Tuesday, March 2, 2010

language facts in the midst of a novel

   (So it could be said that the Luandans, a classical people, understand their word for work, trabalhar, in its original sense, from the Latin tripaliare, that is, being martyred on a tripaliu.  Which reminds me, did you know that the English work 'slave' comes from 'Slav', as the Slavs were the first Roman slaves?  And of course there's also the Russian word rabota, which means 'work', and has as its root the word rab, 'slave'.)

-Jose Eduardo Agualusa, from Creole

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