Re: Conlang in-jokes.
From: | Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, August 30, 2005, 17:08 |
Quoting Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>:
> Hi!
>
> Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> writes:
> > John Vertical/Douglas Adams wrote:
> >
> > > "It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much
> > > importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the
> > > Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink
> called
> > > jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a
> > > thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks
> > > themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian
> > > "chinanto/mnigs"
> > > which is ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature, and
> the
> > > Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and
> in
> > > fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the
> > > names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the
> > > worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds."
> > >
> > [SnIp].... Structural linguistics is a bitterly divided and unhappy
> > discipline,
> > > and a large number of its practitioners spend too many nights drowning
> > > their
> > > problems in Ouisghian Zodahs."
> > >
> > [SnIp]...> And the obvious question: has anyone else done this? :)
> > >
> > Now we have. Kash could be _cinan tonik_ or ...toniç [,tSinan'donik
> > ~,tSinan'doniS] and _vis kisota_, all of so far unknown meaning.
>
> :-)
>
> Checking the lexicon of Tyl Sjok, I found that the speakers might know
> the following three cocktails whose composition is unknown, but whose
> translation is known:
>
> sin nwng ton hwk [sin3NtVnh3k]
>
> 'start to be able to blow repeatedly'
>
> (No new vocab! :-))
Well, _gin an tonic_ [dZin an tonik] would be a valid Meghean phrase ... the
words don't mean anything yet, tho.
Andreas