A Place of Brightness: shakespeare in love

Thursday, October 13, 2011

What Language did Adam and Eve Speak?

And by "Adam and Eve" I mean, the earliest humans to speak language, since I don't believe in a literal Garden of Eden. But even using an evolutionary model, there really did have to be a first human (as well as an ultimate answer to which came first, the Chicken or the Egg). I've long believed that all languages on the planet do descend from one original language.

If you can line up even two ancient language families, you've gone a long way toward proving it. Indo-European and Semitic (which is itself provably connected deep into Africa) can be intriguingly shown to have affinities in the following regular correspondences:

Latin, non (not, no)
Arabic, laa (not, no)

Latin, nox (night)
Arabic, layla (night)

Latin, in (in)
Arabic el (to)

But new research shows that word order demonstrates a probable ultimate ancestor. Ancient languages favor Subject-Object-Verb order (such as Latin Caecilius Metellam videt, 'Caecilius sees Metella). And all languages that don't follow this order are descended from languages that once did. That's fascinating.
Talk Like Yoda?

Sunday, August 21, 2011

A Bard by any other Name...

No English literary figure attracts more attention, controversy, and conspiratorial ranting than William Shakespeare.

In 1998 audiences flocked to the movie Shakespeare in Love, where a somewhat revisionist background was provided for some of the bard's beloved work.

Screenwriter John Orloff put off pursuing his own conspiratorial take on the theme after Shakespeare in Love came out. In the fall of 2011, his concept Anonymous will be released in a film that describes Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford as the actual author of Shakespeare's works.

A number of other possible authors besides the man himself have been proposed through the years. Here is a list of the suggested authors. The reason for questioning the bard's original authorship would seem to lie in the doubt that anyone could rise from obscurity to become a culture's preeminent writer. But history is full of such success stories.

One of the strangest alternate authorship claims for Shakespeare is the claim that the works were actually penned by an Arab Muslim from Basra, Iraq living in Britain named Shaykh Zubayr.

In the final analysis, the works of Shakespeare were penned by a genius who came out of nowhere named William Shakespeare. Conspiracy Theories always abound when the truth is less entertaining than the real world.

Snarla Husayn provides a line of products parodying this fanciful claim. Any lover of Shakespeare will want one of these if only to celebrate the genius that could provoke such delightful theories.

She's painted an image of the traditional William Shakespeare and put a Kafiyah on him! She's made it available in a number of formats such as:

Ladies Spaghetti Top

Shaykh Zubayr tank ladies by SnarlaHusayn
Become a t-shirt affiliate at zazzle.com

Coffee Cup

Sheikh Zubayr colorful mug now with no typo! mug

Sheikh Zubayr colorful mug now with no typo! by SnarlaHusayn
Browse Shakespeare Mugs

Postcards

Sheikh Zubayr postcards by SnarlaHusayn
Join one of the largest artist affiliate programs

Men's T-Shirt

Sheikh Zubayr shirt by SnarlaHusayn
Join Zazzle.com's t-shirt affiliate program

and Magnet

Sheikh Zubayr magnet by SnarlaHusayn
Join Zazzle's artist affiliate program

In Saecula Saeculorum, the 4th Novel in the Valquist Series

In this fourth novel of the Valquist Series, Andrew Valquist is retired (?) from the National Security Agency and teaching Latin at a Classical Academy in the Washington DC area. But in the world of espionage, looks can be deceiving. He's not necessarily happy with the role he has played in all this, but the school was actually a joint NSA/MI-6 Project in which four young people have been unwittingly prepared for a mission to travel back in time to ancient Rome to retrieve information from a library that may save the modern world from certain destruction. They know they have to at least try to save humanity, but can they also save each other?

Next Stop: Spanish, the 3rd Novel in the Valquist Series

This third novel in the Valquist Series can be read as an espionage action-adventure in its own right, but also you can use it as a way to either brush up on your Spanish or learn functional Spanish for the first time! John Valquist needs to learn Spanish. But he's in luck, since his uncle Andrew is a language expert and a former (?) spy who is taking him on a vacation to Spain so he can study the language. In Next Stop: Spanish, you have the chance to see and study the words John studies, and then watch him add more and more Spanish into his dialogue as the story progresses. During this vacation, they get pulled into espionage intrigue (why do these things always happen to the Valquist family?). In the dramatic conclusion, John will need to put together everything he has learned to save his uncle!

Amor Vincit Omnia: the 2nd Novel in the Valquist Series

In this second novel of the Valquist Series, Keith Massey takes you into the halls of the National Security Agency, where he himself worked for four years after 9/11 and an Arabic linguist. You follow our hero Andrew Valquist, as he starts work as a new recruit at the NSA. Little does he know that on his first on the job, he's about to fly off on an unexpected overseas assignment. He'll be even more surprised when he learns that his background in ancient Latin will be crucial to the mission!