Not in any photoset

Not in any photoset

Bavaria

June2007

Myself , Others , Places and Things

Myself , Others , Places and Things

Myself , Others , Places and Things

Myself , Others , Places and Things !

toque inuit

Entry for October 24, 2007 Lost in the Translation !!!

Growing up in a bi-lingual country can be fun..... especially if you are interested in languages. By law all products and produce sold in Canada must have accompanying info or instructions in both languages .... French and English. Breakfast was a learning experience as we kids gulped down our favourite Snap Crackle and Pops while reading the backs of cereal boxes comparing Corn Flakes to Flocons de Maïs .or flakes of maize. Then someone from my Irish entourage might remind me that Kellogs was the Scottish form of the old Gaelic word " coileach " .... rooster , cock..... and all of a sudden the ' wake up guy with a topnotch ' on the box took on real meaning !!

When buying a desk at Staples or a wheelbarrow and outdoor propane gas BBQ appliances at Canadian Tire which come in the form of jigsaw puzzles these objects always come with step by step bi-lingual instructions telling you how to put the dadblasted masterpiece together. If you are following the English version you may or may not have difficulties assembling the parts ..... and should you be bi-lingual you might even crossreference by checking out the French directives.... quite often either gains or losses of information between the two renditions are available LOL. For example in English they might include four bolts with three washers and five nuts whereas in French you could end up with only three bolts , four washers and four nuts !! Sometimes it could be a bit more serious though. .... the case of screwing in a table leg until tight and in French an important gain in info telling you to screw leg tight until you hear a click , meaning that the leg is now firmly in place and won't fall off . One might even throw in a free wrench while the other does not .I always read both sets and decide upon the best .

To avoid complicating an idea which , at the outset , was meant to be simple I shall now bring this short post to an end with two quick anecdotes about translation pitfalls and pleasures.

First of all the Finnish episode comes to mind. I was doing research back in the 70s at the University of Helsinki and living at the local Hospiz or WMCA .. cheap but clean rooms. There were two public toilets on each floor and one day while sitting there with time to waste while waiting for the show to start I began reading the houserules hanging on the wall beside me . They were written in five languages : Finnish , Swedish , German , English and Russian. Check out time for the Russians was 10 am , for the Finns and Swedes 11 am , the Germans had to be out by noon whereas the English version gave us until 1 pm n the afernoon !! I noticed an extra line though in Russian absent on the others .. a gain of info so to speak....which translated out as " please do not steal the toilet paper !". Had I been Russian I would have felt utterly humiliated !!..

The second anecdotal item concerns a phone call I received this morning from one of my former students who is nowadays working on native landclaims and was looking for someone to translate a text into the Innu language and vice versa too !! So I gave him the name of a woman whom I had trained as a technolinguist some years ago and who does a great deal of interpreting / translating for her people... Marie- Jeanne. At the mention of her name my mind drifted back to Marie-Jeanne's first translation for the goverment IT wanted her to put into " Indian" (as they called it back then ) some godforsaken text about water rights and pay her five cents a word in the target language , her own native Innu. Now as I explained in a recent blog Innu is a word -sentence language which implies that one word in Innu corresponds to many words in one of our own Indo-European tongues. Example ... I see you = tshiwapmitin in Innu....three words in English , only one in Innu / you see me = tshiwapmin / he sees you = tshiwapmukw / etc .I' ll add one final clincher for those who might be interested. .... a simple sentence of introduction .. I am very pleased that you are well = Nimistaminwenten e-minupaniekw ! Should Marie-Jeanne be paid in the target language here then she has just earned $ .10 ( ten cents ) since there are but two words in the translation . However , she would earn $ .40 ( forty cents ) if paid according to the number of words in the starting language. My advice to Marie-Jeanne was ... and still is ... to never accept a contract wherein she is nemunerated using a wordcount based on her own language.

P.S. In above pic Marie-Jeanne is the young woman on the right. The other woman is also Innu whereas the two young men are Atikamekw and speak a language close to Innu structurally and historically ..... yet not mutually understandable.

Entry for October 22, 2007 The End of Times !!

THE SETTING :

The good ship SS Yahoo360 has been plying the waters of Happy Sea now for almost two and a half years during which period clear sailing has been the order of the day except for the odd squall now and then. However , of late icebergs have been sighted ahead off our port and starboard gunwales sowing much consternation among the passengers many of whom have already started requesting the captain lower the lifeboats so that they might safely motor or row their way to safety aboard Yahoo360's sistership , the SS Multiply ,....... or even switch to other cruiselines which have many steamers in the immediate vicinity..... such .. the SS Facebook , the SS MySpace ....and last , but not the least , the SS Blogger.

While observing the above goings on the following passage from the New Testament comes to mind ,

Mark 13:3-8 - And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

Being a technotwinkie in computer knowledge I shall probably stay faithful to Yahoo360 until the bitter-sweet end. However , I'll not go down with the ship . Like many of you I too have my very own back-up haven of refuge , GOOWY. COM..... home sweet home to me with free parking , hot coffee and sticky , " gooey " doughnuts 24/7....... a real Mom and Pop site far from the squabbles of corporate blogging !!

Entry for October 17, 2007 Onomastics....... Both Native and Imported !!!!

Whenever I travel the highways , byways or pathways of our planet , whether at home or abroad , my mind is constantly busy absorbing and analyzing data from what I see , hear , feel , etc around me .............. measuring it against what I know already or storing it in the vault for future reference. Since early childhood I have always been an avid student and lover of people(s) , their histories and cultures, their geography , their languages and cultures..... and especially the way they think and name their environments. It is no wonder then that I chose a career in anthropological linguistics. Anything culturally , religiously or topographically relevant to the people will be reflected in the names it allots to its landscapes and waterways. Thus , on a recent trip to the northeasternmost corner of " those good ole U. S. of As"...... tucked neatly in between the two Canadian provinces of Québec and New Brunswick......Fluff and I visited with the decendants of Swedish colonies established there back in 1871 and which to this day mirror nostalgically the "old country ".... Stockholm , New Sweden , Jämtland and Westmanland.

Two weeks ago we set out again for the State of Maine ..... crossing " la Beauce " , recalling the rolling countryside just south of Paris ( France ) on the road to Bordeaux...... with its numerous quaint villages most of which bear the names of Catholic Saints : Sainte Marie , Saint Isidore , Saint Bernard , Saint Georges , Saint Odilon , Saint Gédéon , Saint Côme , etc Then across the U. S. border at Jackman and , following the Kennebec River through the dense Maine forest for roughly an hour , we finally come to an agglomeration of some 25 houses with one huge elementary school. Moscow , Maine !! From here its on down highway 201 to Skowhegan where we get a choice......either turn left towards Bangor and Calais ( reverberations of well-known places in France ) or keep right and head for Interstate 95 South.... Miami here I come !! Barely 15 minutes southbound on the Maine Turnpike ( one slice of 95 )and the first exit hints at the British Isles posting Bristol , Bath , Belfast and Plymouth whereas the next one echoes Central Europe with Vienna and Belgrade !! One wintry night some 40 years ago I was taking a shortcut back to Québec through Maine during an honest-to-God white-out blizzard . The I 95 was blocked off so I started taking the backroads as I inched my way homewards through the ever-deepening snow ....... the bumper of my old Volks was pushing snow when I came to a dimly lit crossroads. With visibility almost nil I got out of the car to better read the signposts . I had four options..... go straight ahead to China , turn left and go to South China , bear right to North China or head back to Bangor !! With all due respect to my friend , Chun ( from the real China ) I turned back that night to wait the storm out !!

And now comes the moment in my blog where I either pull the plug and jump ship while the readers' interest may still be afloat.............. or bring this post to a slow-motion conclusion headlining a couple of examples drawn from a domaine so dear and close to my heart.......... North American native toponymy or placenaming. Let's face it !! They got here some 15 to 20 thousand years before we did and naturally named the elements of their environments as they settled or wandered throughout this vast territory. It is a fact that over one half of all the States , Provinces and Territories of both Canada and the U.S. bear names drafted / stolen / borrowed from aboriginal languages as well as hundreds of thousands of other officially designated terms for our rivers , lakes , streams , hills and mountains , bays , coves , cities , towns and villages , etc During my career I was privileged to teach the Innu language as part of my yearly workload..... and this over 31 years. Now this language is one of roughly 40 languages which make up the Algonquian language family , the most widespread nartive linguistic stock in North America..... stretching from Newfoundland southwards to Virginia ..... westward to the Mid-West....... around the Great Lakes..... and from Newfoundland stretching westwards to the Canadian Rockies.

And now is the point where I could expatiate........ dissecting and analyzing native placenames that ornate our territories such as Kennebec , Kennebunk / Kennebunkport or Bush Compound..... or maybe Chicago , Illinois , Milawaukee , Kenosha , Michigan , Massachusetts , Connecticut ,etc...... However , I think I'll take a raincheck on this and wait see how this post pans out. There is one prediction I'll make though just for the fun of it. I have driven through the southern part of Rhode Island but never have I laid eyes on nor visited Pawtucket , one of the State's important cities. Nevertheless , I am sure that somewhere within the city limits of Pawtucket there are sizeable waterfalls. The Innu word for waterfalls is "pawhtukw "or at the falls " pawhtukut". Maybe some of you are familiar with this New England town/city ?

Entry for October 13, 2007 Pavlov's Swede !!!

For the past few days I have been looking for a "gripping" topic to write about.......... and only this afternoon did it dawn on me that here before my very eyes was unfolding a tale worthy of both human as well as scientific interest. Now we all know how much Fluff loves and is devoted to wildlife and its well-being ............feeding everybody and anybody with wings or paws who shows up at our back door. Among our feathered visitors the ducks and bluejays receive her special attention and affection. These last three years Fluff has been sporadically leaving out peanuts along the railing top around the verandah for the jays so I began encouraging her set up a controlled environment wherein to attract and train the jays to do her bidding !! And the ideal spot would be the window-sill just behind where she spends so much time communicating with all her friends and readers through her blog and other creative activities. Her working hypothesis with the jays was " if you feed them , they will come !"...... applicable likewise to long-lost relatives and free-loading friends !........ and they DID come and are STILL flocking to our back window............ as long as there is food on the sill they come early and leave late !! Fluff has trained the jays !! Bravo !!

Of late I've noticed strange happenings though........... one big male jay alights on a branch just outside the window to Fluff's right , struts its wares a bit , primps , ruffles and fluffs up its delicate white down ...... flaunts its colours and topnotch or mohawk .........and Fluff is so awed and overcome by its beauty that she gets up , opens the window and spreads out another row of peanuts. At other moments ..... a blustery rainy day .... or a cold windy day........ the bloody jay just roosts there in full view ..... shivering so to speak and putting on his most miserable look........and Fluff caves ! She grabs a handfull of peanuts from her giant bag , slides the window open and lines up the loot......... maybe some 10 items all told ! The woman has a good and generous heart !

10 minutes later the peanuts are all gone and the foxy jay is back outside the window sitting there on the closest limb and looking utterly down and out ....at the end of his tether ........ that 'can you spare me a dime , buddy ?' look in his eye......... and Fluff caves again !!

The moral of the story is that Fluff set out to train the jays .........and ended up in turn being programmed by the jays herself !!

P.S. I wrote this blog two days ago and since then I have noticed that even the chickadees are now starting to mimic the damn jays by putting on that forsaken look when perched just outside our window !!