Re: Hi from Ukraine

Am 23.11.01, Irina Rempt yscrifef:

> > Wow, that's news to me! When did you find this out? And dare I
> > ask what "Ilaini" means [hoping the natives won't roll their
> > eyes in that "stupid foreigner" fashion and say "it's what
> > we call 'language' dumdum!"]?
>
> Sure :-)
>
> It means, in fact, "(the) languages".
Ah. Me dumb foreigner! :)

> The same way that the word for
> "the world" is _arli_, "the realities". It's collective plural, to
> signify that it's not one language, but all the mutually
> understandable (well, if you live less than about 50 miles apart,
> otherwise it takes some getting used to) dialects of the same
> language taken together.
Now, I like that way of looking at it. Would the singular of
ilaini mean "a single dialect" or similar? Any other examples?
I'll keep this in mind for future borrowing, if you don't mind!

Padraic.

>    irina
Padraic.
--
Bethez gwaz vaz ha leal.

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