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Yeah, in language that suits HN, formal poetic structure amounts to error correction in oral tradition. It dramatically narrows the possibilities of what idea
by swatcoder 2y ago
Yeah, in language that suits HN, formal poetic structure amounts to error correction in oral tradition.
It dramatically narrows the possibilities of what idea or word or sound or whatever could fit in any particular place in the verse, making it easier to memorize and accurately recite. Clever (and some blundering) poets and changes in language still set up these recitations to evolve away from whatever they originally were, but the original seeds linger a long, long time.
- verisimi 2y agoYes poetry is a sort of decent checksum. However I think parables are an even better checksum, as they can be translated also, but if the meaning is altered the story fails to be coherent. Parables are imo, the best form of information transference across time, imo.
- Hypomixolydian 2y agoThis is what Manly P. Hall described as "acroamatic cipher" in his book "The Secret Teachings Of All Ages" [chapter "The Cryptogram as a factor in Symbolic Philosophy"]
- roughly 2y agoMeaning is culturally contingent, though - the appropriate “moral” of a parable can change as culture changes around it, which can lead to changes to the parable itself. For a contrived example, 100 years ago, the idea that one would defy one’s parents and pursue one’s own dreams would have been frowned upon, and any parables referencing that action would clearly contain the moral that one should listen to one’s parents. Today, that would be an almost unthinkable moral - discard your dreams and stick to whatever hidebound business your parents were in? Surely we got something wrong in the translation here. Written in meter, though, clearly the only word that fits here is “shan’t”, not “must”.
- verisimi 2y agoI bet you've not seen a mustard seed, but you still get what is being said, in the parable of the mustard seed. If the parable is talking to a foundational reality, rather than cultural situations, I think it can endure. I get what you are saying, but even parables don't have 'the truth'. I would imagine that there may even be parables that argue the opposite position. And both, opposing positions could be right, depending on the context.
- 10u152 2y agoThis is tangential, but have people really not seen a mustard seed? Seeded/whole seed mustard was commonplace in my family.
- 0_____0 2y agoPoetic structure is such a strong framework that linguists have been able to recover information about the dialect and pronunciation of English in the time of Shakespeare, from Shakespearean works.
- mcguire 2y agoTyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
- kelipso 2y agoIf you're alluding to the pronunciation of symmetry, I'm pretty sure eye and symmetry was specifically meant not to rhyme in order to throw off the reader slightly. Guess that hints at how difficult recovery of pronunciation can be.
- vlovich123 2y agoBut language itself and pronunciation of that language shifts over time. Probably better than hand transcription, but 7000 years is a long time.
- endofreach 2y ago“A dog walks into a bar and says, ‘I cannot see a thing. I’ll open this one.’”
- jamiek88 2y agoThe old Sumerian joke? I love reading the posited explanations for that joke in academia and when it’s posted randomly people usually have a stab at it too.
- b112 2y agoHmm. Blind people called dogs, because they have to use their nose instead of their eyes? Not sure how that's funny though. Makes me wonder, dogs supposedly have evolved to be better companions of humans, and lateral gene transfer is a thing. I wonder of they had much poorer sight 7k years ago, or perhaps, a popular local breed did. (Naturally, to support my blind hypothesis, and walking into a bar instead of seeing it)
- rnhmjoj 2y agoIIRC it's a pun on the "not seeing" verb being literally "having one's eyes closed".
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]