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Saturday, February 15, 2020

In company of compass to orientate



He was my North
my South
my East 
and West
(....) I was wrong. 

                           (W H Auden


Do NOT believe word  'NEWS
to be an acronym of the 4 cardinal directions 








Are we lost? 
Follow the stars and Consider your  enTHeUSiasm at the answer!

  • Chinese say the cardinal directions   in this order, "east, south, westnorth".
  •  Indian languages  use the names of the Gods to orientate





1 ) Using the compass to orientate 
Arabia (Ancient): They put south at the top. This is because when you wake up and face the sun, south is on the right. Because of positive associations with the right as opposed to left, they put that on top.
Europeans learnt mapmaking from the Arabians and flipped the map to make themselves on top. 
Medieval Europe: Jerusalem was on top because that was the Holy Land. This meant that east was more or less at the top.


Bonus:  See below   ___ etym 



2 ) Using the mind$et to fet it right 


Did You know, not everyone on the planet has a US-centric mindset about everything?


  • Prices in Dolars for local goods prices
European news:  Germany DW news 
oil Brent futures rose to $66.22 per barrel 



  • Quantities in US parlance  1b =???
  Can you agree with these texts taken from websites:

  • Some people still think a billion is a million-million?
  • the original British usage is nicer and easier to explain, and I wish it were the standard system
  • The European system (formerly used in Britain, still used in Germany) is antiquated



  • Hollywood  (the largest % of tickets sold in some parts of Europe)

  • Since 1951-1988  Spy  equivalent  Soviet 
  • Since 2002...  Terror equivalent Arab


  •  Since Hollywood has a US centric mindset (and the US has a very self-centered mindset) and is mainly pandering to US audiences the same logic follows. .



  1.  TASK.   Discuss how did a U.S. -centric mindset come into place?






=======  end 


BONUS TRACK: 

TWO PATH WAYS ... 

  • Why Romanic Languages use Germanic Words??? 
                  (oest/sud/est/nord)  
 


                 Prince of Denmark (II,ii) by  Shakespeare:
  •  ‘I am but mad north-north-west: / when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.’


 ___ etym   DIRECTIONS  (AND  WINDS) ... with the help of stars 



  EAST >>>  meaning rising (sun)  *aus-to-, *austra-, "from PIE *aus- 'to shine,'

LATIN  (v)  orior  >> ortus  and origo.  [ orius   ort origo    ]   
Aurora the Roman goddess of dawn

related words

  • oriens /orient     (with English    ori_gin // ab_ort_ion ... )
  • Easter



WEST >>>  meaning  setting (sun)  *wes-t- "from PIE *wes-  [*wes-   go down]

(source of Gk. hesperos, L. vesper 'evening )

LATIN  (v)  ocaso  >>  occident  [ob-cadere    (from PIE root *kad- "to fall") ]   


related words




  •   accid-ent,   = mishap," literally "a falling,"
  •   occas-ion,   = mishap," literally "a falling,"
  •   with another 7 English words : 
  •           cadaver   //  de-cadence  //  caducous  // cascade   //  casualty // incident  // case


NORTH  >>>  meaning rising (sun)  *aus-to-, *austra-,
 "from PIE  *nurtha possibly derives from PIE *ner- "left, below"

going around the pole star and referred to them as the ‘plough of seven— septem  + trio. 
So septentrio is the direction proper.



 SOUTH   >>   from Proto-Germanic *sunthaz, perhaps literally "sun-side" 

         related to base of *sunnon "sun" (from PIE root *sawel- "the sun")


merīdiēs (adj. merīdiōnālis) meant "noon, midday" < medius “middle” + diēs “day”. Since the sun is in the South at midday in the Northern hemisphere, this word is self-explanatory.

auster (adj. austrālis) was the Latin name of the South Wind and the South. 


=============


  •  in Persian Khorasan (xwar-asan "sunrise") means "east" 

Axarquía is a comarca of Andalusia in southern Spain - east of Málaga. Its name is traced back to Arabic الشرقية‏  ( sharquiyya, meaning the eastern zone)

The Algarve (from Arabic: الغرب‎ al-Gharb "the West") is the southernmost region of continental Portugal
Catalan wind   “garbí” 'Südwest(wind)  + Castilian wind   “garbíno







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