Forom des Langues du Monde, Toulouse : Proto-Indo-European Language Revival

ForomFrom the information in Indo-European Language Association news, on Sunday 1st June, in the Place du Capitole, Toulouse, stands will present more than 120 languages, represented by more than 80 associations and individuals interested in sharing their knowledge. A professor responsible for the Russian language stand, and recent member of the Indo-European Language Association, will also share information about the Proto-Indo-European language revival project for the European Union.

It will be a great oportunity for those interested in joining Proto-Indo-European language revival to contact nearby colleagues, and to cooperate and create a permanent, self-governing PIE revival group … Read the rest “Forom des Langues du Monde, Toulouse : Proto-Indo-European Language Revival”

Esperanto & other invented languages vs. Indo-European for Europe (and IV): Universal Law of Persistence of Error

A recent comment on the post about the so-called Grin Report – which explained the benefits of having one common language for Europe -, gives (unintentionally, I guess) still more reasons to support a natural language like Proto-Indo-European over Esperanto and similar inventions:

Le meilleur est l’ennemi du bien, ‘The best is the enemy of the good’; Ever since Ido tried to ‘improve’ on Esperanto, many other constructed languages have come along, but none has achieved anything near to what Esperanto has accomplished

I agree. No artificial (‘constructed’) language has achieved what Esperanto has, and no conlang is “better” … Read the rest “Esperanto & other invented languages vs. Indo-European for Europe (and IV): Universal Law of Persistence of Error”

European Higher Education Area : The Bologna Process implementation

I have read lots of articles about the Bologna Process (Wikipedia) and its effects on the European Higher Education system and on the education of future generations.

Apart from the (still to see) economic and social benefits for students and for the European Education system as a whole, I have only a tiny comment to make about its actual implementation by the different universities I’ve studied in, due to the great time I’m having right now with the “European system-like homework” I am currently doing for one of my “European implemented” professors:

a. In the Universidad Carlos III … Read the rest “European Higher Education Area : The Bologna Process implementation”

Ken Bain, Center for Teaching Excellence of the New York University: “What the best University Professors do”

I read some time ago in the news about what an expert called Ken Bain recommends in his book for University professors to be “the best” they can. Actually, I didn’t read more than some of those self-satisfied sentences that can be interpreted the way one wants to interpret them.

I know that in the US most University professors are probably very interested in excellence in education, always looking for the best way to teach and make their students know more, and be happy with how they learned it. In European countries, however, most Higher Education centres are public, … Read the rest “Ken Bain, Center for Teaching Excellence of the New York University: “What the best University Professors do””

To Dmoz or not to Dmoz, that is the question…

Firstly, I am not a SEO expert. In fact, I am rather bad knowing how the WWW (not to talk about the Internet as a whole) works.

A year ago a (geek) friend of mine told me that to be on the Open Directory Project (Dmoz) was cool to promote our project of Indo-European Language Revival. Now I know that (obviously) it’s mostly a question of Pagerank and Google.

A year ago I sent what we had, our website dnghu.org, which was scarce in its original content, although it was not under construction, and it offered already some material … Read the rest “To Dmoz or not to Dmoz, that is the question…”

Indo-European language revival in 2007 – Summary of our European Union’s language project

After another year of Indo-European language revival we owe a little summary of what (I think) has happened during the last 12 months, and how our expectations have developed.

The last year of 2007 has been great in terms of:

– Collaboration : thanks to the dozens of contributions we have now an almost stable phonological and morphological Indo-European Grammar, and, while the syntax still remains a muddy field, we are possibly as near as we can be to the original Proto-Indo-European language. Due to some demands in the past, we offered a printed version of the grammar, … Read the rest “Indo-European language revival in 2007 – Summary of our European Union’s language project”

New Version for Spanish Translation Plugin and Translator Widget Released

I don’t have a lot of time to post content on this blog, but at least there are some other WordPress-based websites I have to care of, and they usually include some type of a modified WordPress Translation Plugin.

The Spanish-Catalan translator link didn’t work right, and because of that I substituted it for another translation engine; a Spanish-Galician translator engine has also been added to the plugin, both from the Translendium engine. These two modifications are released with the new Spanish Translator Plugins dnghu_es_h and dnghu_es_v.

Because I have more than 5 (and more than 10) WordPress … Read the rest “New Version for Spanish Translation Plugin and Translator Widget Released”

Swastika: A Stupid Taboo in European and American countries

Hindu SwastikaThe swastika (Wikipedia)– from Sanskrit svástika स्वास्तिक – is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing (卐) or left-facing (卍) forms. The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. The Thai greeting sawasdee is from the same root and carries the same implication.

It is a widely-used symbol in Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism). Hindus often decorate the swastika with a dot in each quadrant. In India, it is common enough to be a part of several Devanagari fonts. It is also a symbol in the modern Unicode. It is … Read the rest “Swastika: A Stupid Taboo in European and American countries”

Om mani padme hum: an etymology of a mantra common to Hinduism and Buddhism

I was watching the TV this morning and heard some oriental-looking people in a (apparently) Tibetan film saying a sentence I had heard already in other films about India and the Tibet: oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ (Devanagari ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ), probably the most famous mantra in Buddhism, the six syllabled mantra of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara (Tibetan Chenrezig). Then I remember that my sister-in-law has Oṃ (Skr. Aum) tattooed on his hand, withoug knowing what that means, and after finding a website that asserts “mani” is from Tamil origin (‘exported’ to Latin), I decided to write this … Read the rest “Om mani padme hum: an etymology of a mantra common to Hinduism and Buddhism”