anadews, earthquakes, and going nomail
From: | Sally Caves <scaves@...> |
Date: | Thursday, December 30, 2004, 17:09 |
----- Original Message -----
From: "Philip Newton" <philip.newton@...>
> On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 14:13:07 -0500, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...>
> wrote:
>> I've got an idea:
>>
>> I could invent (as much I know) an other mood wich would be reciprocal
> [snip]
>> Is that an idea? Did I invent something or is there something like that
>> already existing?
Perhaps now is the time to introduce Maxime, if we haven't already, to the
long-standing acronym: ANADEW-ism. Any time we think we've made up
something completely quirky and original and fiendishly weird for our
conlang, we're hit with the ANADEW: "Another Natlang Already Done it Even
Worse." :)
> It's not a natlang, but Klingon has something similar: the verb suffix
> -chuq indicates reciprocal action.
Didn't we have a discussion of this very thing on Conlang several months
ago? It centered on the notion of "love," IIRC. How funny that in Klingon
it should center on death, at least in your example. :)
It takes a verb prefix indicating a
> plural subject and no object; for example, "you and I kill one
> another" would me {maHoHchuq} (ma- "subject = we, no object", HoH
> "kill", -chuq "one another"), and the Klingon Dictionary gives
> "ja'chuq" for "discuss", literally "tell one another" (with zero
> subject prefix, indicating -- in this case -- third person plural
> subject and no object).
I imagine there's some natlang that does this.
On "Let Me Introduce Myself":
Maxime:
>> Can YOU say this about your living place???
>
> Barry:
> One thing you learn here is not to insult someone else's homeland, or
> laud your homeland over where other people live, such is rude and
> uncalled for, and it causes flame wars.
I tend to agree with Barry, here. I think it's great that you're on this
list, Maxime, and we enjoy your exuberance and your obvious patriotism, but
what if someone from Thailand or thereabouts were a contributor? Or from
any country that has recently suffered terrible earthquakes? One of our
members is from the Ukraine with its political troubles at present. "Can
YOU say that about your country?" Such a comment, and I'm sure it's due
more to naiveté than malice, can sound unbearably self-congratulatory, and
that's what Barry was warning you about. I assume your intent in reaching
out to us is to integrate yourself here, not set yourself apart. That's
everybody's aim, despite our wonderful differences.
As for earthquakes, I come from Rochester, Upstate New York. We're on a
fault line, and we are not equipped as Californians are with their seismic
retrofitting to deal with a big one if it ever occurs here (which is
unlikely). I come from beautiful and inflammable California, too, and have
been through some "big ones" myself, and seen some horrific fires. My
entire family is out west, and I miss them, but despite some of its dangers
I'd go back there in a heartbeat if I could afford it. So, good luck on
your conlanging, Maxime.
Going Nomail for the time being:
It's been a wonderful few months! But I'm suffering from just too much
Sitzfleisch in front of this durn computer. It's too distracting; I have
other writing assignments that call for great stick-to-it-iveness as it is
(to the chair, I mean! :); and it's sometimes a vehicle for expressing my
anxieties. :) So I'll be back when I've got more interesting questions and
comments for you!
You all have a wonderful New Year!
Vyko, karyts-jo eual ven ffronan!
Sally
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/whatsteo.html