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Re: Words and meanings (creating vocab)

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Friday, January 10, 2003, 21:15
On Fri, Jan 10, 2003 at 12:35:42PM -0800, Arthaey Angosii wrote:
> Emaelivpar Chris Wright: > >> And speaking of this, how does everyone else make their vocabularies? I > >> usually do it by translation, since it's fun, if tedious, and the words > >> are instantly useful, or at least used. > > T'adáshavpar Jonathan North Washington: > >That's the way I find most efficient. > > I also find translating the best way to make new words. I usually find at > least one category of words that I don't have at all in my language yet, > and so I have to stop and think about how the conculture would deal with > those concepts, not just those words. I often get sidetracked into making > at least twice as many supporting culture words as words used in the actual > passage.
Hey, that sounds familiar. :-) I do that too.
> But I had trouble finding good things to translate. I've done the Babel > Text and the North Wind and the Sun (which I'm typing into Shoebox now! > The automatic interlinears are _nice_), but I don't know what else to do.
The translation relays are good source of vocab, too. I owe much of Ebisedian's current lexicon to the relays. :-) [snip]
> What else have you people translated? If you've done poetry, how do you > handle rhyme/meter/connotations, which poetry tends to rely on much more > heavily than does prose?
[snip] I've *tried* poetry, but I'm no poet, so the Ebisedi would probably laugh me off the stage if I showed them the little that I did write. :-P Maybe writing short stories will help. I've tried, and I've been roadblocked right at the beginning, because apparently Ebisedian has large vocabulary gaps in describing common phenomena! :-) T -- Computer: Don't point at me... you'll leave a mark on the screen!