Re: Finishing Crystal

On 1/01/2025 2:21 p.m., HenHanna wrote:

On Tue, 17 Dec 2024 20:22:48 +0000, Ross Clark wrote:
 

I'm off for a small holiday, back in early January.
Here are the remaining Days from Crystal's _A Date with Language_:
>
Jane Austen born (16/12/1775)
Dorothy L.Sayers died (17/12/1957)
Arabic Language Day (18 December)
Emily Brontë died (19/12/1848)

 

Dot Your i's Day (20 December)  ----------- Why this date ?

Crystal saith not.

 

Crossword Puzzle Day (21 December) -- Was this the day that famous one
was published?

"The first published crossword puzzle appeared in the edition of the _New York World_ newspaper on this day in 1913."

Be A Lover Of Silence Day (22 December)  ----------- Why this date ?

"origins...unknown"

 

Charles-Michel de l'Épée died (23/12/1789)
William Makepeace Thackeray died (24/12/1863)
A'phabet Day (25 December)
Thomas Gray born (26/12/1716)
Charles Lamb died (27/12/1834)

 

Susan Sontag died (28/12/2004) --- Was she notable to Crystal?

 

He doesn't mention any special connection. Just another Literary Person.
He quotes things she wrote about "style" and "metaphor".

Don Marquis died (29/12/1937)
Rudyard Kipling born (30/12/1865)
A linguistic New Year's Eve (31 December)
....the last including "Happy New Year!" in 50 (mostly European)
languages.
>
So Happy A'phabet Day and "Vitin e ri!"
to all at sci.lang.
Ross

   "Vitin e ri!" -------- Do lots of Ling-buffs know this lang, or phrase?

I couldn't say. It's Albanian, the first item on the 50-language list.
The meager Albanian language resources within a 1m range of my keyboard tell me that _vit_ means 'year' and _(i) ri_ means 'new'.

is this Vitin  cognate with French  venir ?

No. According to Buck 1940 there's a PIE *wet(es)- which gives us:
Greek (w)etos  'year'
Sanskrit vatsa-  'calf (yearling)'
tri-vatsa-  'three years old'
Albanian vjet  'year'
and might be connected with Latin vetus 'old'.
Watkins 2000 adds English wether  (Germanic *wethruz) and Latin vitulus 'calf, yearling'.