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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I'm a native English speaker* trying to learn Hindi on my own, without an institutional course -- I'd love one, mind you, but there aren't any that are affordable in the Bay Area (California, USA). You'd think there would be -- the South Bay has a huge community of South Asian immigrants. But all that exists are a few "heritage" learning classes at community centers, and an extremely expensive ($3,200) class at the University of California-Berkeley.

So. I mostly use the Rupert Snell "Teach Yourself Hindi" books and CDs, Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, online resources that I find -- Taj Afroz's "Door into Hindi" is a wonderful video series, BBC Hindi is always excellent, and Britain's School of Oriental and African Studies has some online stuff for Devanagari. Of course I also watch (and am addicted to) Bollywood movies and listen to music in Hindi, whether it's filmi music or not.

If there are people on here who are studying Hindi, or know Hindi and like to talk about it, I'd love it if you'd comment so I'd know who you are, on LiveJournal (you know, as long as LiveJournal continues to function). I guess secondarily... when I was talking with my sister about the Cal-Berkeley intensive course which I can't afford, she perhaps sensibly suggested I save up money and just go learn in India. Does anyone here have experience with language schools in India?

I'm interested in Urdu, also, but not so much in the writing system. I have a hard time with the Arabic alphabet, and have spent a fair amount of time on Devanagari, at this point.

Thanks, in advance -- I'm a bit surprised I didn't look for this community earlier.

*I'm fairly fluent in French and good in Spanish, also...

Hi everyone,

For various reasons I find it necessary that I learn Urdu. However, I haven't found many resources. I've checked the memories and not found much that's helpful. Do you guys have any thoughts?

Thank you!

Can someone who speaks Urdu tell me what the word 'shugar' means?

If you need context: 'nah, that was just shugar man'

Thanks!

quick question:  what script would the Divine Comedy have been written in originally?  I found an image of the first printed edition, but it's at least a century later than the composition.  am I looking at something like this?

also, on a completely different note, does anybody know where to find parallel bengali-english editions of ramprasad sen's poems?  I'm specifically looking for "country fair".  urdu-english for ghalib?  regrettably I'm not even sure what the title of the ghazal in question is, though a line from it is quoted in the 50s bollywood movie about his life, as well as in "satrangi re" from Dil Se. 

I'm considering tattoos - scriptures are easy enough to find original languages but poetry is proving more complicated.  I thought about getting part of the Shiva Tandava Stotra, but having "intoxicated elephant" in sanskrit branded on me permenently seemed unwise...any recommendations of comparable Saivite works would be much appreciated.  alas, I can't find any of the Saiva Agamas in english.

thanks!

I just got Melissa Etheridge's new album, A New Thought for Christmas and there's one song she sings with Salman Ahmad, a Pakistani singer. Mostly he sings in English, but there are a few phrases in another language. I assume it's most likely either Urdu or Arabic, although one of my co-workers said it sounded to him like it might even be Aramaic. (Personally, I know about six words of Urdu and none of the other two.)

What language is it? Can anyone translate? And assuming the transliteration is bad, can anyone give a more accurate one?

(I did Google, but all I found was one result—someone who asked the same question and got nothing but a series of lesbian jokes in answer.)

Lyrics are below the cut, and you can actually hear the song here.

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Thanks a million!

So I already speak Hindi and I can read Devanagari, but I'd really like to learn how to read Urdu script because the two languages are so alike/the same and I just want to know how to read it. My problem: I'm having a lot of trouble staying interested through most of the lessons I can find because they all try to teach grammar and vocab, which at this point I don't really need. Does anyone have any recommendations for good books or websites that just focus on learning the script? Preferably ones that have good, easy explanations because the reason I've been needing to go through the lessons in the sites I've been finding is because the basic explanations for how the alphabet works just don't seem to "click" in my brain. I'm really hoping to avoid spending a lot of time studying Arabic for this (while it's on my list, it's lower priority than several other languages, and I really want to get more of those out of the way first). Thanks for any help!

Hey guys.

Can any urdu speakers out there do me a quick translation please? It's my Pakistani friends birthday soon, and I have bought her Harry Potter in urdu, and wanted to write on the cover. If anybody could translate the LJ-cut for me, I would be eternally grateful.



I can write Urdu very well, I just don't know how to compose such sentences. Any help is MUCH appreciated.
Thanks in advance....

This is certainly a weird request, but what are the Urdu and Pasho terms for Hamster, and how do you pronounce them?

It's a female hamster, in particular. I searched a couple dictionaries and I cant' find it. The closest thing I can find is "mouse," and a hamster isn't a mouse! :P

Hello, everybody.

I have read this community for a long time but, not previously having a livejournal, I have never joined or posted until now.

I have a question (well, technically two questions).

I want to write, "Thank you!" in Arabic and Urdu. I am sending a thank-you card to a doctor who recently performed expensive medical procedures for free on me.

I don't know the doctor too well, and he is in another city so I can't go and simply ask "what is your native language?" I would also guess I would need to use "formal" ways of saying it.

He is originally from Karachi, Pakistan, and he is Moslem. So he should be able to read both Urdu and Arabic, correct?

How do I say a simple "Thank you!" in Urdu and Arabic?

(I found Shukriya شکریا on Wikipedia for Urdu, but I am not sure if it is correct and I cannot find Arabic at all.)

Thanks, everybody.

Daniel