Re: Speaker Relative Adjectives

Joe Mondello wrote:
>
> I have been toying with the idea of putting the following system in my
> conconlang: adjectives whose meaning changes based on the traits of the
> speaker.  e.g:
> wer-age
> werkU-in the same age group as the  speaker.  when a  child says 'werkU' it
> would mean 'young'.  from an adult speaker it would be 'old' or adult,
> depending on context.
> wervIp-not belonging to the same age group.  again with a child saying this it
> would mean not young or (usually) old. from someone of middle age this term
> could refer to all of those who are not middle aged, including children and
> the elderly
> werhoch-the percieved opposite of the trait.  from a child this would
> absolutely mean old or perhaps very old.  from someone of middle age, however,
> the context would have to explain whether the speaker is relatively young or
> old.
>
> perhaps this system will not work out as well as I have planned, but I also
> plan to forbid it in speaker-unknown situations.  does any such system already
> exist in a natlang?
> pacs precs
> Joe Mondello

Well, maybe I can mention a kind of related phenomenon from spoken
Arabic (I think I mentioned it once before on the list).  It's not an
adjective, and it's not quite as generic as your examples.  But maybe it
will do:

In spoken Arabic (I'm familiar with Palestinian, but I believe this
phenomenon is general), the expressions "yabba" ("O Dad" - the vocative
ya and the word baba = dad), and yamma (the equivalent for "O Mom") are
used by *parents* to refer to their children.  The choice is according
to the gender of the *speaker*, not the child.

To illustrate:
Ahmad, a father, turns to his 4 year-old daughter and says:
yabba, biddik booza? (honey, do you want ice-cream?).
- where "honey" is literally "oh father" as explained.


Fatima, a mother, says to her 3 year-old son:
yamma, lesh za'alan? (darling, why are you angry?)
- where "darling" is literally "oh mother."

Get the idea?  OK.  But the relevance to your point is that the children
in these examples could use the same expressions in their literal
sense.  In other words, the 3 year-old son in the second example above
could reply:
yamma, darabuni! (mom, they hit me!)


Thus the word "yamma" means "my child," when used by a parent talking to
their young child of either sex, and "my mother" when used by a child to
his/her mother. The gender complication here makes the symmetry
imperfect, but I hope you like the example and it encourages you in your
fascinating conlanging.


        Shaul Vardi