Symi Spring
I don’t know very much about them, but today we’ve got some photos of Symi flowers, and Symi spring, as that’s what season we are being blown into at the moment. It’s still very windy out there, five to six on the Beaufort Scale, the sites tell me. It feels a bit stronger than that at times, but it’s coming from the south so it’s not cold. Anyway…
Back to the flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la!). Did you know that the season Spring comes from the verb, to spring? Pretty obvious really (plants leaping joyously from the earth, rabbits leaping joyously onto each other, that kind of thing). But did you know where we get the word, the verb, to spring from? There are a few explanations knocking around and it’s interesting to see from these how some words appear in different cultures, written in different alphabets, and spoken in different languages, and yet are remarkably similar. No doubt due to migration and trade routes or something. For example, Spring comes from the Old English Springan, which comes from the Photo-Germanic word Sprengan. Meanwhile, we’ve got the Old Frisian Springa, the Middle Dutch Springhen, Old Saxon and Old High German Springan, Sanskrit gets a look in with Sprhayati and let’s not forget Greece (unlike the rest of Europe) and add in Sperkhasthai.
Sorry to have sprungen that little word investigation on you; I find this kind of thing interesting. It’s also fun. I mean, I’d never heard of Photo-Germanic before. I first thought it had something to do with Helmut Newton or a group of Berliners taking a selfie. And as for Old Frisian, I immediately thought of a wrinkled old cow. (You can picture your own; I take no responsibility for who you consider a wrinkly old cow.) The image of an Old High German hardly bears thinking bout. No offence; the Old Saxon was pretty rough too. It’s also interesting to note how the Dutch add at least one unnecessary h to things so as to get a good hoik-up going, how those writing in Sanskrit used Latin letters (they didn’t), and how the Greeks manage to slip in a tongue-twisting three or four extra syllables, presumably to make sure everyone else runs out of things to say before they get to the end of the word.
But back to the flowers… Like I said, I have no idea what these are called, though I can guess at some. Poppy, is pretty obvious. But if you want to know more about the Symi flora and fauna you should head over to Lyndon’s informative and colourful blog/site which is dedicated to the subject. I’m away to batten down hatches, sweep up leaves, feed cats and do other day-to-day things, and will aim to see you tomorrow when we’ll discover if the wind ever died down.
