Re: allnoun, Linear P

At 5:38 pm -0400 21/4/99, Ed Heil wrote:
[....]
>
>I like Cognitive Grammar a la Ronald Langacker and George Lakoff and company.
[The rest snipped - but read with interest - thanks]
[more snips]
>>
>>>If there were a way to implement it less awkwardly, I'd love to
>>>use it in a conlang.
>>
>>Well, why not try  ;)
>
>HMMMMmmmmmmmm... :)  Not a bad idea.  Not a bad idea at all.
>
>How about a case-ending that expresses "is the role filled by"?  That would
>eliminate those silly colons.  Only problem is when you have to add that case
>ending to a long (parenthesized) string of words.  Hmmm...
Go for it!  Maybe the postposited particles of Japannese could come to the
rescue?

>>You might even persuade my to forget Mathias' paroxystic poncifs and have
>>another go at 'All-Verb'   :-)
>
>No thanks.  The nouns work for me just fine. :)
Yes, yes - but I meant just as an experiment.  Indeed, I've had a private
email urging me to go ahead with it  :)

>>PS.
>>
>>>     "Koy tse tl'an tse tum gen nekom payaw;
>>>           ts'enra me hlay man yatam."
>>>"The noble nation of Atlantis is greatest among men;
>>>    And its reign shall extend unto eternity."
>>>          (from a Linear P inscription.)
>>>****************************************************
>>
>>Linear P?  Tell me more ;)
>
>P as in "palaeo-", you see.
I do see.

>It was deciphered on the grounds of being a very
>distant ancestor of linear A and B (in the process, linear A was cracked.
>Turns out it's a dialect of Luwian with heavy non-Indo-European, presumably
>'Minoan', influence...).  Atlantean, or "tl'an-tse" (properly Mal-Tl'an-Tse,
>the Language of Tl'an the Noble) turns out to be a simple, isolating, SVO
>language.
>
>Somehow this didn't make the academic journals.  Not sure why... ;)
I wonder why  ;)

Now if Linear A has been cracked you surely have the secret to the later
Eteocretan language.  Maybe you weren't around when I issued the challenge
to come up with the 'correct' translation of the Psykhro inscription after
I'd given some incorrect ones.  In case you (or any other interested
conlanger) missed it, here it is again (the main text in the 3rd cent.BC
Ionic alphabet, but there are three mysterious symbols beneath it):
-------------------------------------------------------
For those who would like to find 'proof' that their conlang was actually
used in Crete of the 3rd cent. BC - and for others - I give a
transliteration of the inscription. Greek eta /e:/ is represented as 'E',
theta /th/ by 'T' and phi /ph/ by 'P'.

epioi
zETanTE
par siPai

As far as I can manage in ASCII the three Linear symbols are:

|   |  /|\    /\
|_|_| /_|_\  /__\
  |     |   /  | \
  |     |      |

------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sure you can manage the Linear symbols as well  :)

But I must warn you I have already had it translated as an early form of
Elet Anta and as Rokbeigalmki.

And, of course, there has inevitably been a Luwian translation  :)

Ray.