January 20, 2014

Language Studies Resumed...
 
While my study of Arabic had the romantic allure of "otherness", after only a couple of weeks with Farsi, deep down in my linguistic soul came the assurance "We go way back." Almost a sense of deja vu. Farsi is, after all, an Indo-European language. Here's where those interminable hours with Wheelock's finally pay off.

On a side note...it would be interesting to note all the languages that Tolkien borrowed from to create Elvish and the other Middle Earth languages...and since, in a way, they too have to be Indo-European, it's not surprising that there are hints of Farsi here and there--and some pretty shameless thievery as well. "Mordor," for example, actually does mean "dirtied, fouled, corrupted," however, "Nazgul" is a girl's name and it means "a darling flower."