<But it's useful, and long ones get worn down in time if used frequently enough.>

Ah yes, you put that better than I had initially. I thought about the abstractness of 'language' - perhaps similar to 'number' but then left that thought..

How would you describe words like left and right; semi-abstract? They exist only as opposing the other but are not concepts as language or democracy. On a related account, high and low are mainly described as opposing each other but are perhaps explainable in some fairly complicated way akin to 'imagine a space described by axis X, Y and Z. Call 'high' an increase in the value Z' or something like that.

Back to the topic, words reflecting old pronunciations are fairly interesting - and new for me I must say. I may be wrong, and if so achieve will undoubtedly correct me, but I do not think we have many of those words in Dutch. There are some non-literal vowel-constructions [e.g. the eu in Euwe] but those are fairly consistent. Exceptions obviously are words which are directly lend from other languages [e.g. computer]

ps: noticed you talked a few days ago with achieve about the passing of Mulisch. Apparently that was necessary for me to finally begin reading the discovery of heaven. I must say, so far -page 150 of 900 approximately- I absolutely love it! :D

Btw, In Hungarian the word for language is also the word for 'tongue' (nyelv), but in Hebrew it's the word for 'lip' (safa).

Anyhoo ... right now *two* things that *I think I read someplace* are sloshing round in my head. Their only link to each other is via your post.

(1) is the notion that it is extremely difficult to actually define or specify left and right. In terms of space, anyway. If we were in hyper-radio contact with aliens in a distant galaxy we couldn't easily say which was which, assuming that we can't say something like "from our position on the spacetime curve, the supernova with an x-ray beacon is left of the black hole". We can't even point out the cheirality or handedness of certain molecules, because they might occur in mirror versions in distant galactic parts. But apparently there is a way to do it, possibly involving parity conservation. Quantum stuff.

I have at least three books on cheirality, handedness, left/right, etc. One would think I'd remember some, but no. (OK, I remember *some* stuff: one is 'Right Hand, Left Hand' by Chris McManus and another is Martin Gardner's 'The Ambidextrous Universe'). Also, Sir Osbert Sitwell, a genuine English eccentric, named his autobiography 'Left Hand, Right Hand', a cheiral reversal of McManus, sinister and gauche where he is dextrous.

(2) My other sloshing-in-head question is simple, for you, and concerns Dutch language. Is it true that words with the -je suffix, denoting littleness (huisje, dakgootje) are always grammatically neuter, so they get 'het' rather than 'de'.

Het dakgootje? Het huisje op veldt?

Yes, I'm planning one day to translate the famous American TV show, which I've never actually seen, *The Little House on the Prairie*, into Dutch.

BTW, I just happened quite recently to look at authentic Dutch documents from the early 17th century ... archives from Delft and Amsterdam concerning artists. It was double Dutch to me, of course - but I'm pretty sure it had archaic spellings.

Apparently Middle Dutch arose in the late middle ages around the Ducal Court of Burgundy. This must be what Bob Dylan was singing about in the lines "I started out on Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff ... I'm goin' back to New York city, I believe I've had enough".

But is it in teh dictionary?

< Why they changed it, I can't say -

People just liked it better that way.

<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

You are absolutely right.

Prairie is a Dutch word as well however, so the serie is known here as 'Het kleine huis op de prairie'. 'Het huisje' instead of 'het kleine huis' would obviously be grammatically correct as well so I presume they wanted to stay as close to the original as possible with the title.

'Veld', in the meaning of 'field' is a noun and thus can not end with dt - the rule is only for verbs. There are special widely-wronged rules about when to use the dt. If I am correct [I am notoriously bad in grammar though] you only get a verb ending with dt when

a) it is the present tense
b) the pronoun is jij [you], gij [thy] or hij/zij/het [he/she/it] c) the root of the verb ends with a d

e.g. : ik word [I become] has rules a&c but not b. However it is jij wordt [you become].

<I just happened quite recently to look at authentic Dutch documents from the early 17th century ... archives from Delft and Amsterdam concerning artists. It was double Dutch to me, of course - but I'm pretty sure it had archaic spellings.>

Nice, originally I come from Delft :)

The language changed quite a lot over the years, although it still would be more difficult to translate the handwriting than the meaning ;)

As an example, a proverb from 1660: 'Een ghepraemde katte zal dwars door de vensters vlieghen, om ruymte te hebben' which translates to modern dutch as 'een gekwelde* kat zal dwars door de vensters vliegen, om ruimte te hebben'. Barely any difference. The verb translates literally in English to 'A tormented cat shall fly right through the windows, to have room'.

Mm, yes, I've seen that happen. Even here.

<Dom> thank you! I decided to practice a little denial here. ;)

Um, are we talking about rain, or snow?

I love snow. :p

I'd move to somewhat warmer country, say Spain or Italy, were it not that I do not speak either language and the worse economical situation and, certainly in Italy, the horrible political situation. Moreover, I would probably miss the people I know that live in the Netherlands too much.

There are probably a dozen more reasons.

In short, I like this country - but for the weather mainly. Can't be too bad if that is one of the main problems.

Maybe Luxembourg though...

* There are two odd things in that sentence [3, if you <like> the described weather]:

Then, in the preface, I read that the author had 'modernized' quotes and letters by GW, mainly by removing commas. And, indeed, yes, they were fond of commas, circa 1776 -- but removing them is an abomination.

Ouch. OK, no argument with "vile" then. :\

Lemme know when you get proper snow, so I can properly envy you.

<dakkie: and triple dot trey dash and thrice dot dashing dots.>>

Somehow that makes me wonder... if you combine morse code with backward writing, do you get remorse?

Take two: <dashing>

I'm sure he is... but I'd still like to see a picture on that player page... ;p

A no commas experiment:

Character 1: 'All hail the weather'
Character 2: (sardonically) 'No sleet'

haha, worth a try ;) [or is it?!]

Which in turn reminded me of:

* D - presumably the spy code for a secret locale... ;)

<Dom: <I got sent a book to review today>>

That's great! =)

By contrast, in Ye Capital, just 160 miles NE, it snows most years.

<That's great! =) >
What, you thought I was in full inertial recluse mode? It may well have appeared that way ... but I've ackshully got *three* book reviews on the hob.

That's three times as great. :)
Glad to hear this!

But 25º (C.) or so? For a whole day, or even more? We call that a heatwave.

28C isn't hot. HOT is when we hit 38C going on 40C - what we have in July-August or so. That's when you lounge around listlessly all day, wearing skin and feeling overdressed. :p