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Re: Telek -- Invent a Language

From:Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Date:Saturday, September 30, 2000, 15:05
On Sat, 30 Sep 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote: > > Lovely! I didn't do anything nearly so interesting..."language," > > "speech" and "song" are all expressed by the same word in Chevraqis. > > Boring. <G> > > I consider that anything but boring. I like that "song" and "language" > are the same word. It seems kinda poetic in a way. > > Vaguely related, the verb for "to sing" or "to chant" in Uatakassí is > _kassí_. Folk-etymology connects this with Kassí, the ethnic name, > altho how exactly they're connected isn't clear. They're not a > particularly musical people. In reality, the words are unrelated. The > verb comes from Common Kassí _kastíhë_, while the ethnic name comes from > _kërsé_
I haven't done folk-etymologies for anything. <rueful look> That's neat, though. The Qenaren and Avren (who speak Chevraqis) are somewhat though not exceptionally musical. The ancestor-culture of horse-nomads was rather more so. I'm thinking of incorporating Tuvan/Mongolian throat-singing, though my efforts to learn how to do it have been rather amusing (and unsuccessful). I suspect it may be a lost art among the Avren, who have drifted a lot from the parent culture, and a minority art among the Qenaren. YHL