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beautiful-basque-country · 4 months

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ON BASQUE AND ITS TIES WITH GEORGIAN, ARMENIAN, AND TAMAZIGHT.

American linguist Morris Swadesh (1909-1967) created a world map of current languages according to comparative linguistics, taking into account their common origin. The lexico-statistical or glottochronological Swadesh method is based on taking 215 words in two groups of 100; key words such as personal pronouns, low numerals, parts of the body, kinship names, some action verbs, some adverbs of time and place, objects of nature, very common actions, bodily actions and questions.

Swadesh claimed that in the basic vocabulary the rate of change is so regular in languages, that he had been able to create a system of measuring the elapsed time in which two languages were related in the past and that today are separated geographically.

According to Swadesh, that basic vocabulary of 100 or 215 words changes less than 20% per millennium in each language. These variations in vocabulary leave a common ground between two or more languages related to each other, which is measured chronologically, thus establishing the time distance between a language and its more modern relatives. If the number of words with the same root between two languages in these two groups of 100 is less than or equal to 5%, it is considered a similarity by chance (the figure does not respond to anything specific, the method has many random parts), and if it is greater it would be the result of some common past.

There is a formula to know the time elapsed between the period in which the contact occurred and the current moment, and the result with Basque was the following (with the rest of the languages with which Basque has been compared by this method the result is inferior and not significant):

list 215 list 100

Northwest Circassian Caucasian:

6.62% 7.52%

Northwest Avar Caucasian:

3.80% 5.37%

Georgian, South Caucasian:

4.73% 7.52%

Rift Tamazight (northern Morocco):

6% 9.67%

Southern Tamazight (southern Morocco)

7.38% 10.86%

Many of the similarities considered good are more than questionable, since the evolution of words and languages is not taken into account, some borrowings from other languages are considered good, etc.

Nor can we forget American linguist R.L. Trask, that compared Hungarian and Basque and found in 2 hours of searching 65 similar words that could only be the result of chance, but that lead to question many investigations: this exercise tested by other researchers with other unrelated languages has given the same surprising result. R.L. Trask said “I can't understand why some linguists get so excited when they find two dozen Basque words that look like two dozen other Berber or Sumerian words.”

Basque and the languages of the Caucasus

The Caucasus is located 4,000 kilometers from Garonne-Pyrénées-Ebro where the Basques live. In the Caucasus, about 50 different peoples coexist with almost 22 languages. The main difficulty in establishing the Basque-Caucasian relationship consists of this lack of unity.

Swadesh's lexico-statistical ratio of Circassian and Georgian to Basque is 7.52%, higher than any other language in the world. The supposed contact would have occurred in the Magdalenian, about 10,000 years ago. With the rest of the languages of the Caucasus, current Basque is similar in typology (verbs, the ergative, etc.) and in the etymology of some words, but its lexical-statistical relationship with all of them is less than 5%.

There are also parallels between Basque and Georgian in syntactic aspects, such as the use of the ergative (transitive-intransitive verbs, “Nor-Nork” forms) that do not occur in any other European language, the reflexive way of making sentences such as: “I have seen my head in the mirror” (nire burua ispiluan ikusi dut), and not: “I have seen myself in the mirror”, the use of base twenty to count, etc.

But many current or recent renowned linguists are skeptical about the relationship with the Caucasian languages. Basque linguist Koldo Mitxelena (1915-1987) said that: “In summary, there are some Basque-Caucasian lexical similarities that cannot be demonstrated to be possible, but on the other hand there are a large number whose extraordinary implausibility can be demonstrated (…). Even if Basque and the Caucasian languages go back to a common origin, the number of missing intermediate links must be so high that it is to be feared that, due to not knowing them, the ancient ties of kinship will not be established."

If there is a relationship, for both Koldo Mitxelena and Xabier Kintana, it has to go back to the fifth and sixth millennia or earlier.

Basque and Armenian

Armenian linguist and Basque philologist Vahan Sarkisian, creator of the Basque-Armenian Dictionary and a Grammar of the Basque Language in his language, is the main promoter of the "Basque-Armenian theory" and the one who has done the most work in recent years on ethnolinguistic kinship between both peoples.

This prestigious Armenian linguist affirms that "the best promoters of this theory were neither Basques nor Armenians and, therefore, they had no direct interests in the issue. I am referring to the Englishman Edward Spencer Dodgson and the German Joseph Karst. The former knew well Basque. In Paris he began to study Armenian and quickly detected the similarities, which he initially summarized in a list of 50 words. Karst was an Armenianologist and, when he came into contact with Basque, he compared issues related to anthropology, the phonetic system, the grammar and the lexicon and extracted more than 400 similarities. (...) We understand without problems, for example, what Zabaltegi, or Ormazabal means, because it means exactly the same in Armenian. We feel at home, and that already means something. Armenian is considered an Indo-European language (Basque is the only pre-Indo-European language in all of Europe, prior to the invasions of these peoples), but if we bring to light the twenty most important regularities of the language we will see that they coincide more with Basque than with any other neighboring languages such as Georgian or Persian. And not only referring to the lexicon. In Armenian, for example, words are not formed with an initial -r, our throat has a hard time pronouncing it. The same thing happens to the Basque language, to the Basque throat.

Neither Armenian nor Basque recognize the accumulation of consonants, they are unpronounceable to us, while in other languages neighboring ours, such as Georgian, groups of up to five or six consonants are common. We could mention many other characteristics that separate us from our neighbors and bring us closer to Basque, such as the postponed article, the way of forming the plural, not to mention toponymy, which provides an enormous amount of similarities. (…) I believe that this type of coincidences - which even affect the articulation apparatus, which has a physiological nature - cannot arise from mere contact, they cannot be imported or exported. Karst said that Armenian and Basque are two varieties of the same linguistic stem (…) The only thing I would dare to say with any certainty is that perhaps in ancient times the entire area was occupied by the same ethnic-cultural element, which gave way terrain to other elements, leaving vestiges in Euskadi and Armenia, as survivors of a great and ancient civilization.”

It is curious that Armenian – which does not give any relationship with Basque through the Swadesh method – and Georgian are, apparently, more similar to Basque than to each other when they are neighboring peoples. To conclude this short summary, let's share a toponymic curiosity: in Georgia there is Mount Gorbeya (like the highest mountain in Bizkaia and Alaba), in Armenia is the sacred Mount Ararat (like the Aralar mountain range between Alaba, Gipuzkoa and Alta Navarra), and also a mountain named Gora (mountain in the language of the area and "up" in Basque). The curiosity is even greater because the Araxes River bathes Mount Aralar, and in the Armenian Mount Ararat there is a river called... Araxes.

Basque and Tamazight

Tamazight, by the Swadesh method, is not related to Arabic or Egyptian; nor with Georgian, but with Basque, as well as the Cadmitosemitic languages from which it comes. Therefore, Basque is a language that may have common elements with Georgian and Berber, but they do not have any with each other.

The percentage of lexical-statistical relationship of Swadesh of Basque with Southern Tamazight is 7.38% and with Rift Tamazight is 6% (taking the 215 words because with 100 the percentage increases). Therefore, by this method there would be a relationship or common substrate between both languages. Based on the percentage relationship, contact would have taken place about 8,000-9,000 years ago.

In Berber the names given to animals are very similar to those given in Basque. «Aker» & «iker» (billygoat), «asto» & «ezet» (donkey); They also coincide in the way of saying horse, crow, river, brother, lie, name ("Izen" and "isem"), "I" and others.

Within this analysis we must mention the Guanches, native inhabitants of the Canary Islands before the arrival of the Spaniards. From the writings found (archaeology confirms this) it is believed that the Guanches would speak a Tamazight language that, due to the isolation of the islands, would maintain a greater degree of relationship with Basque. There are those who even see Basque place names in the Canary Islands such as: Los Llanos de Aridane (Harrigane: stone peak), Argindei, Tinizara (Tinitzaha), Tajuia, Tenegia, Jedei (Iedegi) in La Palma and in Lanzarote: Masdeche (Mahats- etxe: grape-house), Haria, Orzola, Guinate (Gainate: high step), Yaiza (haitza: rock), Ajache, Tesegite, Mozaza etc.

An anecdote that is often told is that the first conquerors of the Canary Islands believed that the natives spoke Basque.

Between Basque and Tamazight the similarities are reduced to the lexical or lexicographic level, since syntactically and grammatically there does not seem to be any relationship, both in current speech and in the past; there are just similarities in verbal articulation or in the use of some particles.

Julio Caro Baroja said in this regard: “I must warn in any case that the relationship between Basque and the African languages called Hamitic is not as founded as claimed. On the contrary, the hypothesis of a relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages, which is perhaps the one that has produced the least interest in the Peninsula, seems to be the most prudent, because it is based on linguistic, morphological and strict observations.

Koldo Mitxelena had the same opinion, and believed it was necessary to study more the relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages which, unlike the supposed kinship with Tamazight, did cause serious doubts.

[x]

@knario47

#euskal herria #basque country #pays basque #pais vasco #euskadi #linguistics #euskera #euskara #basque #language #armenian #georgian #tamazight

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caesarsaladinn · 7 months

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Plus there's also at least 2 other entire families in the Caucasus - creatively called Northwest Caucasian & Northeast Caucasian

alright, adding linguistics to history in caucasian stuff I need to read up on

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warlocks-and-phoenixes · 2 years

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Twi’s Headcanons II: The Region of Ru’aun

After making that last post about the multiverse, it only seemed right that I also do one exploring my own map of Ru’aun, its history, and its politics. It’s also definitely needed in order to understand the other non-canon places in my rewrite, so without further ado:

(Oh shit it’s 3.5k words this time lmao. Also Tumblr ate the quality again so click on the photos)

(NOTE: The in-universe calendar used in various places here counts upwards from the birth of Irene. In my version season 1 takes place 482 years after the divine, and season 3 is 500 years later, not 900. AI stands for “After Irene” and BI means “Before Irene”. Comparable to BC & AD)

Khasia & Scalesia:

[Pronounced kah-sia and skay-lee-sia (sia as in ‘Asia’)]

The region of Ru’aun is divided into two different subregions: Khasia in the west/northwest and Scalesia in the east/southeast. During the Great Migration Period (the time in history where humans spread across the globe) they did so in massive tribes consisting of many closely related dialects and cultures. These tribes also gave the regions their modern names, with Ru’aun deriving from the Ru’na people who settled there from Tu’la.

There, the Ru’na divided into two different cultures and ethnic identities; the Kha’shi and the Scal’isi. For many centuries, this division was just as much political as it was cultural. For over one hundred years, beginning in around 126 BI, the Khasian subregion was unified into a singular kingdom, whose capital was the growing town of O'Khasis. Meanwhile, as Scalesia was much larger then Khasia, it was home to many different kingdoms and factions throughout history, but they all had one thing in common: Khasians and Scalesians did not like each other.

It was in the central Scalesian neighboring villages of Windyr and Kalnyr, that Éiryn Shala’shaska and Shádd Um’branis (modernized to Irene and Shad) were born. While the many adventures and stories of the Divine each have varying levels of credibility, one of them is certain; it was them, along with their four compatriots, that brought an end to the Kingdom of Khasia and established a much better form of regional governance, known as the Lordship System.

Over the course of history, the animosity dividing the region slowly faded away with continued cooperation for the good of the entire region. However, the two bastions of each side; the grand cities of O’Khasis and Scálswynd (later Scaleswind; the successor to Windyr) remained sworn enemies along with their ruling houses of Ro’meave and Ronsenburg. This never changed until the 6th century AI, when Aphmau Shala’shaska and her companions convinced both lords to join the region-spanning Phoenix Alliance, which would eventually become the modern nation of the Phoenix Republic, uniting Khasia and Scalesia under a single banner.

In the modern day, this divide does still exist, but only in the accent and inherited traits of its residents, who share their cultures rather than fight to keep the other away from them.

[essentially, Khasia is the equivalent of Britain accent-wise, which is why Garroth has one, and on average Khasian people are more lighter-skinned/caucasian, and Scalesians are more darker-skinned/Hispanic-adjacent, but over the centuries it becomes a more and more mixed populace between them both.]

Individual Locations:

Canonical:

Scaleswind: Considered a holy city as it is the direct successor to Irene the Matron’s home village of Windyr, and also the seat of power in all of Scalesia.

O’Khasis: The largest and oldest city in all of northern Ru’aun, and the seat of power in Khasia. Before and during the Divine Era it was the capital of the Kingdom of Khasia, and was the home city of Esmound the Protector. O’Khasis is also the economic capital of the modern-day Phoenix Republic.

Brightport: the largest port city in Northeastern Ru’aun, and the third overall after O’Khasis and Vasilyr. It is also home to the Brightport Guard Academy; the alma mater of most guards/knights in the Northeast.

Meteli/New Meteli: a small village situated on the base of the (as known in the modern-day) Shalashaska Peninsula. Larger than Phoenix Drop but smaller than Brightport, it was overrun and destroyed by O’Khasian forces during the First Alliance War, but most of its inhabitants survived and relocated north where they built New Meteli.

Pikoro Village: As one of the northernmost towns in Ru’aun, in the border area some call Gal’raun, it held a tenuous relationship with the nearby Northern Werewolf Tribe. Pikoro also held to the Old Khasian beliefs regarding Witchcraft, and the practice was outlawed in the town even though it was rather normalized in both its south and to its north, until the witch Lucinda Hawkins came to power. In the modern day, it is home to the headquarters of the Global Council of Witchcraft.

Phoenix Drop: At first a small village on the tip of the Shalashaska Peninsula, it would rise into a large city; one on par with Scaleswind, during the Lordship of Aphmau Shala’shaska (whom the peninsula was later named after). This would be in part due to the fact that it was believed she was the second coming or reincarnation of Irene the Matron. The city would also become the future capital of the Phoenix Republic far later in history, and in the modern day, it along with Scaleswind and O’Khasis are considered the three titans of middle-age Ru’aunian civilization, and the three surviving treasure troves of Phoenixian history.

Enki Islands: An island chain off the coast of Gal’rok originally named Vanirfjörd, specifically an area known in the modern day as Forskerland. That area, along with the islands themselves, are named after their most famous native: Enki the Keeper. In legend, they are also inhabited by the immortal dark-magic being known as the Demon Warlock; Enki’s greatest foe.

Phoenix Island: A large temperate island in the North Ru’aun Sea, and said to be the site of a grand city built by the Divine Warriors to be their home. Historians are conflicted over the actual existence of this island, as nothing like it is visible via satellite imagery or any other kind of searching, however it is well-documented that a similar island, home to the ruins of an old city, was also the original capital of the Phoenix Alliance. In truth, the island is kept hidden under a powerful magical illusory shield created by Enki and Esmound together, that cloaks the island and protects it from anyone who does not wield a Divine Relic. They did this because the island, along with being home to two different dimensional anchor locations, was the site where Shad was banished; and the entire island still has that magical residue practically oozing off of it to this day. They couldn’t let anyone find a way to harness it, so the island could only be reachable when it was sought out or inhabited by at least one of their worthy successors, and it thus could still harbor society while also remaining protected. After everyone else died and Aphmau left, the residents of the island were driven away by a magically-induced flood meant to make them all leave, and those people made Phoenix Drop the capital after they believed the island had sunken beneath the sea. Scientists believed this is what happened as well, but they’ve never been able to find evidence under the ocean to support it either

The Werewolf Tribes: Whereas Humans are native to Tu’la, Werewolves are the original inhabitants of Ru’aun. Those that existed during the Rising Phoenix Era (the time of MCD) were akin to giant wolves who walked on two feet and were fully intelligent. Over the centuries, they greatly evolved -mainly via cross-breeding with humans- into the Modern Werewolf; a person with a mostly human body, but also the ears, tail, teeth, senses, and instincts of a wolf, and usually along with an allergy to chocolate. The Cardinal Tribes, as they’re collectively called, were the four major Werewolf civilizations during the Rising Phoenix Era, and each held complex -though often hostile- relationships with one another. A defining factor of Werewolf culture during this time was the universal worship of the Goddess/Personification of the Moon; Lunaris; similar to the early Meif’wa worship of the God Sollus, AKA the Sun Father. Both of these gave the Sun and Moon their modern names, but are also now mostly dead religions, with incredibly few honest practitioners left. However Moon/Sun imagery is still common in Werewolf/Meif’wa households, as cultural decorations.

the Original Places:

Westagar: a large town in the southern part of Khasia. It was decimated by one of the many wars that Lord Garte and High Priest Zane of O’Khasis started in an attempt to rebuild the Khasian Kingdom, however over many years it was able to revitalize itself into a functional city once again, with the help of the Phoenix Alliance and the new O’Khasian leadership.

Vasilyr: A large port city in southern Scalesia, even beating O’Khasis’s own port for the title of largest in Ru’aun. Vasilyr has a long history of political neutrality, and has thus become a major player in terms of economics, as well as holding the third-party position in many diplomatic affairs. In the modern day, it is the capital of the small country of Vasilon.

Rivandar: a small town in Gal’raun, and a common rest stop for travelers.

Taravan: the grand former capital of the Torvan Empire, during the Rising Phoenix Era an independent city rich in both money and history. In the modern era, it is the capital of the nation of Torrva; the modern descendant-state of the Empire.

Port Raiya: a fishing village on the island of Raiya in the gold sea, first established by the Torvans and the birthplace of Kulzak the Wanderer.

Casadora: The Capital of the country that has mostly been known throughout history by the name of Corsa, though it was also known as the Tu’lian Empire during the Rising Phoenix Era. Also the crown-jewel of northern Tu’la, it has long been the seat power in the area north of the Shambaraaka Mountains, and was built up by the Torvans during their reign over the area.

Montillego (mon-tee-ay-go): The close second to Casadora, Montillego is a treasure trove of historical sights, such as the famed Montillego Colosseum, constructed by the Torvans as well. The city is also thought to be significant to Menphia the Fury, along with the Colosseum itself, making it similar to Scaleswind in that it is a holy city, and it is where many of the defining moments in the Fury’s life took place.

Portal to Yggdrasil: The Yggdrasil Forest, as it is most commonly known, is a thought-to-be Gal’rokian mythological plane of existence, home to the naturally magical and immortal race of Elves, however this legend is true. Hidden away in one of the many narrow passages of the Arctic Mountains in Gal’rok that surround the North Pole, there is a heavily magically-protected portal, accessible only via boat. If an elf or a person of elf ancestry reaches the barrier, it will open and allow the travelers through the Dimensional Veil and into the realm of Yggdrasil, but only if the person reaching out to it is of Yggdrasilian blood.

History (& The Phoenix Republic):

The Human Species first evolved into existence in the central Tu’la region, while wolves in Ru’aun evolved into an intelligent humanoid race known as Werewolves, and the same happened with a now-extinct species of feline in Jin’tal, becoming the Meif’wa race. As said in the section of Khasia and Scalesia, humans migrated north into Ru’aun roughly around 30,000 BI. Many of them continued into the rest of the world, such as the Gar’lokk, who made their home in the frigid arctic region they would give the name Gal’rok, while even more would use it as a land bridge to the regions now known as Dan’vei and Jin’tal. In Ru’aun however, the Ru’na would split into the Kha’shi and Scal’isi, each forming their own societies in the region.

This is also when humans began coexisting with the First Werewolves in Ru’aun and the First Meif’wa in Jin’tal, thus beginning the evolutionary history that shaped the modern day variant of those two species.

A focal point of early Ru’aunian and Tu’lian history was the Torvan Empire; while not the largest empire in all of history, it is still considered one of the greatest, and it shaped much of Northern Tu’la and Southern Ru’aun into what they are. Spanning that area, along with the entirety of the Gold Sea, the Torvan Empire ruled from 607 BI to 10 AI, and it’s mark left on the Ru’la border region is still seen in the modern day, with its grand cities of Montillego, Provencia, and its capital of Taravan still standing tall, and the Addonius Peninsula -which makes up the modern nation of Torrva- still bears the name of one of its greatest Emperors.

Ru’aun went through quite a lot of changes from 20 AI to 100 AI, for this period was the lives of the Divine Warriors. While it is undeniable that this group of six individuals did exist to some degree, it is greatly debated whether they were truly gods. Yet still, the Church of the Divine remains the dominant religion in nearly the entire Eastern Hemisphere (excluding Southern Tu’la) to this day, and some of their most notable endeavors include the dissolving of the Kingdom of Khasia, supposedly in the aftermath of the legendary Wyvern War, and brought forth the Lordship System to Ru’aun, where every city and village would government itself and be protected by a Guard Force relative to the town’s size. Esmound the Protector’s own sister, Princess Elandra Ro’meave, was made the first Lord of O’Khasis, and Irene also warned against the building of kingdoms via war and conquest, for a nation built upon bloodshed was comparable to a castle built upon sand; neither would ever last the test of time.

For over four hundred and fifty years after the Divine Era, the world of Ru’aun was, for the most part and excluding the general advancement of society, rather un-notable in terms of history-making events. However, beginning in the late 460s AI, this would take a drastic turn.

The reign of Lord Garte II of O’Khasis brought on a time of war in Khasia and of uncertainty in Ru’aun. Strangely, the High Priest of Irene took quite an active role in the conquest and attempted rebuilding of the very kingdom Irene and Esmound demolished, however it is more conceivable when you consider the Priest at the time was the Lord’s own son, Zane Ro’meave.

But in 482 AI, the small and inconsequential village of Phoenix Drop would gain a new Lord, one Aphmau Shala’shaska.

Shala’shaska is slightly strange, in that there was no record of her existence prior to this year, but it is likely any documentation was simply lost to history. Nevertheless, her reign single-handedly rose Phoenix Drop up from its deathbed and into the regional spotlight, growing its populace and Guard greatly. Records are mixed of how this came to pass, but even two of the four* Ro'meave children came to serve under Shala’shaska as her knights, and later a third, who previously had been mistaken for dead.

Another strange thing about this lord and her village, was that in 483 AI during the First Alliance War, she, with a large posse, as well as High Priest Ro’meave, who was accompanied by Lillian the Dark Mask of the Jury of Nine, seemingly vanished into thin air.

They returned to history a full fifteen years later in 498 AI, and by that time, Levin Shala’shaska, Aphmau’s eldest son, was Phoenix Drop’s lord. Shala’shaska and her compatriots then set out into the North Ru’aun Sea and supposedly discovered a beautiful forested island, where they began building the capital of the Phoenix Alliance. I say supposedly, because from all rights and accounts, the island shouldn’t exist. But it very clearly does, and could not have been confused with one of the many in Scandovia.

This is also the same year that King Ramón III of the Tu’lian Empire launched an invasion on the city of O’Khasis in long-awaited retribution for the believed assassination of his wife, Queen-Consort Isabela. After the successful invasion, the king grew power-hungry and continued into the region, prompting war with the Phoenix Alliance. Over the next three years, the Alliance grew exponentially, and by its victorious end of the War For Ru’aun, it encompassed nearly the entire region.

Various religious figures have believed that the multitude of strange-to-downright-impossible claims of things that happened during this period of time are proof that Chancellor Shala’shaska and her comrades were the mythicized Second Coming of the Divine; part of a prophecy where Shad the Destroyer would rise again and the Divine Warriors would be reincarnated to stop him.

While the timeline in the story does match, the theory is heavily criticized on all accounts, notably by the international community from the perspective of Phoenixians believing the forerunner of their country was founded by gods. But that is just one of many ways the belief is debated, even amongst the Church of the Divine itself.

For many generations, Ru’aun flourished and progressed under the peace and cooperation brought on by the Phoenix Alliance. This unity was the cause of never-before-thought-possible levels of interconnection in politics, trade, and culture. The Alliance also brought on a sense of unified camaraderie across Ru’aun over the centuries, and over that time, it evolved from a simple trade/defense alliance into a loose confederation, and in 1498 AI; one thousand years since its founding, the Phoenix Alliance was united into a singular nation; the Phoenix Republic.

The Republic, sometimes also referred to as Phoenixia (fin-icks-ee-uh) spanned an impressive amount of land; nearly all of Ru’aun. It is also considered one of the oldest still-standing countries in the modern world, and the longest-standing Democratic one, as it has operated since creation with an elected Assembly and elected Chancellor as government and head-of-state. It is also very diverse, containing all of Khasia, nearly all of Scalesia, and the native Werewolf lands.

A large part of that land is also made up of the Dark Forest (formerly “Cursed Forest”). When it was first officially claimed as Alliance protected-land during the War For Ru’aun, Chancellor Shala’shaska merely stated that: “The area known as the Cursed Forest shall forever be under the full protection of the Phoenix Alliance. It is not to be invaded, chopped down, or otherwise disturbed, and will only be entered under the most dire of circumstances. Immediate authority over the forest’s land and matters concerning it shall henceforth fall to Lady Lucinda Hawkins.”

Hawkins, the founder of the Global Council of Witchcraft, held that position until her death, but failed to specify a replacement before then. Under the Republic government, the forest is considered a National Park under the protection of the relevant Ministry, but many things are unknown about the forest, due to its history of people entering but never coming out, and Council of Witchcraft’s own investigation confirmed that the forest has incredibly old and incredibly powerful enchantments and curses on it, prompting the Ministry to declare it dangerous to enter without the proper precautions. This has spurred many theories, both in genuine and joking manners amongst Phoenixian citizens of what could have put those spells on the forest, and whether it was inhabited by cryptids or supernatural entities.

Over the years, the Phoenix Republic held a large place on the growing World Stage. The city of Nahakra was one of the centerpieces of the Industrial Revolution, and since the early 20th century, the Republic has firmly established itself as the most powerful nation in the world, closely followed by the Kingdom of Brusava.

In the modern day, specifically the 2020s AI, the Phoenix Republic continues to be a global superpower, with a territory spanning most of the Ru’aunian region, and several metropolitan centers such as its capital of Phoenix Drop, along with Scaleswind, O’Khasis, Brightport, South Towers, and Pikoro City. It is well known for its diverse populace of all types of humans, Werewolves, and Meif’wa, with an overall population of over two-hundred-million people. Its dominant religion is the Unified Church of the Divine, and it continues the mission set forth by Chancellor Shala’shaska of remaining a beacon of light for those oppressed or threatened, and is one of the largest asylum-granters of refugees and immigrants around the world.

But when a large group of friends all end up living as neighbors on the same street in the suburbs of Phoenix Drop, no one could have possibly imagined what would become of their lives, who they were descended from, or what had been truly threatening all life on Earth ever since the Second Coming of the Divine, all those years ago.

[this is basically where the beginning of my still-very-rough idea of how a Mystreet rewrite would go, with the Demon Warlock and The Void being the primary antagonist/threat.]

[*three of the four Ro’meave children including my OC, who is the older half-sister of the brothers within my rewrite.]

Modern National Borders:

Equivalence to IRL countries:

Phoenix Republic - Combo. of UK, Ireland, USA, & Canada

Torrva - Combo. of Italy & Greece

Torvan Empire - Combo. of Roman Empire & Ancient Greece

Vasilon - Combo. of Switzerland & Monaco

Baronnia - France

Scandovia - Combo. of Sweden, Iceland & Norway

Norstenland - Combo. of Germany & Denmark

Rakosia - Combo. of Scotland & The Netherlands

Brusava - Russia

#my headcanons #aphverse headcanons #minecraft diaries #mystreet #Ru’aun #diaries: rewritten

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mapsontheweb · 2 years

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Historical Settlements and Estimated Populations of Northwest Caucasians/Circassians in the 18th century and 21th century.

#maps #circassians

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ukfrislandembassy · 1 year

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Reading Hock (2015) on why retroflexion in Sanskrit is actually more reflective of an Indo-Iranian trend than being evidence of Dravidian influence, on account of sibilants being the primary drivers of retroflexion in Sanskrit in common with Iranian varieties such as Pashto as well as the isolate Burushaski, versus Dravidian historically lacking sibilants entirely, and the wondering if this areal trend could be linked up with the similarly sibilant-heavy Northwest Caucasian as well somehow, possibly via some Mitanni contact with Hattic (if indeed that is some kind of NWC-adjacent variety).

#linguistics #diachrony #probably stretching it a bit

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cozycryptidcorner · 1 year

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I did not read the entirety of that post before i sent that ask, i saw big fuck off dog and blacked out. Anyways! Have you considered a rottweiler? They are big sweethearts that look like they could kill you.

I’m definitely thinking about it! Are Rottweilers good with cold weather? Also I’m kind of locked into the region I’ll be working, because it’s going to be insanely expensive to transport a dog where I’m going.

I mean fuck it I guess, I live in the Northern Midwest currently and am looking to move to Alaska. If not Alaska, then somewhere along the Pacific Northwest. But yeah getting an animal to Alaska would be a nightmare, and it looks like most of the dogs in the area are not Rottweilers. It’s mostly purebred (bleh) German Shepards, caucasians, huskies, malamutes, Saint Bernards, or a combination of them (preferably I’m looking for like a big fluffy mutt).

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wordacrosstime · 2 years

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Ingush Grammar

[Ingush Grammar. Johanna Nichols. First Edition: March 2011. University of California Press. Series: UC Publications in Linguistics. Pages: 830. Trim Size: 7 x 10 inches. Illustrations: 1 map. Paperback. ISBN: 9780520098770]

Readers of my book reviews cannot help but notice my interest in – nay, my fascination with – linguistics and languages. I am no stranger to Professor Nichols’s work: I read her award-winning treatise Linguistic Diversity in Time and Space a few years ago and was captivated by her command of language reconstruction principles. Recently, it came to my attention that there might (in principle) be a call for persons to assist in national security-related activities who are fluent in, or at least familiar with, the Northeast Caucasian languages, especially Chechen and Dagestani. The language discussed here, Ingush, is a closely-related language with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility with Chechen, Dagestani and Baltsi. Since I couldn’t find a suitable book from which to learn Chechen, I thought I’d check this tidy little volume out.

“Tidy” is not the correct word for this work. It tips the scales at almost 800 pages. However, it is an undeniable tour-de-force of scholarship in the documenting of a comparatively obscure language. Prof. Nichols herself acknowledges that this tome is the culmination of about 30 years of work with Ingush, at least ten of which were spent in the homeland of the language itself, a region now known as Ingushetia in southern Russia adjacent to the Republic of Georgia and Chechnya.

The Northeast Caucasian languages are a small primary language family spoken almost exclusively in the region between the Republic of Georgia and the north end of the Caspian Sea. Significant cities in this region are Ongusht (whence the name Ingush), Groznyy (the capital of Chechnya) and Makhachkala (the capital of Dagestan). Though these languages share many features with Georgian (known as Kartuli to its speakers) and the similarly-named Northwest Caucasian languages (examples are Abkhazi and Cherkessian), they are not, in fact, related to them in any meaningful way. This may seem surprising when one looks at a map of the region. The area covered by these three language groups (Georgian is part of its own tiny language family called the Kartulian languages) is fairly small. However, the area is peppered with mountain ranges that have carved it up geographically to a point where very ancient steppe peoples had settled in individual valleys and had no direct contact with even neighboring valleys for centuries. Little wonder, then, that language families developed independently from a still-more-ancient proto-language (as yet unidentified or classified).

Ingush, as alluded to in the previous paragraph, was named after a prominent community in its sprachbund, or speaking area. Ingush people do not use this term, referring to their language as vai mott (our language) or, if speaking to non-Ingush speakers, vai neaxa mott (our people’s language). Given that the homeland for this language has at least three well-defined geographic zones (alpine highlands, piedmont, and plains), it is not surprising that various dialects of Ingush have emerged. All of these dialects are highly mutually intelligible, far from any objective criteria that would categorize them as distinct languages in their own right.

Nichols herself, in the introductory material, lists Ingush as one of the most morphologically complex languages in her experience, outstripping even daunting native American languages like Lakhota (a Siouan language of the northern Great Plains) and Halkomelem (a Salishan language from the Pacific Northwest in the USA). Ingush has unusually large inventories of elements (phonemes, etc.), a high degree of inflectional synthesis in the verb (this is similar to some native American languages, especially the Athapaskan group) and a variety of categories of words, many of which do not have an analogue in English or any Indo-European language. She comments that this might go some way toward explaining why this book took 30 years to produce!

Since the volume is so detailed, I will simply summarize my observations of its style and completeness. I confess that I haven’t actually read the entire volume – I’ve probably read about 150 pages, or nearly 20% of it all told – but I have dipped into it in various places along its length to see what it was all about. It is impossible for me to imagine that Prof Nichols missed anything; every conceivable component of Ingush seems to be covered here. The book has 35 major sections, any one of which is worthy of at least a semester-long course of study (for the subject itself, not necessarily for Ingush per se). Her writing tone and style strike an admirable balance between being very scholarly (it certainly is that) and yet being profoundly informative to a non-specialist like myself who is also not a trained linguist.

The best affirmation I can make of this book is that it is quite possibly the best template for any field linguist to follow when documenting and characterizing a language. This is certainly true for someone working with an Endangered language, of which there are literally thousands still being spoken (some just barely) in the world today. The level of commitment Prof Nichols has brought to bear on this work seems nothing short of miraculous.

This is definitely not a book for just anyone. Like attempting to read all of Proust in the original French while not actually speaking French, a true appreciation of this book requires enormous patience and strong memory skills. Prof Nichols refers to sections back and forth across the book, of necessity since linguistic elements do not exist in a vacuum. That said, to truly appreciate the scope and even grandeur of this volume will command great mental agility and focus. For anyone who is up to the challenge, I say, “Good luck – and enjoy!” Even if you never speak Ingush or travel to that part of the world, this book will teach you something useful, edifying, and mind-expanding.

Kevin Gillette

Words Across Time

28 September 2022

wordsacrosstime

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brassandblue · 2 years

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dr. HENRY HARRY D. S. GOODSIR // INTEREST TRACKER

MUSE STATUS: PRIMARY

(By liking this post, you are indicating interest in plotting with this character, and are OK with me sending memes/prompts to your inbox!)

NAME: Henry Duncan Spens Goodsir

ALT NAMES: Harry, Mr. Goodsir, Dr. Goodsir

SEX/GENDER/PRONOUNS: Male, he/him

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

FACECLAIM: Paul Ready

AGE: 29-31 (Born 1819)

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: Scottish, British / caucasian, white

HEIGHT: 5'5″

BUILD/BODY TYPE: Skinny, fluffy

HAIR: Dark fluffy curls

EYES: Dark amber

FULL BIO // PINTEREST BOARD

ALL ABOUT GOODSIR:

Harry Goodsir is a junior medical officer serving aboard the HMS Erebus on the Franklin Expedition, set to discover a northwest passage in the name of England and the British Empire. He is soft-mannered, more certain and confident when assisting patients both living and dead than in other matters. He is barely 30, an aspiring naturalist, anatomist, and surgeon--but not yet a proper doctor, a distinction made in the 19th century.

When it comes to his wonder and fascination of the natural world--everything from the desolate Arctic landscape and ice floes to foreign cultures and marine biology--he does nothing by half measures and will dive forward fearlessly and with bright-eyed enthusiasm. Through the voyage, Harry grows in confidence as he gains more experience and a stronger footing despite his junior status and the knowledge that he is, in at least several ways, something of an outcast (despite being well-liked by the people who get to know him). He’s also sometimes a bit oblivious, socially, but he is not gullible--he sees right through Hickey’s attempts to trick him into getting information on Silna. Harry is young, relatively inexperienced, but he isn’t blind, or stupid.

Harry is also a remarkably fast learner, quick-witted and good-humored, and a keen observer, as he is one of the first to suspect something is poisoning the crews of the expedition. His determination to help others only grows until the very end, where it is his patience and his hope in others that’s finally run dry. He cannot bring himself to give comfort to mutineers, to those that would be cruel, treacherous and murderous. Nonetheless, Harry eventually sacrifices even his own life, knowing his own fate might help his Captain live.

WARNINGS: RPing with this character will involve sensitive topics such as mental illness/depression/PTSD, violence/gore/injuries, crude/early surgical and medical topics, racism/colonialism/imperialism/nationalism, socio-economic issues past & present, homophobia past & present, discussions of cannibalism & murder.

By liking this post and indicating your interest to engage in RP with this character, you are accepting the above warnings and have read the rules posted here on this blog.

#.// hope perches in the soul (ooc)#.// schrodinger’s doctor (goodsir)#.// a formal feeling comes (character pages)

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yu-gi-oh-slavia · 2 years

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Consonant inventory of the now-extinct Ubykh language, a Northwest Caucasian language formerly spoken in Republic of Adygea in Russia

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lovelybrotherslovely · 13 hours

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Circassian woman. Brantova Guchekhan Zacherievna, 1913

Source: https://pinterest.com/pin/129830401752260501/

#circassians #1910s #20th century #folk costume #historical photos #northwest caucasian #caucasus #russian empire #???

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aro-langblr · 2 years

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Insight into Kabardian (/kəˈbɑːrdiən/)

What is the language called in English and the language itself? - In English, it’s called Kabardian or Adyghe. In the language itself, it’s called Къэбэрдей (Qəbərtay) or Адыгэбзэ (Adıgabzə). It may also be called Qabardejbza, Circassian, or Cherkessia. - The two main dialects of this language are Kabardian and Besleney. Linguists often refer to the Kabardian dialect as East Circassian and the Besleney dialect as West Circassian. - The Kabardian language and the Adyghe language are very closely intertwined. Although the name in the language itself can be called either in Kabardian, there are significant phonological, typograpical, and cultural differences that should not be conflated.

Where is the language spoken? - The language is mostly spoken in Russia in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, roughly where Russia touches Georgia. It’s also spoken in Turkey, Jordan, and Syria due to diaspora.

How many people speak the language? - Kabardian has roughly 650,000 as of 2010 (Endangered Language Alliance).

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages? - It’s classified as Northwest Caucasian > Circassian > Kabardian. It’s closest relative language is Adyghe.

What writing system does the language use? - Kabardian is written in the cyrillic script. - Sample text from Omniglot: ЦIыху псори щхьэхуиту, я щIыхьымрэ я хуэфащэхэмрэкIэ зэхуэдэу къалъхур. Акъылрэ зэхэщIыкI гъуазэрэ яIэщи, зыр зым зэкъуэш зэхащІэ яку дэлъу зэхущытын хуейхэщ. - How to identify the language: A characteristic to look for is dipthongs with “I” as the second character. Though it’s not an exact science, it’ll help you estimate in which group the language you’re looking at is.

What kind of grammatical features does the language have? - Kabardian is an SOV langauge with ergative-absolutive alignment. It has no grammatical gender, 2 numbers, 3 persons, 5 voices (nominative, causative, factitive, and involuntative), and 4 cases (still under debate). It has definiteness, transitivity, reflexivity, and postpositions in place of prepositions, as well as a small number of particles and conjunctions. It’s also well known for it’s consonant clusters.

What does the language sound like?

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What do you personally find interesting about the language? - Once again the dialect debate has me interested. However, I was also intrigued by the use of ergative-absolutive alignment; I haven’t seen that for a long time, and this was a nice refresher! Also, languages from the caucases always intrigue me for some reason.

#language insight #kabardian #langblr #lingblr #language

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lilac-vode · 2 years

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Hi, found your blog through looking up "Cheunh". Love your work musing about conlanging cheunh. I was wonderin if you ever made a phonology chart for it? I have one but i'd love to compare to others and as far as I am aware, none such have been posted online. As for mine, I ended up giving cheunh clicks, ejectives, aspirated and labialized consonants. It ended up with a very northwest caucasian language sound system. I'm also considering a tonal system for vowels but tones make my head hurt.

hey!! that's super cool, very reminiscent of the ideas i have for it so far too :) to answer your question i haven't made a chart yet but it really helps to know that someone other than me would like to see it 🙏

i too have thought about tonality in cheunh, i think it would be super interesting :-)

thanks a lot for this ask, it means much to me to know when someone is interested in the dense linguistics stuff i put on here sometimes!

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weather-usa · 4 days

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Climate of Georgia

Georgia's climate exhibits a range of characteristics, from oceanic in the extreme northeast to humid subtropical in the rest of the state. Summers tend to be humid and can vary from warm to cool, while winters are typically short and range from mild to cold. The state's location in the southeastern United States, with borders shared with South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina, is influenced by its proximity to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

See Weather Forecast for Georgia today: https://weatherusa.app/georgia

Geographically, Georgia features diverse terrain, from sea level in the southeast to its highest point at Brasstown Bald, reaching 1,458 meters. The state is characterized by various provinces, including the forest-covered mountains and narrow valleys of the Blue Ridge Province in the northeast, flat valleys separated by steep wooded ridges in the Valley and Ridge Province in the northwest, and the steep hilly terrain of the Piedmont Plateau transitioning to rolling hills in the south. The Fall Line marks the boundary between the Piedmont Plateau and the coastal plain, where navigation of major rivers begins. See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30096

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30117 The Coastal Plain itself ranges from rolling hills to level land, featuring marshy and densely wooded areas, with soils ranging from sandy to clay loam supporting much of the state's agriculture.

For visitors, the best time to experience Georgia is during the autumn, characterized by mild, sunny weather, and the driest period of the year. See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30353 Fall brings pleasant outdoor conditions with colorful landscapes, ideal for activities such as hiking mountain trails, fishing, and hunting. However, the northern hilly areas may experience colder temperatures compared to other regions.

Conversely, the worst time to visit Georgia is during the oppressive heat of summer, particularly in July and August. High temperatures, often exceeding 100°F (37.8°C) in the southern parts of the state, combined with high humidity and frequent thunderstorms, create uncomfortable conditions. The summer season also sees tropical storms moving from the Gulf of Mexico, extending from spring to midsummer, further impacting travel plans. As summer vacations draw crowds, it's advisable to visit Georgia after the summer season ends to avoid the peak heat and tourist influx. See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30339

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30320

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30287

Georgia's unique geographic features contribute to its diverse climate patterns. The Caucasian barrier shields the country from cold air intrusions from the north, while warm, moist air from the Black Sea exerts a constant influence, particularly in the western regions.

Western Georgia experiences a humid subtropical, maritime climate, characterized by mild winters and relatively warm, humid summers. In contrast, eastern Georgia displays a range of climates, from moderately humid to a dry subtropical type.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30217 Elevation plays a significant role in shaping climate zones within Georgia. In areas such as the Kolkhida Lowland, elevation gradients result in distinct climatic zones. Below approximately 1,600 to 2,000 feet, a subtropical climate prevails, characterized by mild winters and moderately warm, moist conditions. At higher elevations, around 6,600 to 7,200 feet, temperatures decrease, leading to colder, wetter winters and cooler summers. Beyond 11,200 to 11,500 feet, an alpine climate zone emerges, where snow and ice persist year-round.

In eastern Georgia, where the terrain is more inland, temperatures tend to be lower compared to western regions at similar altitudes. This variation underscores the complex interplay of geographic factors in shaping Georgia's climate, contributing to its diverse array of climatic conditions across the country.

In Western Georgia, heavy rainfall characterizes the climate throughout the year, with annual totals ranging from 40 to 100 inches (1,000 to 2,500 mm). The peak of precipitation occurs during autumn and winter, with the southern Kolkhida region receiving the highest amounts. See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30233 Humidity levels gradually decrease toward the north and east. Winters in this region are generally mild and warm, with mean January temperatures remaining above freezing (32 °F or 0 °C) in areas below approximately 2,000 to 2,300 feet. Coastal regions experience relatively warm, sunny winter weather, with temperatures averaging around 41 °F (5 °C). Summer temperatures in Western Georgia average around 71 °F (22 °C).

In contrast, Eastern Georgia exhibits a decrease in precipitation with distance from the sea, with plains and foothills receiving between 16 to 28 inches annually, while mountainous areas receive double this amount. The southeastern regions are the driest, with winter being the driest season overall. Rainfall peaks toward the end of spring. July sees the highest lowland temperatures, averaging around 77 °F (25 °C), while average January temperatures range from 32 to 37 °F (0 to 3 °C) across most of the region.

See more: https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30286

https://weatherusa.app/zip-code/weather-30257

These distinct rainfall patterns and temperature variations reflect the diverse climatic conditions present in different regions of Georgia, shaped by factors such as proximity to the sea, elevation, and geographic features.

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