Re: new Unnamed Conlang

On 18 Sep 2004 Philippe Caquant <herodote92@YAH...> wrote:

> interjection, "ie" (or better, ieeeee, or jeeeee) is so typical for
> Alsacian [...] I don't know its etymology (perhaps a shortened form for
> Jesus ?). It expresses amazement, and/or alarm, or indignation
  Probably it comes form |Jesus|, but not necessary: Hungarian also
has this interjection |jé| [je:] for surprise, especially with
pleasure.  However its "sign" is the opposite of Alsacian [je:],
the suddenness is the same.  A similar |jaj(j)| [jOj(:)] is used in
Hungarian for negative amazement, sudden pain, pity etc., and
|juj(j)| [juj(:)] for "little", often funny suprise.

  There are also other j-initial interjections in German lenguages,
like German |Juch| ~ English |yippee|, the base of verb G. |jaulen|
~ E. |yowl| etc.  Or in Greek |ia| 'sound, cry', |iai| 'whoop
(pleasure)', |ié| '(pain; pleaure)', |iou| '(pain; pleaure)' etc.
The palatal epenthesis is often alternates with velar one, cf. E.
|yowl| ~ |(cater)waul| ~ |wow|, |yippie| ~ |whoopee|, and Greek
|iai| ~ |iaiboi| ~ |ouai|, Latin |vae|. Sometimes a third buffer
consonant (e.g. |h|) is used, cf. E. |yowl| ~ |(cater)waul| ~
|howl|.

  Therefore I think it is a simple onomatopoeic interjection but
maybe used sometimes instead of profanity |Jesus| as an euphemism.