Wordy Wednesday - Whither Weather

Source

Man, am I tired. On the upside, finals are finally done this week so I can actually devote some time to the blog before my next semester begins in a month. Of course, next semester is going to be considerably harder, plus work may pick up the pace about a week into the semester too. However, I've got some time right now since work is slow too, so I'm going to take the opportunity to work up some of the ideas I have floating around.

For now, however, let's talk about the weather today for the Wordy Wednesday. If you're in America, you've undoubtedly heard about the massive storms tearing up the Deep South and East Coast, with more tornadoes in the past few days in North Carolina than normally happen all season. Even though we're very, very far West, we're not unaffected and have had our own set of nasty spring storms. At this rate, we might go from a 10-year drought to a 7-year! My state's reservoirs are full and we haven't even hit snow melt. It's shaping up to be an interesting year, that's for sure.

It's hard to talk about the weather without also talking about some of Latvia's interesting mythology. I won't go into much detail right now but you might see this crop up again in future Wordy Wednesdays.

  • līt : to rain [slider title="conjugate me"] līt , 1. konj.
    tag. līstu, līsti, līst, līstam, līstat
    pag. liju, liji, lija, lijām, lijāt
    nak. līšu, līsi, līs, līsim, līsiet / līsit
    pav. lij, lijiet [/slider]

My spelling dictionary thinks this is the most boring verb in the world and as such is undeserving of a real entry. I think it's a pain to conjugate, but apparently that means I need to pick out more 1st conjugate for Wordy Wednesdays. Clearly I'm getting plenty of practice on the other two and not enough on 1st.

  • pērkons : thunder [slider title="decline me"] pērkons , m, 1. dekl.
    vsk.: pērkons, pērkona, pērkonam, pērkonu, ar pērkonu, pērkonā
    dsk.: pērkoni, pērkonu, pērkoniem, pērkonus, ar pērkoniem, pērkonos [/slider]

Pērkons is also one of the old gods of the Baltic pantheon. I confess that I know very little about Baltic pagan mythology, but Wikipedia notes that Pērkons is the god of thunder, mountains, rain, the sky and oak trees. There are quite a few interesting little tidbits, so take a look at the article if you're interested.

  • saule : sun [slider title="decline me"] saule , f, 5. dekl.
    vsk.: saule, saules, saulei, sauli, ar sauli, saulē
    dsk.: saules, sauļu, saulēm, saules, ar saulēm, saulēs [/slider]

Saule is another important Baltic goddess. She is the goddess of the sun, fertility, and the unfortunate, according to Wikipedia. However, she is not the most powerful, though she is one of the more powerful deities.

  • sniegs : snow [slider title="decline me"] sniegs , m, 1. dekl.
    vsk.: sniegs, sniega, sniegam, sniegu, ar sniegu, sniegā
    dsk.: sniegi, sniegu, sniegiem, sniegus, ar sniegiem, sniegos [/slider]

Generally, sniegs is used in the singular since this is an uncountable noun. Still, it can be and is used in the plural too.

Our family back in Latvia tells us that this past winter was very hard, with an incredible amount of snow. Some of the pictures we received were astonishing: some of their storms resulted in more snow than we received all the way up here in the mountains!

  • vējš : wind [slider title="decline me"] vējš , m, 1. dekl.
    vsk.: vējš, vēja, vējam, vēju, ar vēju, vējā
    dsk.: vēji, vēju, vējiem, vējus, ar vējiem, vējos [/slider]

Interestingly, Latvian mythology anthropomorphizes the wind as one of the many female "mother" deities. Vēja māte is the goddess of wind, patron of sailors and also oversees forests and birds. There are several dozen goddesses like this that cover many aspects of natural life.

  • zibens : lightning [slider title="decline me"] zibens , m, 2. dekl.
    vsk.: zibens, zibens, zibenim, zibeni, ar zibeni, zibenī
    dsk.: zibeņi, zibeņu, zibeņiem, zibeņus, ar zibeņiem, zibeņos [/slider]

Don't be fooled by the lonely -s on the end of this noun. This is one of the 7 exception words for the 2nd declension. It's also one of the things I adore about Latvian - the irregulars, by and large, are so few that you can easily memorize them in a sitting.

Bit late tonight, but better late than never. :)