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In the original, Shatranj, the elephant moved diagonally, but only two squares. It could jump, but not capture, an intervening piece. In Xiang Qi the elephant is also limited to the two square move but may not jump an intervening piece.
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In the original, Shatranj, the elephant moved diagonally, but only two squares.
I thought the jury was still out on which chess was original? Not that I know. Anyway, Xiang Qi also has less pawns, cannons and mandarins, but no queen. The king and mandarins cannot leave the palace. There's also a river that runs across the board which some pieces cannot cross. Interesting game: I've only played it a couple of times. Watched it a bunch.
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I suppose I should have included the line according to Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations by R. C. Bell. There was an earlier game, Shaturanga, which had four sides, each consisting of Rajah, an Elephant, a Horse, a Ship and four Pawns.
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There was an earlier game, Shaturanga, which had four sides
Also called caturanga which means 'four limbs (i.e., armies)' in Sanskrit. Skt catur 'four' is related to our four, L quattuor, Gk tettares, Russian chetverka, &c. Skt angam is cognate with Gk aggos (pronounced angos) 'vessel, bucket, wine-bowl, shell; womb', Middle Irish aigen 'pan', English ankle.
Byline: or so says Pokorny ...
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That caturanga is pronounced <chaturanga>, ¿qué no?
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That caturanga is pronounced <chaturanga>, ¿qué no?
Yes, sorry about that. I'm used to the standard Devanagri transcription system. There's both an unaspirated {c} ~ /tS/ and an aspirated {ch} ~ /tS^h/ alveolar fricative. I've never been able to hear the difference, but then IANP (I ain't no pandit).
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The connection of 'agios with the Sanskrit becomes more apparent if you know that in modern demotic Greek the word is pronounced "hayyos" (the gamma being soft, instead of hard as in ancient and Koine Greek). Hence, the name of the great church of Byzantium, now a mosque, 'Agia Sophia, is generally pronounced now as Hayya Sofia. The Greek church in East Baltimore, 'Agios Nikolaos, (St. Nicholas) is Hayyos Neekolouse.
There is a parallel softening of the letter 'g' in Old English, where it is often pronounced something like our 'y'. For instance, the OE "He segde" (he said) is pronounced "hay say-de"; hence the spelling became "sayde", "saide", "said" in succesive ages.
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de·mot·ic (dĭ-mŏt'ĭk)
adj.
1. Of or relating to the common people; popular: demotic speech; demotic entertainments.
2. Of, relating to, or written in the simplified form of ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
3. Demotic
Of or relating to a form of modern Greek based on colloquial use.
n.
Demotic Greek.
[Greek dçmotikos, from dçmotçs, a commoner, from dçmos, people.]
(from Gurunet)
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Just found this last night, re-reading one of my old Mary Stewarts (Madam, Will You Talk?):
I chuckled through a bite of croissant, aware of a miraculous spring-time lift of the heart, a champagne-tingling of the blood: the nightmare had gone; this fresh sun of morning rose on a different world where the last gossamer rag of fear and uncertainty must shrink and vanish in the superfluity of light. I said: "I was--translated."
I see now that I missed the meaning completely, the first n times I read it.
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Mary Stewart
I enjoyed the first three books in her Arthurian cycle, but I've not read any of her other books.
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