Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

From:Robert Hailman <robert@...>
Date:Wednesday, October 11, 2000, 0:20
Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

<snip>

> <G> Sounds like my mom, almost--except she was observing rather than > complaining that certain things about Korean that are "true" for her, > especially in the written language, are ignored or changed by my > generation of speakers.
I know a *lot* of people who complain about thinks like that in English, but not many people who just comment about them. Once I got in an argument with my World Religions teacher about the use of "can" in the sentance "Can I go to the washroom?" She said that "can" implies a physical ability, but I contended that in my ideolect "can" also implies an ability at the time due to the prevailing circumstances, so I was using it correctly. At that point she got confused an let me go.
> Er, I can't figure out where I put that email with the Kirschenbaum URL, > so I'm using 3 for the capital? epsilon (looks like 3-backwards). >
I thinks that what it is in Kirschenbaum anyways.
> Frex, /ö/ has become /w3/ and /ue/ (u-umlaut--I could never remember the
In Windows, do ALT-0252 for ü. Type the numbers on the numeric keypad.
> ASCII) has become /wi/. The difference between /e/ and /3/ is > disappearing; I can hear it but can't reliably produce it.
That seems like an awful lot of sound changes for one generation, but I suppose it could happen.
> They've also gradually made some of the spelling more modern and sensible > to modern pronunciation.
Do you mean to match up with sound changes, or in the Romanization? <snip>
> "Monk" to Western readers, a friend pointed out to me, usually means a > male person. "Monk" to me means male or female; I've seen enough female > Buddhist monks on the subway in Seou. <shrug>
Monk to me doesn't have any gender connotations, tho you're right, a Western monk is a man in most circumstances. I wouldn't be confused by it. -- Robert