Linguaphiles

The Oxford Etymologic Dictionary (OED) considers Ego / I as if it were a self-standing word developed within the Germanic and 'Indo-European' languages with a mere meaning of 'I / me / self, myself':[Spoiler (click to open)]

I (pron.)
12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE *eg- "I," nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).
Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, later everywhere; the form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c. 1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. It began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/I

ego (n.) by 1707, in metaphysics, "the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks," from Latin ego "I" (cognate with Old English ic; see I); its use is implied in egoity.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/ego

местоим., укр. я, др.-русск. язъ, я (и то и другое – в Мстислав. грам. 1130 г.; см. Обнорский – Бархударов I, 33), ц.-сл. азъ ἐγώ, реже ѩзъ (см. Дильс, Aksl. Gr. 77), болг. аз, яз (Младенов 702), сербохорв. jа̑, словен. jàz, jâ, чеш. já, др.-чеш. jáz (совр. чеш. форма – с начала ХIV в.), слвц. jа, др.-пол. jaz, пол., в.-луж., н.-луж. jа, полаб. joz, jо.
Праслав. *аzъ отличается своим вокализмом от родственных форм, ср. др.-лит. еš, лит. àš, лтш. еs, др.-прус. еs, аs, др.-инд. ahám, авест. azǝm, др.-перс. аdаm, арм. еs, венет. еχо, гр. ἐγώ, лат. еgо, гот. ik "я". Наряду с и.-е. *еǵ- (гр., лат., герм.), существовало и.-е. диал. *eǵh- (др.-инд., венет.). Недоказанной является гипотеза о существовании *ō̆go наряду с *еgō на основе слав. аzъ и хетт. uk, ug "я" (Мейе – Эрну 342 и сл.; см. Вальде – Гофм. I, 395 и сл.). Не объяснена еще достоверно утрата конечного -z в слав.; весьма невероятно, чтобы она совершилась по аналогии местоим. tу (напр., Ягич, AfslPh 23, 543; Голуб – Копечный 147), а также чтобы долгота начального гласного была обусловлена долготой гласного в tу (Бругман у Бернекера, см. ниже). Более удачна попытка объяснения аzъ из сочетания а ězъ (Бернекер I, 35; Бругман, Grdr. 2, 2, 382), но см. против этого Кнутссон, ZfslPh 12, 96 и сл. По мнению Зубатого (LF 36, 345 и сл.), в этом а- представлена усилит. част. *ā, ср. др.-инд. ād, авест. āt̃, ср. также др.-инд. межд. ḗt "смотри, глядь!" из ā и id; Педерсен (KZ 38, 317) видит здесь влияние окончания 1 л. ед. ч. -ō; сомнения по этому поводу см. у Бернекера (I, 35). Для объяснения -z привлекают законы сандхи (Сольмсен, KZ 29, 79); ср. Бернекер, там же; И. Шмидт, KZ 36, 408 и сл.; Вакернагель – Дебруннер 3, 454 и сл.
http://www.classes.ru/all-russian/russian-dictionary-Vasmer-term-17126.htm

ich (Ger.), Εγώ [ego] (Gr.), ego (Lat.), io (Ital.), yo (Sp.), I (Eng.), jag (Sw.), я [ja] (Slavic)...

However, should one look beyond the hypothetic *constructions, established by the German philologists in the 19th Century, one would see an obvious Nostratic relation of the above words with the meaning of ' I ' to the following words with the meaning of ' 1 (one)':

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Hello! I'm a local historian working on a series of articles about London Road, Croydon, and I could do with some help interpreting an archived shopfront image from Google Street View.

The shopfront in question is the yellow one on the left in this Street View image. Could someone give me a transcription and translation of the non-English words on the frontage, please?

This restaurant is no longer open, but I suspect from its name and the dishes it used to serve (I've seen an old takeaway menu at the local archives) that the chef was Kurdish. The restaurant that replaced it and is still there today is definitely Kurdish.

Thank you for reading!

I'm working on a zine about vegan cuisine from the Mid East/Maghreb & want to include a short section of phrases useful for folks traveling in the regions. If anyone would be able to help out with translations into the following languages (both in the relevant script & an approximate representation in Latin script would be fantastic), I'd be so, so grateful: (Modern Standard) Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Farsi, Amazigh, Kurdish (either Kurmanji or Sorani)

I'm vegan / vegetarian
I don't eat anything that comes from animals
Animals are my friends, and I don't want to eat my friends
If it's not a huge trouble, could I please have something without animal products?
I'm a big fan of vegetables
Thanks, that was really delicious!

I don't eat... cheese
milk
yoghurt
meat
fish
poultry

Many thanks in advance!

Can anyone tell me what this Istanbul graffiti says?



Google translate hints something along the lines of "men's love kills three women a day", I think?

Also, can anyone recommend any good resources for learning Kurdish, preferably Sorani (or any words of wisdom on how mutually unintelligible Sorani & Kurmanji really are)? I checked the tags but all the Kurdish posts were a while back.

Can anybody tell me how to say "Happy Birthday!" in Kurdish and Iraqi Arabic?

It is coming from a man to a woman, if that matters.

I've found standard modern Arabic but I think the Iraqi version is somehow different?

I'm trying to find information- anything!- on the social structure, customs, etc. for Kurds WHO LIVE IN IRAN. I am not looking for information on Kurds who live in Turkey, Iraq, or elsewhere. Unfortunately, my searches elsewhere are coming up dry. I know this is a really esoteric topic, but I figured, who would know better than my LJ linguistics community? ;)

Any information to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated. This is a last-minute assignment that got dropped on me at work, with a tight deadline (end of the week)...

Thanks, all.

Is there anyone here that speaks/is learning/has tried to learn Kurdish? I'm thinking specifically Kurmanji dialect, but anything works for me. I've fallen in love with it (my language interests are so random) and now I'm thinking that I can't possibly not learn it. All I've been able to find as far as resources go is this, but it's very poorly set up. Anyone know of any others? (This is probably a longshot!)