Miscellaneous Musings about Books

[ScarletBea]

I like the dragon

[Justan Henner]

I like the dragon

I know, If they have snakes, where does the need for salmon come into this? What part of the salmon makes this translation more descriptive...

[ScarletBea]

Spoiler for the Liveship Traders books:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Actually, "salmon snake" makes me think quite a lot of the dragons in this series. They start life as a serpent (=snake), and when they're ready to transform, they go up the river to the hatching grounds to become dragons (just like a salmon)!
I wonder if that's where Robin got her idea

[Justan Henner]

Spoiler for the Liveship Traders books:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Actually, "salmon snake" makes me think quite a lot of the dragons in this series. They start life as a serpent (=snake), and when they're ready to transform, they go up the river to the hatching grounds to become dragons (just like a salmon)!
I wonder if that's where Robin got her idea

Very true. The name is probably to do with Finnish mythology, but there are lizards and snakes in Finland, so I wonder what makes them more like salmon there rather than lizards.

[ArcaneArtsVelho]

A quick look through the Interwebs tells that the Finnish word lohikäärme comes (most likely) from old Swedish word floghdragi. The flogh-part was borrowed and incorrectly linked to word lohi. The more exact translation would have been lentokäärme (flying snake). Link for those who understand Finnish.

Etymology is fun. 

[ScarletBea]

Thanks, but I still like the idea of the salmon snake and my link to Hobb's books, hehe

(just noticed you're from Finland - I thought you had some portuguese links because of the 'velho' in your name.... but you're not even old hehe)

[ArcaneArtsVelho]

Velho means a wizard in Finnish (but please don't think of me as one of those wand brandishing "wizards" from HP but rather like Gandalf or some such... old man  ).

But the Velho-part in my nick actually comes from my real name, sort of at least. The wizard-meaning is just an added bonus. And the Portuguese old man/person fits me, in a way: Sometimes I feel like an old man physically (with numerous pains and aches), although mentally I'm like nine years old or something. 

[ScarletBea]

That is really interesting!
I don't think I've ever encontered a specific word that lies within 2 very separate branches of the linguistic tree and that means very different things.
I wonder how you pronounce it, then...

Velho (portuguese) = old -- using the exclusively-portuguese sound 'lh' that I absolutely can't describe in writing (Saraband, help!)

Velho (finnish) = wizard -- ?? do you split the sound between the L and the H? like 'vel' 'ho'?

[ArcaneArtsVelho]

Yeah, it's just like you said, with a little pause between L and H. 
Here are samples of how you pronounce it in Portuguese and in Finnish.

But the meanings are sort of similar though. I mean, I believe wizard comes from the word wise, and many times wisdom is considered to come with age. So, an old man is a wise man, or a wizard. Maybe? 

[ScarletBea]

Oh gosh, thanks, I love that site! So many issues solved, hehe
(I'm quite into languages, particularly how living/working with multiple languages influences the way you think and act)

[Raptori]

...aaand another one! 

[JMack]

...aaand another one! 

Damn. I had to LIKE this post, so great. But one more LIKE for Raptori.   

[ScarletBea]

But see, that depiction is exactly the reason why I would be able to live in Helsinki and not in the other capital cities mentioned: it's a lovely manageable small-ish city

[ArcaneArtsVelho]

Why all this ragging on Finland, Raptori? There are plenty of great things about Finland. Like... like... Well, there are! Probably... 

 

[JMack]

Why all this ragging on Finland, Raptori? There are plenty of great things about Finland. Like... like... Well, there are! Probably... 

 

No, this is affectionate ribbing.    I think there's a genuine Finlandoplia society here on F-F. I'd go back in a second if money was no object.