Ecce tiro!

xn · Post by xn » Sat Feb 21, 2004 10:14 am

Hello all,

I just found textkit.com tonight.

I live in Vermont, USA. I’m a programmer by trade, with interests in language and history. I’m circling back to Latin now; I never studied it formally, but dove in or dabbled as time has permitted. I expect to be an intermittent participant, so please forgive me if I don’t reply in a timely fashion. I appreciate all of your contributions to the fora here, and I’ll try to add something useful as circumstance allows.

xn

PS: I noted that not all HTML numeric entities are displayed as characters in the Subject line; I’d wanted it to read “Ecce tīrō!”

Post by **klewlis** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:58 pm

another programmer! (there are a bunch of us here.)

welcome here. :)

solitario · Post by **solitario** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 6:30 pm

Salve xn!
I'm a programmer in PA.
Welcome aboard,
Vale bene!

Helen of Troy · Post by **Helen of Troy** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 7:01 pm

Welcome! You will enjoy here many great disussions with clever people.

P.S. Though you are indeed a Texkit's tiro, you haven't showed tirocinium, quite the contrary I say

.

MDS · Post by **MDS** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 8:36 pm

Welcome XN! Geez, so many programmers now...

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:12 pm

Helen of Troy wrote:Welcome! You will enjoy here many great disussions with clever people.

Don't forget those of us not quite so clever.

Welcome.

xn · Post by xn » Wed Feb 25, 2004 6:44 am

All: Thank you for your warm welcomes! For the programmers here, I am curious — do you find that your interest in languages is focused on one or two in particular (oh, perhaps Greek and/or Latin

), or is it spread among many tongues?

Bert: As long as I have a mirror, I shan’t forget.

xn

Post by **klewlis** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 4:33 pm

xn wrote:All: Thank you for your warm welcomes! For the programmers here, I am curious — do you find that your interest in languages is focused on one or two in particular (oh, perhaps Greek and/or Latin :wink:), or is it spread among many tongues?

I find that my *interest* is spread through many languages, but I have actually only had a chance to study Greek and Latin to any significant degree (I had one semester of Spanish and one of Hebrew, but haven't pursued either...yet...). Every so often I want to take up french or arabic or whatever else, but then I decide that I should focus on my Greek and Latin for awhile more, until I am more proficient in both.

However, there is a tantalizing book on Egyptian Hieroglyphs which I am very tempted to pick up.... ;)

annis · Post by **annis** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:06 pm

xn wrote:All: Thank you for your warm welcomes! For the programmers here, I am curious — do you find that your interest in languages is focused on one or two in particular (oh, perhaps Greek and/or Latin ), or is it spread among many tongues?

It is spread among way to many tongues. In fact, I like obscure grammar so much I sometimes invent my own languages just for fun.

klewis wrote:However, there is a tantalizing book on Egyptian Hieroglyphs which I am very tempted to pick up....

Which one are you thinking of getting? I've seen most of them.

Post by **klewlis** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:22 pm

annis wrote:
klewis wrote:However, there is a tantalizing book on Egyptian Hieroglyphs which I am very tempted to pick up.... ;)
Which one are you thinking of getting? I've seen most of them.

The one I was looking at in the store is "Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs" by Bridget McDermott. I read the first bit in the store and liked it. However, the reviews say that it is full of mistakes. Do you have a recommendation?

xn · Post by xn » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:12 am

klewlis: Is the study of French not required in Albertan schools? Or would such decisions be made below the provincial level?

William: I envy your inventiveness! It’s all I can do to try to keep tabs on just a subset of what’s out there, let alone try my hand at creation.

Both: I tend toward the scatter-shot, dilettante end of the spectrum, though I haven’t spent much time on Egyptian hieroglyphs.

xn

chad · Post by **chad** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:08 am

hi klewlis, before getting any of the books on egyptian hieroglyphs, 1st check out a really good site:

http://hieroglyphs.net/

and go to the "composer" section. if you work through all the examples there, you'll pick up a fair amount of egyptian inductively, really easily.

also, don't get any of the books by budge. there's a lot of guesswork in his translations and propositions.

i started getting into hieroglyphs a while back, but it's a bit unsatisfying because you don't know how it sounded. they didn't write vowel sounds, and only a few words have been able to be reconstructed from their use in other languages at the time.

cheers, chad.

Jefferson Cicero · Post by **Jefferson Cicero** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 3:27 pm

Chad, you have touched upon a subject I have been wondering upon for some time. I already have some of the Budge books, and I was afraid there would be inaccuracies since the books are so old. On the other hand, since the study of hieroglyphs was young in his day, I can understand why there is guess work.

I find them useful, but have been intending to get a copy of that old book by Gardiner or perhaps the newer one by Ockinga. There have been some other good books published just in the last five years or so.

For absulute beginners, I can recommend 'Fascinating Hieroglyphs' by Christain Jacq. It's really basic and bare bones, and it's not a systematic textbook, but it's a fascinating introduction. It's sure to whet your appetite, and it's author seems to have an insight into the ancient Egyptian mindset.

Jeff Cic

Episcopus · Post by **Episcopus** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:24 pm

That's really nice! But how do they like pigeons so much...

Post by **klewlis** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 6:28 pm

xn wrote:klewlis: Is the study of French not required in Albertan schools? Or would such decisions be made below the provincial level?

Yes, french is required in Alberta, and in fact all Canadian public schools. But actually I grew up in BC and attended a private school, and was also homeschooled, for the majority of my education. By the time I returned to public school in Grade 10, they said there was no point in starting french, so they allowed me to take spanish instead.

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 11:04 pm

klewlis wrote:The one I was looking at in the store is "Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs" by Bridget McDermott. I read the first bit in the store and liked it. However, the reviews say that it is full of mistakes. Do you have a recommendation?

I've never seen this book, so I cannot comment. There do seem to be several new good books about Ancient Egyptian out there.

The standard is Gardner. Now, it's older, but it still has a lot of good info and for the beginner, especially the regular, graded exercises. That should be supplemented by James Allen's An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs which updates the grammar with the work of Polotsky, which is important and useful. Allen, however is mostly a grammar, like Smyth, and would annoy most beginners looking for a tutorial.

I also like Mercer's (old) The Handbook of Egyptian Hieroglyphs again mostly for exercises rather than as a good start for total beginners.

Post by **klewlis** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 12:03 am

Ack. Gardiner is $82 CDN and the library doesn't have it. :(

I guess I will see what else the library has instead. ;)

annis · Post by **annis** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 3:48 pm

klewlis wrote:Ack. Gardiner is $82 CDN and the library doesn't have it.

I guess I will see what else the library has instead.

That's the problem with Gardiner.

Avoid Budge at all costs. Having said that I keep my copies from when I didn't know better for sentimental value.