Re: Bastet Relay Translation Web Finally Up!!

On Wed, May 30, 2001 at 12:48:33PM -0400, bjm10@CORNELL.EDU wrote:
> On Wed, 30 May 2001, H. S. Teoh wrote:
>
> > I'll be more than willing to expound at great lengths what simple
> > constructs in my conlang means... either to the benefit or detriment of
> > actually understanding it :-P
>
> Heh--whomever goes after me will have to deal with the fact that gender
> can change the meaning of a word.
[snip]
> I could see some poor high-schooler in the USA forgetting the genders and
> translating every instance as "tool".
>
> "Now you've done it.  You've made my tool into a tool."
LOL!!

Well, one of the obscure features in my conlang is that the pronouns are
*not* divided into 1st/2nd/3rd person. Rather, it's divided into a first
person singular, the intimate pronouns, and the distant pronouns. The
distant pronouns can act both as 3rd person and 2nd person; the intimate
pronouns can be the 1st person plural or the 2nd person *or* the 3rd
person.

Basically, instead of delineating pronouns according to person, it regards
the speaker (1st person singular) as the unique reference point, and then
classifies everyone/everything else into two successive layers: the
"intimate" things and the "distant" things. The intimate pronouns are used
for everyone/everything the speaker considers are "with" him or part of
his inner circle, etc.. The distant pronouns are used for everything else
-- the things that the speaker considers at a distance from him.

So for example, if you met a stranger, you'd address him as _chi'di_ (or
her as _jhiti'_). But if you met your brother or good friend, you'd
address him as _co'mi_ (or her as _jubi'_). And if you were to tell your
brother about the stranger you met, you'd describe the stranger as
_chi'di_ (that is, the same word you use to address the stranger), and if
you were to tell the stranger about your brother, you'd refer to your
brother as _co'mi_ (the same word you use to address your brother).

I won't elaborate more, I don't want to bore you :-) but if you want I can
refer you to my webpage which describes this system in detail.


T

--
Give me some fresh salted fish, please.

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