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Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:57 am
by Qbix
I am currently reading a frysian book: "(Leafdesferhalen) De riedsels fan it hert", which would be "(liefdesverhalen) De raadsels van het hart" in Dutch, which in turn loosely translates to "(Lovestories) The puzzles of the heart".
Every now and then I get this urge to read something in Frysian. This book contains a small stories around 10 pages each. This is a nice length, as while Frysian is my native language, reading in it, takes a lot of concentration.

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:46 am
by BBP
That's one of the reasons why I'm not a fan of calling Frisian a language, even though it officially is (like Limburgs). Sure there are different words and phrase constructions, but you can find those in Flemish (which is not a language) and in most dialects. It's really taped on in the 19th century by chauvinists, it's not helping and spelling out Frisian is about as clear as the spelled out Brabantian phrases on carnaval floats. Above all it handicaps communication, which is language's prime function. As the quip goes: "A language is a dialect with an army".

Anyway, found another Murakami: Kafka On The Shore. Quite good!

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:51 pm
by Qbix
I am a bit confused. Are you not liking it, because it takes a lot of concentration ?
I don't see how knowing frysian would handicap anybody. Isn't diversity a great thing ?

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:09 pm
by BBP
First off, sorry if you took it as an offense towards Frisian. This is about the fact there's no real definition for the concept "language".

There is no definition of "language", it's very complex matter. We speak no less than 6 ECRML approved regional languages in a country where you can travel from one far end to the other and back in a day. It's not easy to exactly point at a language border but this seems arbitrary.
Dialects are named after their province: but Brabant, my province, stretches far and a person from Bergen op Zoom has a very different sound than a person from Helmond, with rougher Gs and a different vowel deflection. ECRML acknowledges one dialect zone east of the Donge which includes 's-Hertogenbosch with Eindhoven and Helmond, other people divide it between south and north. At least I wouldn't put a Bosch accent in the same category as a Helmond accent.
With a Haguian dad I never mastered the correct south-east Brabant grammatical deflection, but words like houdoe, litermaat, peperkoek, zultkop and builtje do sneak in.

This conflict of languages isn't unique to The Netherlands. My Catalonian-Castellan dictionary is very amusing. Or how about Czechoslovakian? When the country split, Slovakia needed a new language, which is basically Czech with all sorts of accents on the letters and different vowel spelling here and there. And I have a Yugoslavian dictionary - language that no longer exists, it's now split into Serbian and Bosnian and a couple of other languages.

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:31 pm
by Qbix
I tend to see a language/dialect as a sign of a common history. If two people speak the same dialect, then they share some history together, as they (or their ancestors) were likely to be part of the same community. For me, the dialects show history. When 2 regions have similar dialects, that could be because of ancient trade or maybe of migration. Just as it is difficult to find a language border, real borders can be difficult to understand as well.
Just look at the weirdness in Africa, where different tribes have ended up in two countries or two tribes in one country, because of the borders were decided by others.

We might be talking about/looking at a different aspect though.

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:21 pm
by BBP
If you're looking for border weirdness, the best bet for us here is Baarle-Nassau / Baarle-Hertog (for the ones not from Netherlands or Belgium: that's two municipalities next to each other on the border: B-Nassau is in the Netherlands, and B-Hertog is in Belgium. It's a complex cluster of enclaves, with nation borders running straight through houses and streets. It got that way in the Middle Ages by trading between nobles and it never got resolved - by now nobody wants that to. Baarle was a convenient place for smuggling in the two world wars, particularly the first one. )

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:41 pm
by Qbix
Yep, I've visited that place once in order to take a look at some belgium goods.
I asked for frieten at the dutch side and they kindly pointed me to the other side of the street :)

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 4:10 am
by BBP

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 7:11 am
by Rath Darkblade
I'm currently reading The Bible According to Spike Milligan. It's quite good; a little British-specific in places, and a little bit dated (after all, it was written in the late 80s), but still quite funny. :)

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 2:11 pm
by Tawmis
On Harry Potter: And The Goblet of Fire ... with the goal of reading one chapter every day!

When I go home, I have so many silly hobbies, that I never get around to reading... so now I try to read 1 chapter, every day, when I go to lunch at work. Bound and determined to finish this entire series before my time on this world is done. :)

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 6:43 pm
by BBP
I'd misplaced my copy of Kafka On The Shore, but now I'm reading it and it's so hard to put down!
Like in several other books of his, he is professing his gift of writing about music in such a way that you want to listen to it instantly. Like La Gazza Ladra overture in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (apparently the best music to cook spaghetti to), Leos Janácek's Sinfonietta, and in this book Schubert's piano sonata in D major, the Heavenly Tedious sonata.

Another book I'm making headway in is a beautiful 1946 chronicle/eye witness report of WW2 in The Netherlands.

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:25 pm
by BBP
This week I worked at the book fair, which was fun yet exhausting. There was a game book there by Leila Johnston - it's called Enemy Of Chaos - I wanted to buy it, but when I could get it on Saturday, it was gone!
Anybody here familiar with the title?

Either way, I bought another book by Oliver Sacks, this one's on vision. Been having eye problems lately, hope I can learn something from it.

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:50 pm
by Collector
I think I have heard of it, but do not know anything about it.

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:41 am
by Tawmis
Hooray! I recently finished Harry Potter: And The Goblet of Fire - but not in a rush to read the next book (as I am going on a cruise later, and plan to read it while relaxing on the cruise!)

Re: Break The Spine.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 9:34 pm
by Collector
Odin wants to come with you.