Re: Rhyming Conlangs

It's not the length of Somali poems (though some do get long), but the
complexity of the form and the fact that Somali poets could/can produce it
spontaneously in "poetic duels".

The feats of memory performed by pre-literate societies are another, equally
astounding, example of what the mind can do.  12,000 lines!  And I haven't
memorized my new phone number yet after 2 weeks!

Adam

So lift the cup of joy and take a big drink.
In spite of it all it's a beautiful world.
-------Suzanne Knutzen




>From: "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: Rhyming Conlangs
>Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 18:32:10 -0500
>
>Quoting Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>:
>
> > The astounding thing is that the Somali verse tradition is (or was
> > until very recently) purely oral, as the vast majority of the
> > population was illiterate in any language and nearly everyone was
> > illiterate in Somali.
>
>Oh, that shouldn't be THAT surprising.  Both the Iliad and
>the Odyssey were entirely orally transmitted for centuries
>before they were finally written down and standardized sometime
>in the 7th century.  And they were only some 12,000 lines long,
>with about 10% of it repetition;  there are much, much longer
>oral poems.
>
>==============================
>Thomas Wier <trwier@...>
>"There once was a man who said, 'God     "Dear Sir:  Your astonishment's
>odd;
>Must think it exceedingly odd            *I* am always about in the Quad
>If he finds that this tree               And that's why the tree
>continues to be                          will continue to be
>when there's no one about in the Quad.'" Since observed by,
>                                             Yours faithfully, God."
>-- two Berkeleian limericks in Bertrand Russell's _Unpopular Essays_

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

Reply