Also sprach Раҳманов … I hate you one and all … Vespuccia 4th of April, 2006 POST·MERIDIEM 06:28

Also, um auf die Wünsche eines so großen Publikums besser zu achten, schreibe ich hier öfter auf Deutsch. Zunächst; ich habe es schon bei Cliph gesagt, aber ich finde es merkwürdig genug um es hier zu wiederholen—der Präsident Tadschikistans interessiert sich gerne für Zarathustra, und nicht den modernen Zarathustra von Nietzsche, mit seinem „der Mensch ist ein Seil, geknüpft zwischen Tier und Übermensch—ein Seil über einem Abgrunde“ und solchen Schwachsinn, sondern den ursprünglichen Prophet des Parsens. Ich verstehe, dass nach 65 Jahren von einem antinationalistischen Kommunismus in jenem Teil der Welt, er will eine einheitliche Kultur für Tadschikistan fördern—was nicht einfach ist, das Land selbst besaß keine eigene Kultur im Gegensatz zu der von Usbekistan, die Region ist ein Schmelztiegel von Kulturen. Aber Zarathustra ist heutzutage etwas prähistorisches, Führer einer fast gestorbenen Philosophie; kein seriöser Grund für eine politische Weltanschauung.

Anyway, not our problem here in Europe, but I thought it interesting enough to comment on. Moving quickly along, here’s one of the most interesting Wikipedia stubs I’ve seen in a long time, via José on a mailing list I’m subscribed to:

http://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Sam_Hall

Its last line:

“Categories: Mercenaries | Members of the Ohio House of Representatives”

To which, the only thing to say is Whisky Tango Foxtrot, I think. (No, it’s not just Wikipedia vandalism; cf. http://​www.​amazon.​com/​gp/​product/​1556110499/​ )

Word of the day: Амрико is Tajik for “America” (I imagine it’s used for the US quite a bit too).

Muham-mad … Less readable still … lengua materna 3rd of April, 2006 POST·MERIDIEM 04:37

Last week, on my way home from work, there was a group of people on the S-Bahn, apparently either from Turkey or from somewhere else in the former Ottoman empire. They were speaking a language I didn’t recognise, with lots of [x] and [ç], (something Turkish doesn’t have); then about three-quarters of them got off, and two of them, in their late twenties, started talking in German. To my fascination, one of them corrected the other’s pronunciation of “Muhammed;” evidently the other had grown up in Germany, and he couldn’t handle the double consonant that the first used for it.

Now, that didn’t make it any clearer to me exactly what language they had been speaking— according to Wikipedia Kurdish doesn’t have them either, though it does have [q]. But, yeah, it’s nice living in a huge multinational city and having the opportunity to hear that sort of thing.

Ich vermute dass ich mehr hier auf Deutsch schreiben soll, weil ich nicht viele Gelegenheiten habe mein geschriebenes Deutsch zu üben. Da wenig von meinen Leser Deutsch verstehen, könnte das problematisch sein; ich brauche nicht unbedingt weniger Leser, das Gefühl dass ich allein ins Dunkel pisse fängt schon an. Aber, was, die Seite ist schon fast unlesbar für die meisten Leute—niemand hat wirklich Interesse für alle von XKB, Michael Tomasello, Wolfram von Eschenbach u.s.w. Noch was wird niemanden wegjagen.

Word of the day забони модарӣ is the Tajik phrase for “mother tongue.”

I don’t cut myself … „den Wenfall weglassen“ … Rollins online 1st of April, 2006 POST·MERIDIEM 08:44

I can’t say I ever like getting my hair cut at hairdressers, and today was a vivid example of why this is. Trusting someone to cut your hair when, despite working in the field, she’s got someone to cut her own black hair in kind of a bowl on the top of her head, but leaving it long at the back on one side, and dying the end white, so the overall impression it triggers is “post-apocalyptic famine victim—feed, but stand back, she’ll claw you if you approach too close”; it’s a bit of a leap of faith for me, and I think this with good reason. (You’ll notice I’m not posting a photo of my new haircut.)

Unrelated to the quality of her hairdressing, for the theoretical „Hast du einen Gutschein?“, she said [ˈhastuənˈgutʃain]. From this I take that the accusative is dying here in colloquial German, if it was ever really in full health—while [ən] is fine as an unstressed pronunciation of „ein“, it’s not for „einen“, normally rendered [nən]. I’ve noticed this a few times before, but wasn’t as certain of it; one time in particular, the dubbing for a movie did it, I asked my German flatmate of the time (with whom I was watching the movie) about it, and she was dismissively certain that the dubbers must have got it right.

I’m annoyed that I missed Henry Rollins in Berlin this tour, especially after reading this in his journal:

I saw all these shows and other things all at once at the beginning of January and wondered how I would get to April 1st. I am almost there. I like the idea of having a schedule that you try to survive. I’ll take that over enjoyment any time.

The actual journal is at http://​21361.​com/​site_2004/​main_dispatches.​html , and while it’s diverting, it’s not on the level of his spoken word tours.

Word of the day: Энержи is one way of saying “energy” in Tajik, to no-one’s surprise.