Re: New Arvorec words
From: | Roger Mills <romilly@...> |
Date: | Saturday, May 26, 2001, 5:00 |
Dan Jones wrote:
>>ObConlangQuestion: How would you express this in your conlangs?
Barry Garcia wrote:
>Actually, as things are, i'm not sure if I can truly express that right
>now. I wonder where most of the Spanish and portuguese terms come from
>(are there ANY slang terms for homosexuals that arent derrogatory in those
>languages?)>
In any natlang?
Among the Kash (and I have a hard time imagining this), same-sex
relationships, both casual and long-term (officially recognized) are
completely acceptable; and gay men and women are completely integrated into
society. About the only folks who really worry about having an exclusively
gay son or daughter are the very wealthy, old-money types, who are more
concerned about how it might affect inheritance and trust funds than
anything else. (Perpetual trusts are permitted, so it _is_ rather important
to have an heir.) And even in those cases, the son/daughter would probably
manage somehow to produce the heir.
About 10% of males are exclusively homosexual, another 10% or so want
nothing at all to do with it. Everyone in between is essentially bisexual
to one degree or another. (Sorry to ignore the women, but they're a little
more complicated to explain.) So if you feel you need to know about
someone, you would simply ask them: lani halalisam, sinut luma? 'which do
you prefer, man, woman?' to which the answer might be: umundi, sinut (or,
luma) 'generally, a man (or, a woman)' Or perhaps, na, travirap 'I'm not
sure', ta yale kracal 'it's not a problem', me kuwa-kuwa 'it's all the same
to me', or, na, macetre, mo...pani-panip 'well, I'm married, but...I play
around'. One of the exclusive 10% might answer, a, mam, virap naya sit
(laugh) 'oh, as for me, I'm definitely third gender'.
Another self-designation is: mavorat tungar kandroka 'I belong to the
Kandrok clan/tribe'-- Kandrok being a large island with a varied and rather
primitive population (called Kadrok, Kár@duk etc. in other languages)-- but
the Kash form just happens to be the agent-noun of trok 'f*ck'.
The disapproving 10% might refer to someone as belonging to: tutuk turi-turi
'the birdie club'. That's about as pejorative as we get, so far.
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