Subject
Re: Krolik and other animals
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Jansy: ‘Orthodox’ etymologies are somewhat Oxymoronic. We hardly need to
invoke Levy-Strauss to be convinced that all etymologies are ultimately
dubious! We can only trace origins back, with any degree of credibility, to
early, mangled, surviving written sources, which represents a mere blink in
human-language history. Our languages being predominantly spoken affairs
(very few of the 6,000 extant tongues have a ‘literature’) we have to guess
from plausible phonetic rules, how spoken words might have changed during
the unrecorded millenia. Reconstructions, such as PIE (Proto Indo European),
are made by comparing word forms in extant Indo-European family members
(which include VN’s three: Russian/English/French), and back-tracking to
plausible, common roots. (Tracing grammatical changes is even more
problematical. Likewise semantic drifts, even with common flora/fauna.)
Without knowing how syllables are regularly dropped and added, how
consonants mutate and vowels shift, the amateur etymologist is unlikely to
spot that WHEEL and CYCLE are essentially the SAME word. As are YORK and
EVERTON! Minor spelling variants (Habana/Havana) are relatively trivial if
you think ‘sounds’ not ‘letters.’
You really have to look beyond the superficial relationships given by modern
alphabetic transliterations. There’s never enough letters to cope (whence
the huge IPA character set)! Old English Cyng, German Ko:nig/Kaiser, Polish
Krol, Latin Caesar, and derived personal names, are all clearly related
(boringly orthodox!) Less obvious are links with Rex/ Rajah and Tsar/Shah.
Whence VN shouting Check and Checkmate! The Shah is Dead. The Solus Rex is
on the MAT (geddit?) BTW: essential humor for all Chess lovers:
http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/glosscom.htm
En Passant: First used by Napoleon in a game he was losing. When his
opponent objected, play was continued across from the guillotine. Napoleon
won.
Delving into the preliterate PIE, there’s PLENTY of room for scholarly
dissension on the original, original root. Here’s two PIE versions for ‘Once
there was a King!’
1. To rḗḱs éh1est.
2. Pótis gʰe ʔest.
Note: what we now call a King must have had many preliterate names and
functions, constantly being exchanged and mangled with conquest and
language-mixing. In addition to the familiar Rex we have, Pótis pointing
plausibly to Potentate, Emperor and Power, via Latin posse (who really
knows?)
Stan Kelly-Bootle.
On 04/08/2010 22:25, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> A.Sklyarenko: A short addendum to my "leporine" article in Zembla: Not
> everybody whose name is Krolik ("rabbit") belongs to the leporine family... Dr
> Krolik's brother in Ada, Karol, or Karapars, Krolik, a doctor of philosophy,
> born in Turkey, isn't a rabbit, but rather a black panther... It seems that
> he, not Van, was Ada's first lover...Ada must be thinking of him when she
> complains, after their violent love-making, that Van hurt her "like a tiger
> Turk" (2.8).
>
> David Krol: Krol also means king on Polish. It is kral in Czech (I am an
> American currently living in Prague...). It is also my understanding that
> Krol comes from all those words like Caesar, Kaiser, Tsar, Karl, Charles,
> Carol, etc.
>
> JM: Is there a relation bt. this Karapars Krolik (panther, tiger Turk) and the
> burning barn sentence when Van was "pushing against her like that soldier
> behind in the queue.// First time I hear about him. I thought old Mr
> Nymphobottomus had been my only predecessor//.Last spring. Trip to town.
> French theater matinée."? I missed this point altogether.
>
> When I first read Alexey's post, I was reminded of Blake's Tyger (in
> particular: "Did he smile his work to see?//Did he who made the Lamb make
> thee?"), in which the predator stands for "evil" in contrast to the innocent
> sacrificial "lamb". Might the poor rabbits, suffering under the spell of a
> serpent (as it was explained by Appel's note in connection to Humbert
> Humbert's serpent-like powers of seduction) be in any way related to wooly
> defenceless lambs?
>
> After David Krol's additional information on Krol, Karl, Charles, Kaiser and
> the Polish word for king ( with the "restoration theme" and various King
> Charlesses) I started to wonder if, in a clumsily devious way, the leporines
> would indicate the theme of fallen kings or czars... (And yet, the links which
> he offers for Krol, Karl and Kaiser don't seem to be etymologically orthodox,
> or are they? Names are problematic ( Levy-Strauss stated that their
> etymologies cannot be established) but otherwise they are a rich source of
> displacements and puns. As Nabokov once acknowledged in Ada: "tropes are the
> dreams of language." (and here he sides with Lacan!)
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invoke Levy-Strauss to be convinced that all etymologies are ultimately
dubious! We can only trace origins back, with any degree of credibility, to
early, mangled, surviving written sources, which represents a mere blink in
human-language history. Our languages being predominantly spoken affairs
(very few of the 6,000 extant tongues have a ‘literature’) we have to guess
from plausible phonetic rules, how spoken words might have changed during
the unrecorded millenia. Reconstructions, such as PIE (Proto Indo European),
are made by comparing word forms in extant Indo-European family members
(which include VN’s three: Russian/English/French), and back-tracking to
plausible, common roots. (Tracing grammatical changes is even more
problematical. Likewise semantic drifts, even with common flora/fauna.)
Without knowing how syllables are regularly dropped and added, how
consonants mutate and vowels shift, the amateur etymologist is unlikely to
spot that WHEEL and CYCLE are essentially the SAME word. As are YORK and
EVERTON! Minor spelling variants (Habana/Havana) are relatively trivial if
you think ‘sounds’ not ‘letters.’
You really have to look beyond the superficial relationships given by modern
alphabetic transliterations. There’s never enough letters to cope (whence
the huge IPA character set)! Old English Cyng, German Ko:nig/Kaiser, Polish
Krol, Latin Caesar, and derived personal names, are all clearly related
(boringly orthodox!) Less obvious are links with Rex/ Rajah and Tsar/Shah.
Whence VN shouting Check and Checkmate! The Shah is Dead. The Solus Rex is
on the MAT (geddit?) BTW: essential humor for all Chess lovers:
http://www.correspondencechess.com/campbell/glosscom.htm
En Passant: First used by Napoleon in a game he was losing. When his
opponent objected, play was continued across from the guillotine. Napoleon
won.
Delving into the preliterate PIE, there’s PLENTY of room for scholarly
dissension on the original, original root. Here’s two PIE versions for ‘Once
there was a King!’
1. To rḗḱs éh1est.
2. Pótis gʰe ʔest.
Note: what we now call a King must have had many preliterate names and
functions, constantly being exchanged and mangled with conquest and
language-mixing. In addition to the familiar Rex we have, Pótis pointing
plausibly to Potentate, Emperor and Power, via Latin posse (who really
knows?)
Stan Kelly-Bootle.
On 04/08/2010 22:25, "jansymello" <jansy@AETERN.US> wrote:
> A.Sklyarenko: A short addendum to my "leporine" article in Zembla: Not
> everybody whose name is Krolik ("rabbit") belongs to the leporine family... Dr
> Krolik's brother in Ada, Karol, or Karapars, Krolik, a doctor of philosophy,
> born in Turkey, isn't a rabbit, but rather a black panther... It seems that
> he, not Van, was Ada's first lover...Ada must be thinking of him when she
> complains, after their violent love-making, that Van hurt her "like a tiger
> Turk" (2.8).
>
> David Krol: Krol also means king on Polish. It is kral in Czech (I am an
> American currently living in Prague...). It is also my understanding that
> Krol comes from all those words like Caesar, Kaiser, Tsar, Karl, Charles,
> Carol, etc.
>
> JM: Is there a relation bt. this Karapars Krolik (panther, tiger Turk) and the
> burning barn sentence when Van was "pushing against her like that soldier
> behind in the queue.// First time I hear about him. I thought old Mr
> Nymphobottomus had been my only predecessor//.Last spring. Trip to town.
> French theater matinée."? I missed this point altogether.
>
> When I first read Alexey's post, I was reminded of Blake's Tyger (in
> particular: "Did he smile his work to see?//Did he who made the Lamb make
> thee?"), in which the predator stands for "evil" in contrast to the innocent
> sacrificial "lamb". Might the poor rabbits, suffering under the spell of a
> serpent (as it was explained by Appel's note in connection to Humbert
> Humbert's serpent-like powers of seduction) be in any way related to wooly
> defenceless lambs?
>
> After David Krol's additional information on Krol, Karl, Charles, Kaiser and
> the Polish word for king ( with the "restoration theme" and various King
> Charlesses) I started to wonder if, in a clumsily devious way, the leporines
> would indicate the theme of fallen kings or czars... (And yet, the links which
> he offers for Krol, Karl and Kaiser don't seem to be etymologically orthodox,
> or are they? Names are problematic ( Levy-Strauss stated that their
> etymologies cannot be established) but otherwise they are a rich source of
> displacements and puns. As Nabokov once acknowledged in Ada: "tropes are the
> dreams of language." (and here he sides with Lacan!)
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/