Any flaws in this Egyptian are my own errors. I am not an Egyptologist, just a big fan of both Egypt and languages. Besides, the point is mostly to be funny, not teach you Egyptian grammar. (And yes, ꜥnn is a valid imperative, but it’s funnier this way.) Medjay. What’s this then? rmṯw wpj=tj m rn … Read more
Korean was originally written using Chinese characters, much like Japanese was, because both Korea and Japan looked at China as the big refined center of culture and civilization in the world. But Chinese is a terrible script for Korean, arguably worse than it is for Japanese, because Korean loves to form words with tons of prefixes … Read more
Okay. “Gangnam” was easy: two syllables. Why is “Style” written as three syllables? There’s two linguistic reasons for this: clusters, and diphthongs. Bear with me. Clusters I told you that Korean doesn’t like consonant clusters in syllables. One at the beginning and one at the end at most. So the “ST” at the beginning of … Read more
All right. In the previous post we talked about how syllable blocks fit together in Hangul. Now we’re ready to break down the song’s title into its individual jamo. Remember that a jamo is a Korean “letter”, and that in Hangul you pack the jamo into blocks of two or three symbols to make syllables. “gang” Let’s … Read more
My friends know I love languages and linguistics. Today I wanted to share with you one of the most amazingly elegant and beautiful writing systems in the world: Hangul (also spelled hangeul in English, but properly spelled 한글 in the system itself), the system used for writing Korean. In order to approach this — and I hope … Read more
Now we look at some of the reasons why the Warren Commission’s conclusion — that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK, acting alone, not part of any conspiracy (a.k.a. the “Lone Gunman” theory) — is so hotly disputed. I cannot begin to cover every conspiracy theory possibility out there. As I said in a previous post, … Read more
Okay. Having reviewed the timeline of events during those infamous Four Days, we will next summarize the evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin of President Kennedy. We’ll dig deeper into some of the questions and doubts in the next post. The connection between the two murders If Oswald murdered Officer J. D. Tippit, while it … Read more
With the release scheduled for 26 October 2017 of additional FBI and CIA documents pertaining to the case, and with November bringing the 54th anniversary of the incident, I decided I would talk about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Before I talk about it, I’d like to remind you that my “mysteries” series … Read more
This is one of the better known mysteries out there, but surely someone hasn’t run into it yet, or would like to know more about how it works. Shortwave radio is not very popular in the United States*, having been supplanted by AM and FM. But there’s still plenty of places in the world that … Read more
John Bingham, seventh Earl of Lucan. Dashing playboy. Rich, handsome, gambling bon vivant. Reportedly considered for the role of Bond. Probably murderer. In 1963 he met and married Veronica Duncan. By the early 1970s, his hard-play lifestyle and her post-partum depression were taking a toll on the marriage. By 1974, wanting custody of his children … Read more