Chicken or Egg?

In my first entry since hell month ended a week and a half ago, I was pondering which topic I wanted to hit in this next post. I have a few ideas, but decided it would be nice to have some pictures to go along with them, so I'm going to my fall back idea, etymology.

Etymology, or the study of words, is extremely interesting because it not only gives an insight into people may have interacted in the past, but also words and cultures have developed within themself. This little entry is more about the former than the latter, but when you think about the former, you also have to think about the latter because interaction has had an effect on cultural development. Through my readings, I've found that it was apparently popular to show the Persian influence on Japanese culture via the silk road throughout the 80's as a number of books were produced on the topic; haven't heard much about that since but....

This is more of a question of phraseology than etymology, but I can't help but ask the questions in this blog...even if they are chicken and egg questions. In English, the phrase "long time no see" comes from a direct translation of a chinese phrase, hence the odd grammatical structure. How about the phrase "to kill two birds with one stone"? There are equivalent Chinese and Japanese phrases (isseki nicho: literally 1 stone, 2 birds; I guess we're supposed to get the idea from that), but where did the phrase originate? The other day, my teacher used the word "blood fest" (chi matsuri) much to my surprise (Japanese teachers don't typically use such phrases....).

How about common expressions? In Japanese, the concept of being dizzy is literally "eyes going in circles" (me ga mawatteiru) which does not really translate literally into English, but "to draw a blank" in Japanese is literally "mind turns white (blank)" (atama ga masshiro). When you think about it, to present the same concepts in similar words is a miracle in itself. How can English and Japanese produce the same general phrases even though they are in other ways polar opposites in structure and grammar?

It would take a detailed study of ancient texts to really find the answer to this question, but it is an interesting one that makes you think about what you are really saying, for example when you "take a shower" (Where are you taking it to?) or when you "have breakfast" (you have it, but will you eat it?).

Or maybe it is only interesting to me, the language freak...