Re: CHAT: Using cats for practice

On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, James Campbell wrote:

> Oh dear, this was meant to be a daft posting (with a practical point to
> make). Looks like I'd better explain myself...
>
> On the subject of conversation with cats, I wrote:
>
> > * It is essentially one-sided,
>
> Diana responded:
>
> > don't be too sure of that.  i defer to sally's expert opinion.
>
> Okay... I've been offlist for most of this year, so there may have been
> discussions that didn't reach me, but I assume this is Sally Caves. IIRC,
> we had an interesting onlist chat about the subject of feline vocalization
> (and their other methods of communication) some while ago, and we agree on
> much.
Yes, we do!  But what I think Diana meant was that I'm daft about cats.
My Teonaht web pages are studded with winged cat graphics.  The Teonim are
cat worshippers, one of their favorite deities being the goddess Bastet.
It is even whispered that they ARE cats, humanized, or that their
mysterious ancestors the Nenddeylym were cat creatures.  When I speak
Teonaht to Connie Groondy, my cat (her name is anglicized Welsh--"canu
grwndi" means "to purr" in that language) she responds very lovingly, but
then she does the same if I speak to her in Welsh.  Sometimes when I speak
to my husband, or even if I speak to myself--grunting over something in
the news, she assumes I'm speaking to her, and answers with a loving
upward look and a whispered "rrrrrr?"  So, although I assume that she
understands everything I'm saying (whether I'm speaking to her or not),
she is not very particular about what language I say it in.  (Yes, Teonaht
is a LANGUAGE).

[lovely ramble snipped]
> Sorry, I've rambled on there a bit (hence the topic tag). I still think
> it's useful to talk to the cat, when practising a conlang.
>
Very useful, James.  But even more useful is a trick I've thought of
trying, and which constitutes the only really practical way of holding a
dialogue with yourself. I'd like to know if anyone else is as crazy as I
am: make a taperecording of yourself issuing yourself commands, or asking
yourself evocative questions. Then play it back under your pillow at night
and see if they are clear to you, or if you dream about them.  On a more
ordinary level, you could make "taped lessons" and then try them on
yourself.  Teonaht has become increasingly complicated, over the years,
but it was greatly gratifying, and weird, to come across a dialog I had
written out... oh...nineteen years ago, between a girl and a boy who were
courting; and though I hadn't looked at this vocabulary for almost as long
(it was largely discarded and the grammar drastically altered), the
exchange was perfectly clear to me.  As though I was reading Spanish from
a textbook.  How strange, and with a language I invented.  It was speaking
to me across the years.

Sally--popping in from the hectic turmoil that is my life right now.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html


Li fetil'aiba, dam hoja-le uen.
volwin ly, vul inua aiba bronib.

This leaf, the wind takes her.
She's old, and born this year.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This needs to be changed.  Snow is breathing on us,
but not falling.  Ooh... nice sentence for Teonaht!