Month: July 2021

In lockdown again. So what to do? I’ve heard of the ASMR scene. Autonomous sensory meridian response activity. Damn, I’ll do it. It has to do with providing auditory, olfactory or visual stimulation (along with hair brushing and whispering). Apparently it can be weirdly mesmeric with the feel of cutting the waxy substance not to mention scented aromas etc.
I feel motivated to learn the digraphs and diphthongs of Lithuanian and then nail the phonology. It may take a while but hey, why not? It’s language of the European Union and similar to Latvian. Once I’ve mastered abėcėlė alphabet, then basically the Proto-Baltic-Slavic languages have similarities with Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Baltic which in turn connect with Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic. A Proto-Baltic-Slavic non-exclusive lexical, morphological, phonological and accentual isoglosses structure has commonalities with Slavic languages. I groove these nuances. Who wouldn’t? Besides I’ll be able to decipher ancient scripts when visiting the Vilnius Museum and impress the ambassador if the topic drifts to such matters.
Obscure counting systems are fascinating especially those employing the toes. The Babylonians used a base-60 system inherited from the Sumerians. A base-60 system is divisible by 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 but a base-12 gets you through 4 and 6 smoothly. You can use toes and fingers for a 20-base system It shows up in French as 80 in ‘quatre-vingts’. ‘Halvtreds’ in Danish employs 50 or 2 & 1/2 times 20. The Oksapinus of Papua New Guinea possess a base-27 body system. Counting up the arm after using the fingers and wrist as 6, mid-forearm as 7, through to the neck as 11, ear as 12, eye 13, nose as 14 through to the other side of the head, neck, other arm and fingers up to 23 and 27. Wow. I really dig this scene. It is said the base-20 system underlies the Gettysburg Address. Every reason to study obscure counting systems. Or maybe not. Perhaps I’ll take a walk instead 😛 😀