My first instinct was to spell Tblisi the way you did, but I was intimidated into inserting the extra vowel because both the Russian and the Georgian on the postcard have three i-letters.
Why do you suppose we use a spelling that defies English phonology when it's not attested in the source language?
What, you asking me? I dunno. Somebody wrote it down that way 300 years ago, maybe?
Worth noting, though, that if you go with the Russian / Georgian and write "Tbilisi," you're splitting up a perfectly good English "bl" and allowing the real oddball, "Tb," to stand. If we were transliterating from, say, the Vulcan, it would probably be rendered "T'blisi," no?
Hold the phone! It appears that the standard English spelling is indeed Tbilisi (from an old form "T'pilisi," ho ho!). So, the question is -- did I accurately type the Latin-alphabet caption on the back of that postcard? Or is it just another garden-variety typo? Find out tonight on the L&TM5k!
The Internet seems to favour Tblisi, but your theory about our affinity for bl is interesting, but in that case I would have expected metathesis to Tiblisi. I don't know which consonant blends Vulcan phonology supports.
I just want to know if the big stain is actually on the building or on the postcard photo. Because the former would be pretty interesting to speculate about....
I am holding here in my hand the actual artifact, resplendent with its four Armenian stamps, and can report the following findings:
1) There is no Latin text on the back of the card. Patrick, who has cred as he bought the cards in situ, writes "Tblisi."
2) The stain is very probably a scar from postal sorting equipment, although I can not say this definitively.
Also, this in from a non-commenter correspondent: "I showed the picture to my husband, because he taught [in Tblisi] in 2009. In his photos Tblisi is incredibly photogenic -- they had to work to get such a boring photo." And don't forget the waiting around making sure a bus was in the scene! A lot of work went into this postcard.
Michael5000's Running Avatar has left Portland and is running generally east, out into the great big world.
May 19th -- Passing through The Dalles, Oregon.
May 12 -- The Avatar passes back into Oregon at Hood River and continues eastward on the Mark Hatfield Trail.
April 28 -- Passing by Beacon rock in the beautiful Columbia Gorge.
April 23 -- Standing on the corner in downtown Camas, Washington.
April 17 -- THE AVATAR IS HOME!!!
The Humanly Prowess -- since August 2009
May 19 -- 8.26 is a best-ever mileage for the 19th. I'm also at 14 consecutive Sundays, 1 short of the record, as well as 14 consecutive Saturdays.
April 27 -- A nice 9.06 mile run passes us over the best-April-ever mark and gives me an record of 11 consecutive running Saturdays.
April 25 -- By the by, I've currently tied the records for most consecutive Saturdays and most consecutive Wednesdays run. But who's counting.
April 20 -- 9.62 miles is a surprise all-time record for the 20th of the month!
April 14 -- 5.53 miles is an all-time record for a run resulting in hospital treatment for dog bite injuries!
April 6 -- 10.1 miles is the first ever double-digit run for April.
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190 or Bust
May 16 -- Weigh-in for work weight-loss contest: 208
May 3 -- 208
March 10 -- 205.4
Feb 24 -- 206.0 -- but clearly we've got a little problem to work on here.
8 comments:
Tbilisi!
I never realized that Georgian was a phonetic alphabet, with vowels, before. For some reason I assumed it was like Arabic.
I am told that every postcard of Tblisi has a bus in it.
I believe that.
My first instinct was to spell Tblisi the way you did, but I was intimidated into inserting the extra vowel because both the Russian and the Georgian on the postcard have three i-letters.
Why do you suppose we use a spelling that defies English phonology when it's not attested in the source language?
What, you asking me? I dunno. Somebody wrote it down that way 300 years ago, maybe?
Worth noting, though, that if you go with the Russian / Georgian and write "Tbilisi," you're splitting up a perfectly good English "bl" and allowing the real oddball, "Tb," to stand. If we were transliterating from, say, the Vulcan, it would probably be rendered "T'blisi," no?
Hold the phone! It appears that the standard English spelling is indeed Tbilisi (from an old form "T'pilisi," ho ho!). So, the question is -- did I accurately type the Latin-alphabet caption on the back of that postcard? Or is it just another garden-variety typo? Find out tonight on the L&TM5k!
The Internet seems to favour Tblisi, but your theory about our affinity for bl is interesting, but in that case I would have expected metathesis to Tiblisi. I don't know which consonant blends Vulcan phonology supports.
I just want to know if the big stain is actually on the building or on the postcard photo. Because the former would be pretty interesting to speculate about....
I am holding here in my hand the actual artifact, resplendent with its four Armenian stamps, and can report the following findings:
1) There is no Latin text on the back of the card. Patrick, who has cred as he bought the cards in situ, writes "Tblisi."
2) The stain is very probably a scar from postal sorting equipment, although I can not say this definitively.
Also, this in from a non-commenter correspondent: "I showed the picture to my husband, because he taught [in Tblisi] in 2009. In his photos Tblisi is incredibly photogenic -- they had to work to get such a boring photo." And don't forget the waiting around making sure a bus was in the scene! A lot of work went into this postcard.
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