singing them used to last for hours, sometimes even days. What a sight that was.
But languages are just a part of communication, and we had a chance to put our skills in that area to a test: treasure hunt!
Not really like that, but still, we had to find a treasure. And it quickly turned into the stampede scene from the Lion King. Only thing we had were clues like riddles, pictures, sing language and even equations to lead us to our goal. As you surely anticipated, my team won.
For our efforts (not just mine, I'm not that egoistic), we got a ton of candy just before another ToK class. Bad idea, future and current teachers. Combined with a dull theme, they made all of us restless. Yes, the professor had to silence us a million times. And yes, we shared the candy, Scrooge McDuck.
This was a more language-centric post, but that was the subject of ToK. I don't want to stray too far, since this is for school, after all. More interesting posts coming!
See you next time. And bring a towel ;)
Our ToK professor called Theory of Knowledge "Theory of Everything", and although Stephen Hawking and the guy who directed that movie would disagree, I find that to be true most of the time. By forcing me to write this blog ToK gave me a perfect tool to share a part of me with you (since my lazy self would keep procrastinating new posts). But it also brings some tasks with itself, like homework.
My homework for today: find 5 words from 5 lesser-known languages, and translate them.
I know, I know; I promised a positive post this time around, and nearly extinct languages are pretty negative. But my ToK professor demands it, so please endure it for a little bit (I'll throw in a few interesting facts along the way, scout's honor!)
Okay, number 5: Transylvanian Saxon
As the name suggests, this language was spoken by Saxons (AKA Germans) who settled in Transylvania in the Middle Ages, in modern-day Romania. But most of them moved to USA, Canada, Germany and other Western countries, leaving a small number behind. And then Nicolae Ceausescu (this guy) literally sold them (yes, SOLD them) to West Germany during his rule (and for a nice amount of cash per sold Saxon).
The word is wiweln - "bedbugs in flour"
Apparently, they had a lot of those cases...
I wanted to put "vampire" (for obvious reasons), but it is almost the same as in English or German, and that doesn't count.
On to number 4: Ainu
Ainu was spoken on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, with other variants being spoken on Sakhalin and Kuril islands. Fun fact: in 2007. only 10 native speakers were alive.
The word: kamuy - "god"
It was a tight race between that and nuca (meaning "Russian"), but honestly nuca sounds like a racial slur, so I went with the safe word. This word is also probably important in their culture (more on that later)
Number 3: Manx
Manx isn't from China or something (as it may sound), it is actually from the Isle of Man, between UK and Ireland. Now, the last native speaker of it died in 1974, so you may be tempted to call it extinct, but the people are trying to revive it. Today, around 100 people speak it fluently, with 50 more children being educated in it since 2011. Nothing like some good ol' Celtic to spice up the life, eh?
Word is Keesh - "Scotsman"
Unlike other languages from this list, Manx is well documented (there are road signs and audio files, even the Bible was translated into it - and Game of Thrones as well, I presume), so it was easy to find a dictionary of it. And keesh also means tax, and is a part of phrases like "impose", "overtax" and "toll-keeper". Ah, the Celtic amiability...
At number 2: Kawesqar
Kawesqar is (was) spoken in southern Chile and on the Wellington island off the coast of Chile. In 2006. only 12 native speakers were alive, so I guess it has gone extinct by now.
The word is aswalaḳ - "yesterday"A very poetic word (the Beatles agree).
According to Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (what a name!), this word also means "tomorrow", which is less poetic. Seems very bizarre to have one word for two different time markings, right?
Aaand number 1: Kasong
Kasong is a Cambodian language so forgotten that there are no monolingual speakers of it (everybody uses Thai) and even the ISO list of codes for languages has no code for it. To compare, that list adds a three-letter code to pretty much every known language, spoken or extinct, except Kasong. Weird, huh? Anyways, over 50 years ago native Kasong speakers were forbidden from speaking their language because the government of Cambodia thought it interfered with the official language, Thai. The speakers became ashamed of the language. Yay, human rights!
The word is...
*drumroll*
fɛ:t.B - "twins"
Obviously, that isn't how you write it, but I found no other ways to write this but phonetically. So, feast your eyes on one of the most random and unknown languages in the world.
At last, to more fun subjects. Still here? Great.
These languages all help save the culture of their people through oral literature they keep. All nations' epic songs wouldn't be remembered for long if their original languages haven't been kept in one way or another in new languages. For example, Nordic epic song "Beowulf" was saved in English, influencing J.R.R. Tolkien to write "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", which in turn influenced all fantasy writers (including George R. R. Martin, who wrote " A Game of Thrones" and made me and a ton of other previously normal people addicted). And imagine how many more stories were told in other languages, and are waiting to be taken and edited into a new bestseller. Remember Ainu language? They had (and maybe still have) a huge treasury of epic songs they used to sing. The ceremonies of singing them used to last for hours, sometimes even days. What a sight that was.
But languages are just a part of communication, and we had a chance to put our skills in that area to a test: treasure hunt!
Not really like that, but still, we had to find a treasure. And it quickly turned into the stampede scene from the Lion King. Only thing we had were clues like riddles, pictures, sing language and even equations to lead us to our goal. As you surely anticipated, my team won.
For our efforts (not just mine, I'm not that egoistic), we got a ton of candy just before another ToK class. Bad idea, future and current teachers. Combined with a dull theme, they made all of us restless. Yes, the professor had to silence us a million times. And yes, we shared the candy, Scrooge McDuck.
This was a more language-centric post, but that was the subject of ToK. I don't want to stray too far, since this is for school, after all. More interesting posts coming!
See you next time. And bring a towel ;)
