Re: Relay 1: Czevraqis Vocabulary, 3/3

On Saturday, August 25, 2001, at 01:50 AM, SuomenkieliMaa wrote:

> Hi YHL!
>
Hello!

> --- Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> wrote:
>> vesaru: to take root/create dangerous serenity
>> adjective: sylvan, er--dangerously serene?
>> state: growth (of trees)
>> doer (prof): the Gatewood
>> doer (cas): wood
>> tool: tree
>> emphatic: forest
>> dimninutive: sapling
>>
>> (The Gatewood is the best-known, most revered and
>> most feared forest,
>> though woods in general are known for harboring the
>> spirits of the land,
>> who may or may not be in a good mood.)
>
> Wow!  I love this idea, although I admit that I
> haven't read through all the details in all the
> emails.  Just happened to pull this up now... Anyhow,
> I like how you incorporate (ie, force) your conculture
> into the vocabulary of your conlang, by what seems to
> be by different cases.
>
<wry g>  I would be a very *bored* Yoon Ha indeed if I didn't get to sit
around screwing with semantics this way...what you call "cases" are pretty
much inspired by Arabic as presented in one of Rick Morneau's essays, the
one on how a Semitic linguist might tend to structure a language.  But OC
I wasn't looking for anything remotely transparent to people who don't
already have some idea of the conculture.  For what it's worth, the
fantasy novel that uses Czevraqis is already a good 50,000 words long...<G>

> So, I'm curious... how would you say in Czevraqi the
> following: "Wood from the Gatewood, a
> dangerously-serene forest, is the best due to the sort
> of trees it comes from."
>
> Sounds like you would need this word "vesaru" a lot!
>
<wince>  Yeah--Roger Mills pointed out this feature, which is also present
in his Kash.  Er...I don't think I even have the grammar yet to *say* all
those things.  However, I do want to use Roger's suggestion of redundancy.
   I imagine, for example, that there's a triconsonantal root that
expresses the notion of woodworking (and perhaps others for finer
distinctions).  It would probably make sense that "wood" from v-s-r is
meant in a "living" or natural sense (e.g. fallen branches, groves of
trees) rather than "wood" as a carpenter sees or uses it, or someone who
works in veneers, or maquetry, or what-have-you.  Perhaps a less, hmm,
*mythologized* word for forest, too, the kind you would actually feel safe
harvesting wood from.  (The mainstream of society, I suspect, would only
*sneak* wood from the Gatewood.)

> I've thought of doing something similar in Vya:a:h,
> but indicate difference in meaning only by the written
> version (again, I go back to my own intrigue with
> script).
>
> Thanks for the idea!
> Matt33
It's all good.  :-)

YHL