Language and Alphabet The Pleiads have left the sky, and the moon has vanished. It’s midnight: the time for meeting is over. And me—I am lying, lonely. This is an attempt to translate a poem written in Greek around 2,600 years ago. From the Greek text it is clear that the “me” of the poem […]
River Valleys and States When people began to till the earth, it soon turned out that some areas were better suited for farming than others. The most fruitful soils were found in some river valleys, and around the Euphrates and the Tigris as well as along the Nile many people settled close to each other. […]
Germanic, Slavic, Romance The English word bread corresponds to the German word Brot, the Swedish bröd, and the Italian word pane. The word son means the same as German Sohn, Swedish son, and Italian figlio. In both cases, the English, German, and Swedish words are fairly similar, but the Italian ones are completely different. This […]
When did Languages Come Into Being? From Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the reader may infer that Adam was able to speak as soon as he had been created, for he was given a task at once:“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl […]