晉成帝永和四年東，「蜀土先無獠，至是始從山出，自巴西至犍為、梓潼，佈滿山谷十餘萬落。」通鑑疏：「其丈夫稱阿謨阿叚、婦人阿夷阿等之類。」

語言多麼寶貴，但多麼脆弱。當年獠人佈滿山谷十餘萬落，而傳至今代的獠語，僅此幾詞。其餘盡失。

臺灣的南島語言，如達彥(泰雅)、賽夏、鄒等，非常古老，但面臨絕響。需要大眾的關懷、支持、學習、傳播。最重要不過的是，需要鼓勵小孩子說族語。

按：謨，莫胡切，五部；叚，古雅切，段五部(音同各，古落切，五部)；夷，以脂切，十五部；等，多肯切，古一部，寺从止聲，諸市切，一部，陰陽對轉由曾攝入止攝，古或~ng或 ~g韻。故推測「阿謨阿叚」音*amaka，「阿夷阿等」音*angiepadeg.

In 346 AD, the Liao tribe entered what is now Sichuan province. They covered the mountains and valleys with over ten thousand villages. A footnote records that "they called a man *amaka, and a woman *angiepadeg." This is all we know of their language. The rest has been lost.

Language is fragile, and should be treasured. Here in Taiwan, we are in danger of losing ancient languages such as Dayan (Tayal), Saisiyat, Tsou (Cou), and others. They need our support, and they need to be learned and used. Otherwise, they will be lost.

Last year I posted ::click:: about making a traditional saw handle. The piece of wood I had turned out to be flawed, so I tried other wood, and had bad luck. Finally, today, inspiration: rattan! Light, strong, comfortable. Ideal!

三條小朋友味口不差，加上我們住山上，所以通常買狗飼料，買十五公斤裝的，一次買兩三包，免得常常跑寵物店。
通常喜歡在小店買東西，不太喜歡支持聯盟，但因為我十點下課回家，「魚中魚」天天開，開到深夜，貨品又多，所以這兩年多來就在新店魚中魚買狗飼料。很好笑，去年有一次剛好下午有事，安排回家路上去買，就碰到他們全體職員吃尾牙去了，沒開哈哈，怎麼那麼巧？
今天下午有課，晚上沒有，所以安排吃完晚餐就順著回家路上去買狗飼料，到了店，咦？怎麼黑黑的，燈沒開？全體職員吃尾牙去了，沒開哈哈…..

中研院李教授::點::是語言學權威，學了五百個泰雅語字，學了文法，所以他到泰雅部落去教泰雅耆老說泰雅語。當然，泰雅語是他們的母語，可是教授來開導，他們就很有禮貌，上課去了。
教授教一句：爺爺打孫子。好，下一步，變被動：爺爺被孫子打。扗坐耆老惴惴不安，說，這句不成立，因為沒有孫打祖之理。
教授被質疑，很不高興，說文法就是這樣，憑甚麼說他的句子不對？泰雅說，我們的話，沒有這種句子，沒有這種道理。

Professor Lee is a noted linguist, a great scholar. He learned five hundred words of Tayal and some grammar, so of course he went to a Dayan (Tayal) village to teach the tribal elders how to speak their native language. Of course, Dayan is their native language, but since the professor deigned to come instruct them, they politely went to class.

The professor said: "The grandfather hit the grandson. Now, in the passive, this becomes, The grandfather was hit by the grandson."

The tribal elders were quite upset. They said that such a sentence was not possible in Dayan, because a grandson would never hit his grandfather.

Professor Lee was displeased that his sublime authority and profound erudition were questioned. That's the grammar, what right did they have to have doubts about his sentence? The elders said, In our language, this sort of sentence is not possible, because it is unreasonable.

How uppity of these mere natives to question a linguist of international repute!

I really like this clip: :click:: If you're going to be famous and influential, this is the way to do it.

The most potent force in the universe is Murphy's Law. This morning was bright and cloudless. Sabiy went to work at noon, I stayed home and worked outdoors. Around 5, I phoned and asked, "Are you having the car washed?" She said, "Yes, yes! How did you know‽" I said, "It just started to rain."

Many are probably familiar with Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. Now he has published The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? I just started it, but there is probably a lot of food for thought for people who live on the intersection of Chinese and Westernized , or Aborigine, Chinese, and Westernized societies.

here

It's interesting to note that the Christian Right, which is usually so eager to quote scripture at us, has not brought their god along to the discussion about gun control. What Would Jesus Do? their mantra goes. I am not Christian, but I cannot visualize Jesus Christ buying rifles and ammunition.

張潮：幽夢影：
多情者不以生死易心、
好飲者不以寒暑改量、
喜讀者不以忙閒作輟。

上寬下謙法師討論雞生蛋、蛋生雞：「依佛法，沒有先後：雞中有蛋、蛋中有雞。」莞爾：「用我們佛法的講法，不雞不蛋。」Vn Kuanchien discussed the old quandary of which came first, the chicken or the egg? "From the standpoint of Buddhism, there is no sequence of which came before which or which came after which: the chicken contains the egg, the egg contains the chicken." Smiles: "In Buddhist terms, we would say, neither chicken nor egg."

難怪成佛需要三大阿僧祇劫。光是背唯識的名相，大概需要花兩個半大阿僧祇劫。
但清德法師講的好：不需要去背那麼多，需要的時候，查字典就好了。

特殊的因緣。昨天下午到少輔院講課(徹底誤人子弟)，這兩天參加成佛之道研習營，不小心被選為司儀，今晚還到補習班上課。短時間內面對三個迥然不同的團體，真有趣。Yesterday I gave a talk at the Reformatory. Today and tomorrow we are going to a Buddhist studies seminar, in which I was somehow selected to be Master of Ceremonies. This evening I taught a class in TOEFL Listening. Within a very short time, I addressed three extremely different groups. Quite a contrast!

臺北車站二樓美食街，一個中年男子與一個二十來歲女子對坐，父女吧。桌上幾袋麥當勞的東西。男的講幾句，女生哭了，男的站起來走了，停了幾次，可是還是走了。女生啜泣。

哪一個比較悲慘？被罵哭？或者吃麥當勞？

哭，過了一回就好了，比起垃圾食品放進身體，哭泣比較輕微。

A father and daughter sitting face to face in a food court, with several bags of Mickey D on the table; daughter, maybe early twenties. Father said something, daughter started sobbing, father stood up, walked away, hesitated, but finally walked away, leaving the daughter sobbing.

Which is more tragic, getting bawled out and crying, or eating Mickey D?

Crying is probably preferable. Get it out of your system, and you’re okay, far better than introducing junk food into your body.

Recently we took a three day trip to southeast Taiwan. When we came home, beagle Yumin was nowhere to be seen. We called a while, and he didn't come, but we were so tired we soon went to bed.

The next morning, Sabiy saw Yumin lying in the doorway of the doghouse. She called him. Without looking up, stuck his right forefoot out, and licked it to show us he was hurt. Apparently he had got it caught in something, and it was swollen and a bit injured. He slept a lot; mountain dogs recuperate quickly, so we weren't too worried.

This is the season to trim trees, so weather permitting, I have been busy. While I saw trees, Yumin ensures my safety, trotting back and forth to ensure that no kitty cats encroach on our territory. His foot seems okay, although the injured part has not healed entirely. There’s still a little spot that hasn't healed, but he romps and howls and it doesn't slow him down a bit.

It never snows here, but it does get down almost to freezing, so in the winter, when I have stripped the bark from wood I want to dry for burning, I sweep the bark into a nest for the dogs. They love to curl up there, outside the front door, even preferring it to the doghouse.

The nest gets stirred up, so from time to time I shoo the dogs and sweep it all together again. This afternoon as soon as I started sweeping, Yumin came and plopped himself in the middle of the nest, to get a good seat. I prodded him to get up and go. Yumin stuck his right forefoot out and licked it, "Yaba, poor me! I'm injured, I simply can't get up and move out of the way."