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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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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>