h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Something's just ocurred to me - I know that the Hungarians call themselves Magyars, but does our name for them come from the word 'Hun?'

Just out of curiosity...

interesting idea, actually. do you remember where the dutch come from?
i just forgot.somewhere in the ukraine, i think.;-/

This is probably correct, but the Huns didn't last too long in Pannonia (modern Hungary) and were kicked out by the Germans in the following century.

As for Gary, I have no idea who he is. Perhaps Gary the Hun was a lesser-known descendant, who for obvious reasons, found it difficult to achieve the same level of respect.

BTW the Hungarian for Hungary is Magyarország

Yeah, I used to go out with a girl who was half-Hungarian, so I know some stuff about it. It's kind of an interesting place. Try learning the language though - that is one hell of a language. It's not Indo-European, and it's nearest relatives are in the middle of Russia, and I gave up after about, erm, one week...

Loads of the peoples in Europe come from places you'd least expect. The Turks came from Mongolia and Siberia, for example.

And did you know that the Hun people came out of Central Asia. They once lived in the area which is now - more or less- Mongolia. So some years later out of this same landscape came Chingis Khan!
Lena

Yeah, that area produced a lot of world-beating barbarian cheiftains didn't it?

I'll be experiencing it first hand in summer when I go to Kyrgyzstan for 5 weeks....sorry, I'm telling everyone in the world about that becuase I'm so excited

Hi there possum did you say that you have never read a pratchett novel its just the saying is may you live in interesting times.
interesting times is a title of a discworld book.if you would like to read it i could send you my copy.its very good.

Oh, right, thanks for telling me - I'll get right on it

I have a discworld book! It's called "Wyrd Sisters". Haven't had a chance to read it though yet - work, work, work. I'll keep you posted!

Thats the one i was going to send to SS i think she would like it i'm sure you will find it funny,have you read much shakespear as it is based on the 3 witches.

That's cool. I'll be experiencing it first hand, too, this summer. I'm going to visit Mongolia - the homeland of "world-beating barbarian chieftains". So I understand your excitement perfectly well, because I am so excited, too!
Lena

Excellent - you going on holiday or for some other reason?

Oh, and stay away from the bars in Ulaan Baator - they have nasty brawls. "World-beating barbarians" have a certain image that they like to keep up.

Hi Possum!
So you've been to Ulaanbaatar before? Don't you have some more advice for me? Oh, and thanks - I'll stay away from the bars.

Well, I'm going on holiday together with a mongolian family. But also I study "Mongolistik" (don't know the English term for it; it's about the people, the language, the culture ...). So I hope it also will be good for my mongolian (mongolish? the mongolian language? hope you understand what I mean)!
Lena

Mongolian Trivia: The Mongolian spoken language is, naturally, Mongolian, but their written language, their alphabet is Aramaic the same used in Syria and Palestine, the same as used by Jesus.

Thank you!
Well, today the Mongolian alphabet is just the same like the Russian - they just added two more letters. They took over the cyrillic alphabet in the 1940th when they were mostly under Russian control. The old Mongolian alphebet ..I thought they took it from the Uigur people. Did they (the Uigur) have their alphabet from the Aramaic people?
However, the Mongolian language, spoken and written, is really difficult!
Lena

I've never been to Mongolia, but I know people who have.

The old Mongolian alphabet is still used today but apparently most Mongols find it difficult to understand and slow to read.

Well, actually the Mongolian people thought about to reintroduce it again in the 1990's as the official alphabet but it didn't work. So today only the old people or academics know the old alphabet. My teacher for the Mongolian language at the university was asked one day by a Mongolian woman to "translate" a Mongolian word into the old alphabet !
Well, I understand those who think of the old Mongolian alphabet as difficult because it really is ! The most difficult thing about it is it's ambiguity in some forms: For example the vocals "a" and "e" have got the same orthographic form. So you have to know the word to make sure which one it is !
Lena

Talking about weird alphabets, take a look at sinhalese.

Now _that_ is an alphabet...

Well, I'm awfully sorry....but what is sinhalese (and what is the language written in this alphabet) ?

Oh, and other nice alphabets: tibetan or the mongolian Soyombo. At a first glance they looked to me just like hyroglyphs (is it hyroglyphs, you know the old egyptian alphabet - the f*** babelfish couldn't translate it)

Lena

The Sinhalese language is basically written in circles, with lots of other circles inside them. It basically looks like...well....a big load of circles, impossible to make head or tail of.

I guess it's what you're brought up with that you understand best...