[Buddha-l] Re: New trans. of poetry of the Sixth DL

Richard P. Hayes rhayes at unm.edu
Mon Jun 27 09:57:49 MDT 2005


> Actually, I have more difficulty with your address - I always mentally 
> pronounce it as Alberquirky, which might be appropriate with you living 
> there.

Albuquerqueños quickly discover that questions come in pairs. The most
familiar pair is: 1) What city do you live in? 2) How do you spell
that? 

The second question is complicated by the fact that an 'r' somehow got
dropped overboard between Spain and New Mexico. The Spanish place after
which the New Mexican town is named is spelled Alburquerque. That place,
and therefore the New Mexican town almost named after it, has two
etymologies. Some say it comes from the Latin name for a species of
tree, and other says it is the corruption of an Arabic phrase.
Naturally, I prefer the latter nirukti, but I have no reason whatsoever
for doing so, except that I like Arabs more than Romans. (We populists
always cheer on the underdogs, which may be why we become Buddhists.)

-- 
Richard Hayes
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes



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