https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ศูนย์#Thai
always found it kind of amusing how this Thai word for "center", as in "city center", "shopping center" etc. just comes from the Sanskrit word for "zero" or "nothingness"
I guess a shopping center is sort of a ground zero of shopping ⭕️
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/agyon-
Hungarian verb prefix meaning "to death" literally means "on the brain" 🧠💀
Seattle update:
Screenshot from my registration for the Polyglot Gathering **Languages** English (United States): Native Chinese (Mandarin): Native Russian: Advanced (C1-C2) German (Germany): Advanced (C1-C2) French (France): Intermediate (B1-B2) Spanish (Mexico): Intermediate (B1-B2) Levantine Arabic (Palestine): Intermediate (B1-B2) Serbian: Intermediate (B1-B2) Wu: Advanced (C1-C2) Korean: Intermediate (B1-B2) Turkish: Intermediate (B1-B2) Japanese: Intermediate (B1-B2) Hindi: Intermediate (B1-B2) Polish: Intermediate (B1-B2) Ukrainian: Intermediate (B1-B2) Czech: Basic (A1-A2) Hebrew: Intermediate (B1-B2) Amharic: Basic (A1-A2) Telugu: Basic (A1-A2) Thai: Basic (A1-A2) Tunisian Arabic: Basic (A1-A2) Maltese: Basic (A1-A2) Hungarian: Basic (A1-A2) **I will arrive at the Polyglot Gathering on** Wednesday, 28th May 2025
finally signed up for the Polyglot Gathering in Brno 🇨🇿
spotted today at Seattle's Museum of History & Industry - a land acknowledgement 𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐝
formal Hungarian word for "to wish, to desire" is just derived from the interjection "oh"??? 😭
Turanic false friends of all time:
öl - "to die" in Turkish
öl - "to kill" in Hungarian
learned a useful new Gulf Arabic word today - and its etymology is related to camels, of course 🐪
travel plans for 2025 are starting to come together:
strongly considering TUNISIA in May/June, before or after the Polyglot Gathering in Brno
then hoping to spend three weeks in Asia in the fall, around the time of the Polyglot Conference in Taipei. (maybe Central Asia finally?)
Seattle language meetup update: checked out a weekly Japanese group on Monday and a biweekly Arabic group on Thursday, and found out about Portuguese, Korean and Russian groups to check out soon too 👀
Tigrinya spotted in Beacon Hill: "Jesus Christ is Our Savior"
Koreano-Tungusic confirmed
iroda - "office" in Hungarian (from ír, "to write")
idora - "office" in Uzbek & Tajik (from Arabic idāra, "administration")
German meetup week #2: met a Georgian(/Austrian) and got to practice some Georgian 🇬🇪 🍻 (completely butchered the verb conjugation though)
lol yeah I noticed after I posted, but there's no edit button 😅 (also I messed up the color-coding slightly)
Hungarian Georgian
🤝
using one preposition
for spring/autumn 🌺🍂
and a different one
for summer/winter 🌞❄️
two Hungarian words for "work":
1) 𝐝𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠 comes from Slavic *dъlgъ - "debt"
2) 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐚 comes from Slavic *mǫka - "torture"
what did they mean by this
first Elliot Bay Book Company book haul of many: Arabic poetry and Lushootseed folktales 📚
night #4: went to a French meetup and met a Scotsman who spoke Arabic
(no meetup tomorrow, gotta catch the new Severance episode anyway)
night #3: BlaBla language exchange where I got to speak a bunch of Lebanese Arabic, plus Spanish, Italian and a little Farsi
hmm I can't seem to add alt text once it's already posted but anyways it's "Lushootseed Reader with Introductory Grammar
(Volume 1)" by Thom Hess, 1995. With screenshots of two pages explaining the Lushootseed verb system.
night #2: German language meetup 🍻
lol sorry something about the Bluesky app on iPad keeps messing up the image resolution 😵💫
new city, new indigenous language to learn 📚 #langsky
first night in Seattle: went to a Spanish language meetup and ended up getting some Polish practice too
"since he has reached the age of twelve, it would be good if he started Ge'ez" — gotta start 'em young!
every time in #Severance when they mention MDR (MacroData Refinement), I remember that MDR is French for LOL (mort de rire = dying of laughter)
brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "pardon my French"
bałwan in Old Polish: an idol, an object of idolatry🗿
bałwan in modern Polish: a snowman ☃️
needlessly complicated mnemonics of the day:
🌙 Georgian მთვარე/mtvare ("moon") sounds like Rwanda-Rundi umutware ("chief, leader")
☀️ Georgian მზე/mze ("sun") sounds like Swahili mzee ("elder")
and the sun and the moon are the leaders/elders of the sky
