The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady is one of the most famous novels by Henry James. Like many of the novels written by Henry James, it is set in Europe. The main character is Isabelle Archer, a young American who travels to Europe and soon meets two Americans in England. Her life becomes difficult because of their various schemes.

After the death of Isabel's father, Isabel's aunt, Lydia Touchett, invites her to England to stay with her aunt and her wealthy husband at their London estate. There she meets her relatives' neighbour, Lord Warburton. Soon after meeting Lord Warburton, he proposes marriage, but Isabel declines. She also rejects Caspar Goodwood, the son of a wealthy business owner.

Her uncle, Daniel Touchett, becomes ill and leaves much of his estate to Isabel upon his death. Isabel then travels around Europe and meets Gilbert Osmond, an American, in Florence. He proposes marriage and Isabel accepts. 

Isabel and Gilbert live in Rome, but their marriage soon worsens. Gilbert is very self-centred and shows little genuine interest in his wife. Isabel becomes very close to Pansy, Gilbert's daughter from his first marriage.

Pansy wants to marry Edmond, an art collector, and Isabel supports her. Gilbert, however, wants her to marry Lord Warburton, the man who previously proposed to Isabel in England. Isabel suspects that Lord Warburton may simply be pretending to be interested in Pansy so that he can get close to Isabel. This adds more tension to Isabel and Gilbert's unhappy marriage.

Isabel learns that her cousin Ralph, the son of her Aunt Lydia and Uncle Daniel, is dying. She wants to visit him at his estate in England, but her husband opposes her plan. Without telling her husband, Isabel later leaves to visit her dying cousin and remains in England until his death.

She later meets Caspar Goodwood at the estate and he begs her to leave Gilbert and be with him. In a moment of passion, he embraces and kisses her, but she flees. Caspar looks for her the next day but learns that she has returned to Rome.

The ending is not clear. One possibility is that Isabel has returned to Gilbert to repair their marriage, but the other is that she intends to rescue Pansy and leave her husband. Henry James leaves the ending to the reader's imagination.

The novel deals with the themes of personal freedom, responsibility and betrayal. Isabel is a strong and independent woman, but after she inherits much of her uncle's estate and marries Gilbert, her life changes drastically. She has financial independence, but she does not feel free.

Belgian Towns and Cities With Two Names

Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. The most widely-spoken is Dutch, which is spoken by more than 50% of the population. The variety of Dutch spoken in Belgium is often called Flemish. French is spoken by approximately one-third of the population. Many Belgian cities and towns have two names, a Dutch name and a Belgian name.

Here is a list of Belgian towns and cities with the names in English, Dutch and French:

Aalst Aalst Alost

Ambleve Amel Amblève

Antwerp Antwerpen Anvers

Arlon Aarlen Arlon

Bruges Brugge Bruges

Brussels Brussel Bruxelles

Ghent Gent Gand

Kortrijk Kortrijk Courtrai

La Calamine Kelmis La Calamine

Leuven Louvain Leuven

Liege Luik Liège

Mons Bergen Mons

Namur Namen Namur

Ostend Oostende Ostende

Ronse Renaix Ronse

Saint-Gilles Sint-Gillis Saint-Gilles

Tournai Doornik Tournai

Mechelen Mechelen Malines

Voeren Voeren Fourons

Ypres Ieper Ypres

A few Belgian cities have an English name that is different from the Dutch and French names. Towns and cities in the Dutch-speaking region often have the Dutch name in English, and towns and cities in the French-speaking region often have the French one. However, with certain cities such as Bruges and Ypres, this rule does not apply.

Bergen Dialect

Norwegian has many dialects. The dialect of Bergen is quite different from that of Oslo. The dialect of Bergen is similar to many dialects of western Norway.

One of the features which is characteristic of the Bergen dialect is the uvular /r/. In Oslo the /r/ is an alveolar flap, but in Bergen it is a uvular fricative or uvular trill. Unlike in Oslo, the /r/ does not form retroflex sounds in words such as bjørn (bear), hurtig (fast) and torsk (cod) .

The /l/ of the Bergen dialect is never velarized. In the Oslo dialect, it is a velarized lateral in words such as salg (sale), tolv (twelve) and ål (eel). In words such as slange (snake) slott (castle) and slør (veil). the /s/ is a retroflex alveopalatal fricative in the Oslo dialect, but it is an alveolar fricative in the Bergen dialect.

The dialects of Bergen and Oslo both have a distinctive pitch accent which can distinguish words with the same pronunciation. However, the pitch accent is different in the two dialects. The dialect of Bergen is a high tone dialect because the tone starts high and falls. In Oslo, it is a low tone dialect because it starts low and rises.

The two dialects also have different vocabulary. In Oslo the word for I is jeg, but in Bergen it is eg. The word for not is ikke in Olso but ikkje in Bergen. and the word for now is nå in Oslo but no in Bergen.

The Bergen dialect is one of the most recognizable Norwegian dialects. Distinctive features of the dialect include the uvular /r/, the pitch accent and the vocabulary. It is the only Norwegian dialect that uses only two genders, neuter and common, rather than neuter, feminine and common.

Poem (Changes of Life)

My latest poem is about the changes in all of our lives. I hope you enjoy it!

Changes of Life

With every second we become wiser,   

Learning and growing in chapters of life.    

We see our past and await our future,     

Changing into one as husband and wife.

                                                                                       

Changes of nature come with each season,

Reflected in falling leaves and fresh snow.

Blooming plants open spring with elation

And summer leaves lasting sunsets that glow.

Moods and opinions often change quickly,

Transforming themselves from morning to night.

Life is always filled with uncertainty,

With lasting changes that no one can fight.

Changes can be seen in us as we age,

And many long to be young forever.

With these changes we start another stage,

More transformation in life and nature.

Changes of life form part of every day,

Connected to every creature from birth.

Forcefully they enter only to stay

In their provisional homes here on Earth.

English Stress With Tense and Lax Vowels

English stress is irregular. Unlike in languages such as Finnish and Japanese, it is not fixed. However, certain patterns occur in combination with tense and lax vowels.

In words such as amuse, complete, decide, machine and police, the stress is on the final syllable. However, in words such as abandon, astonish, cancel, solid and winter, the stress is penultimate. The rule for predicting stress is the quality of the vowel. The words with stress on the final syllable have tense vowels, and the words with antepenultimate stress have lax vowels. In both groups stress is placed on the final tense vowel of the word.

The words abrupt, correct, depend, exact and suggest have lax vowels in the final syllable and final-syllable stress. In another group of words, abandon, astonish, certain, consider and solid, the final vowel is also lax but the stress is penultimate. The difference is that the words of the first group end with a cluster of two consonants, but in the second group they end in only one consonant. The final vowel is lax in both groups, but words with a consonant cluster have final-syllable stress and words with one final consonant have penultimate stress.

Though English stress is not fixed, certain patterns can be observed. It is often the case that stress is placed on the final tense vowel of the word. In words which end with a lax vowel, stress is often placed on the final syllable in words which end with consonant clusters and on the penultimate syllable in words which end with a single consonant. It is important to emphasize that these are general rules because they contain exceptions.

Icelandic Vocabulary

Icelandic is a North Germanic language. It is most closely related to Faeroese. However, Iceland was once part of Denmark, and Danish is taught in Icelandic schools. Unlike Danish, however, Icelandic has fewer loanwords. Here is a list of ten of ten words to illustrate:

(culture) kultur menningu

(elephant) elefant fíl 

(geography) geografi landafræði

(literature) litteratur bókmenntir

(museum) museum safn

(organization) organisation skipulag

(radio) radio útvarp

(restaurant) restaurant veitingahús

(robot) robot vélmenni

(telephone) telefon sími 

The Danish words are similar to their English equivalents. However, the Icelandic words are not. In the Icelandic words for geography, literature and restaurant, we see the words for land, book and house. 

Unlike many languages, Icelandic often uses native words rather than loanwords. In the list, it is clear that the Danish vocabulary is similar to that of many other languages. This is not the case with Icelandic. The policy of discouraging new loanwords from entering the Icelandic language is known as linguistic purism.