On 9/20/06, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 20, 2006 at 11:55:38AM -0700, David J. Peterson wrote:
> > Regarding this, and idioms, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned
> > that Star Trek episode. I can't remember the famous phrase, but
> > it's something like "Darmok and Jelad at Tanagra", and that's
> I believe you're referring to the language of the "children of Tama".
> Their speech is apparently filled with (or maybe even exclusively built
> from) such expressions. See:
The Ascians in Gene Wolfe's _The Book of the New Sun_
have a similar language, which seems to consist entirely of
proverbs and aphorisms. There is a chapter in
_The Citadel of the Autarch_ where an Ascian POW tells
a story in this form and someone else translates it line
by line.
--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry