David Stifter 🍵📄🦊

It's the future of the substantive verb tá, the existential verb "to be".

Ní bheidh tú i d'aonar go deo - tá an imní taobh leat i gcónaí.

Publishing this month, Storytelling in Gaelic from AD 700 to the Present, edited by Alice R Taylor-Griffiths and Seosamh Mac Cárthaigh, examines common themes and connections in #Gaelic storytelling from the #MiddleAges to present day. Learn more: buff.ly/o4MbAC8 #medievalsky

Popular with papillons.

One can disable those notifications. It's not easy to find and you literally have to disable dozens of different categories of messages, but I ultimately succeeded years ago and have been left undisturbed since.

Teastaíonn uaim cnaipe suain a bhrú agus mé ag d'fheiceáil.

[GML, theip orm pictiúr seachtainiúil féilire na lochtanna a phostáil níos luaithe sa tseachtain.
Sorry, Summer School teaching kept me so busy that I failed to send out the weekly wisdom of failing earlier this week.]

...of short /a/. If his pronunciation had become "Germanised", I would expect [a] also before tautosyllabic nasals.

Yes, this is absolutely also a factor. We are no longer practising enunciation like this. I also wonder if his decades abroad, especially in the foreign linguistic area of Berlin, had some effect on the way how he spoke in formal contexts. But that's why I point out especially his pronunciation...

What I notice most strongly: he pronounces short /a/ largely as [a], but only in closed syllables before nasal (i.e. in the context aNC) he uses a very open [ɒ] or [ɔ] (I hope I am using the right IPA symbol).

A lecture by Erwin Schrödinger (1952), a nice example of early 20th-century upper-middle-class Viennese German. No one speaks like this anymore.

Comhghairdeachas óm chroí, a Geraldine!
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Another call for papers for our joint sponsored session with @networknorse.bsky.social - please share widely!

And for good measure, here's infant tea, coffee bonding with maté tea, and ayahuasca.

Impressions from Leiden day 10: this is the last day, so it is fitting to celebrate it with the holy trinity, namely the trinity of beverages found in the Botanical Garden: tea, coffee, and cacao.

Many thanks to Suzan van de Velde for arranging the visit and for being so welcoming & helpful during the visit, and to everyone else in the Museum who made this possible.
More info about the object in LexLep: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/TI%C2%B...
The inscription: lexlep.univie.ac.at/wiki/TI%C2%B76
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photo by: Suzan van de Velde

A special class today in my Ancient Celtic course at the Leiden Summer School. Instead of a lecturing hall, we were welcomed in the sacred halls of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Antiquities Museum @rmoudheden.bsky.social) where the students were allowed to view the Lepontic inscription TI·6.
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Digital graphic. An Siopa Leabhar Logo in green on white background of faint crumpled paper. Dark green text reads 50 Bliain Faoi Bhlath [kwayga bleen fwee vlaw]. 31/07/1975 on top, 32/07/2025 on the bottom.

Breithlá an tSiopa atá ann! Osclaíodh an doras den chéad uair ar an lá seo i 1975. Tá lascaine 20% ar leabhair nua agus leabhair athláimhe ar fáil as seo go ceann seachtaine ar siopaleabhar.com!

Bain leas as cód 20BREITHE agus tú ag seiceáil amach. Bailí go dtí an 7ú Lúnasa.

Impressions from Leiden day 9: close-up pictures of the old observatory. It's no longer used for looking at stars, except for observing sun activity. An image of this is projected in the basement.
Unfortunately I cannot do a tour of the observatory because the times clash with my classes.

Indeed. A somewhat unusual place for a gate.

Here's a closer, better view of the city gate at Morspoort in better light, and a gun in front of it, as well as another smaller gate in the middle of the city.

Attendees at Celtic Studies summer school at DIAS standing on steps of the building.

Scoil samhraidh 2025: gabhaimid ár mbuíochas le gach duine a ghlac páirt inti, agus tá súil againn gur bhain gach duine leas agus spraoi aisti.
Summer School 2025: thanks to all who took part, and we hope everyone benefited from it and enjoyed it.
www.dias.ie/2024/11/12/c...

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we, the family of Andrew West, confirm his peaceful passing on 10th July 2025. The BabelStone legacy will be continued by colleagues and friends.
corp.unicode.org/pipermail/un...

I spoke about the Irish exhibits (fragment of Boethius' de institutione arithmetica with OIr. glosses, VLQ7 with Fled Bricrenn, and Bedell's ModIr. translation of the Old Testament).
All photos © Takeyuki Watanabe.

Vincent Wintermans from the @unileiden.bsky.social Library organised a small exhibition of Celtic language treasures as part of the Summer School. Marieke Meelen (Uni Cambridge) spoke about manuscripts with British Celtic glosses (Orosius' Historia adversus paganos, Boethius, Leiden Leechbook).
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No, although the accompanying text made me expect that. I specifically put my nose into it, but couldn't smell anything peculiar. I was there yesterday again (the flower had already crumpled a bit). All I noticed was a slight, stale smell in the room, but by no means "stinky".

Thank you, although the early-morning photos ended up a bit too dark...

Ah, thanks, I just assumed that all of the waterways were ultimately part of the Old Rhine.

I can't find this in Favereau. Is it the same as bridañ/bridiñ? That looks like a loan from Fr. brider.

There's nothing left of the walls, but the original limits of the (now: inner) city are very clearly traced by the encircling canal of the Old Rhine.