Language question

is there any link between 'canker' and cancer?

Wouldn't be so sure about that

Well, I said nothing apparent; there's a good chance there's some deep seated proto-Indo-European link between the two, but that's a long time for that precise semantic link to endure, don't you think?

O.E. cancer "spreading sore, cancer" (also canceradl), from L. cancer "a crab," later, "malignant tumor," from Gk. karkinos, which, like the Mod.Eng. word, has three meanings: crab, tumor, and the zodiac constellation (late 14c. in English), from PIE base *qarq- "to be hard" (like the shell of a crab); cf. Skt. karkatah "crab," karkarah "hard;" and perhaps cognate with PIE base *qar-tu- "hard, strong," source of English hard. Greek physician Galen, among others, noted similarity of crabs to some tumors with swollen veins...

(oh x-post)

The OED might help:

L. cancer (cancrum) crab, also the malignant tumour so called. (So in Greek, καρκίνος, καρκίνωµα ‘crab’ and ‘cancer’; the tumour, according to Galen, was so called from the swollen veins surrounding the part affected bearing a resemblance to a crab's limbs.)

PIE = proto-Indo-European, I assume

v interesting

Yeah its is, and they always preface PIE words with a * because they're guesses.

xpost

googling makes it seem like most shorthand techniques completely replace all letters

the strokes all signify letters, but you try to skip as many vowels as possible, so if you transcribed it faithfully the result wd rsmbl a prml scrm rcrd.

So... the Russians pull in their animal-crab word for the medical condition, translating either Latin or Greek, whereas we have Cancer in technical, hence latinate vocabularies - as an astrological word (1394), and a medical one (1601, but various forms of 'canker' before that.). Would that be right?

b/w also means bloodwork. that's all I have to add here.

We don't have air conditioning in the U/K, so no need for a/c abbrev.

a/c means 'account' to me.

^ oh yeah, that was bothering me tbh.

So... the Russians pull in their animal-crab word for the medical condition, translating either Latin or Greek, whereas we have Cancer in technical, hence latinate vocabularies - as an astrological word (1394), and a medical one (1601, but various forms of 'canker' before that.). Would that be right?

Yes. "Crab" is Germanic but, just to confuse matters, not from the same PIE source as "Cancer"!

I wouldn't be surprised if canker was just misprounounced 'cancer' - i don't think OE had a soft 'c', did it?

Does Latin have a soft 'c'?

It looks... complicated. From what I can see, in the entry for canker, it does initially enter as 'cancer' (c1000), then changes to cauncre and kankir etc over the middle ages. I think they decide to put the 1601 medical 'cancer' spelling separately, under 'cancer', because it's Renaissance humanism at work, reviving/correcting spellings, medical knowledge. Not sure though.

internet says canker is from cancer.

shoulda said xp.

And then there's chancre

apparently taken from the French, 1605.

Is the US contain the largest country (population-wise) with the most homogenous language?

this is kind of random but I was wondering about this last night - I would think China would be the other big contender but I dunno how Mandarin dialects break down, really. Russia is obviously larger geographically but smaller in terms of population. Everywhere else in the world it seems like you have a way wider range of various dominant languages, and within smaller geographical areas.

But in the US - prominent immigrant communities notwithstanding - it seems kind of unique that anywhere you go American English is the lingua franca. We have accents, sure, but not dialects that are appreciably different from one another in terms of grammar, etc. This strikes me as particularly unusual. I was just thinking about this in terms of, say, Europe which is comparatively tiny but still riven with all these (to me, anyway) rather comical ethnic divisions, most obviously different languages, etc.

I think the answer to your question is yes. I don't have a good understanding of the differences among Chinese languages (interesting map here), but I think it's safe to say the US is a great deal more homogenous language-wise. I think Brazil is probably second.

I think

why is "not applicable" abbreviated as "n/a"?

avoids possible confusion with 'no', among other things

Why is it that humans can learn English (better to give and example of a language than to just say something vague like “language”)? Other animals can learn to communicate verbally or learn symbols. The difference with English is, it’s a lot more complex than the chirps of a chickadee. Then to say “language is innate” or “language is an instinct” could be said of any animal that communicates with other animals in it’s species. Communication may be instinctual but I think something like the English language is a grand elaboration on communication that humans are capable of due to our sizable cerebral cortex. So, like many human behaviors, it is both innate and learned.

norm chompsky meets his match

norm chompsky deserves it

gnome chompsky

chomp on that !!

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51o5e6VpvJL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

I can't stop laughing at the name Nim Chimpsky

― Godzilla vs. Rodan Rodannadanna (The Yellow Kid), Tuesday, 8 March 2011 02:51 (six years ago) Permalink

"When Terrace ended the experiment, Nim was transferred back to the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma, where he struggled to adapt after being trained to live as a human child [clarification needed] for the first decade of his life. When Terrace made his one and only visit to see Nim after a year at the Institute of Primate Studies, Nim sprung to Terrace immediately after seeing him, visibly shaking with excitement. Nim also showed the progress he had made during Project Nim, as he immediately began conversing in sign language with Terrace. Nim retreated back to a depressed state after Terrace left, never to return to see Nim again. Nim developed friendships with several of the workers at the Institute of Primate Studies, and learned a few more signs, including a sign named "stone" which indicated that Nim wanted to smoke marijuana"

"When Terrace ended the experiment, Nim was transferred back to the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma, where he struggled to adapt after being trained to live as a human child [clarification needed] for the first decade of his life. When Terrace made his one and only visit to see Nim after a year at the Institute of Primate Studies, Nim sprung to Terrace immediately after seeing him, visibly shaking with excitement. Nim also showed the progress he had made during Project Nim, as he immediately began conversing in sign language with Terrace. Nim retreated back to a depressed state after Terrace left, never to return to see Nim again. Nim developed friendships with several of the workers at the Institute of Primate Studies, and learned a few more signs, including a sign named "stone" which indicated that Nim wanted to smoke marijuana"

I found he could make the alarmingly human signs

Apple eats
Eat banana neem
Bananas eat
Drink with me with neem
Come eat nim
Eat with me eat
Eat me neem
Made neem ban neem
Bananas and me
Bananas and neem me
They have eaten bananas
Drink to enjoy neem
Drink drink to drink
Baby to eat me
I eat more
I'm eating
I am mechanical rubber
Eat neem to eat at
I play a nim
Free me for the NIM game