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Re: does conlanging change your sense of reality?

From:J. Burke <rtoennis@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 22:58
I definitely believe that there are some sound:meaning universals, which are
reflected in a variety of the world's languages.  Though from long experience of
having believed controversial things, I tend to avoid getting into arguments over
it; such usually degenerate into contests of examples and counterexamples.
Sound:meaning fit is never perfect, and counterexamples are often lauded as
disproving the idea entirely.  Sigh.

I've played around with this a lot in my conlangs, though the best examples are
often found in natlangs.  I think, e.g., that the Proto-Algonquian root for
'fight', _mikaθ-_, is a perfect fit between sound and act.  Don't ask me why; I
can't tell you.  It just feels right.

--- On Wed, 4/1/09, RoseRose <faithfulscribe@...> wrote:

> From: RoseRose <faithfulscribe@...> > Subject: Re: does conlanging change your sense of reality? > To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu > Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 9:35 AM > That's an interesting aesthetic > challenge.  Are you familiar with Margaret > Magnus and phonosemantics <http://www.trismegistos.com/>?  She makes a > strong argument for sound and sense connecting, not being > arbitrary at all. > I toss this out knowing the controversy it can spawn  > ;--} > RR > > On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 9:14 AM, Peter Bleackley < > Peter.Bleackley@rd.bbc.co.uk> > wrote: > > > staving RoseRose: > > > >  I'm personally of the Whorfian persuasion that > different languages "cause" > >> different forms of thinking and different thoughts > therefore arise. > >>  Having > >> been so deeply engaged with Glide for 10 years, > I've noticed I parse the > >> world differently--see process, for instance, more > foregrounded than > >> things, > >> flow more than form.  This is of course very > subjective and not all that > >> easy to describe.  I am curious if anyone > else sees effects in your > >> reality-sense that you attribute to your > conlanging activities in any way? > >> Diana > >> > > > > OK, here's a slightly weird one for you. > > Khangaşyagon is spoken by wizards, who because of > their magical gifts, are > > all synaesthetes. I'm not a synaesthete, but recently > I was trying to think > > up words for herbs and spices. I spent a lot of time > in my kitchen, sniffing > > at jars and trying to find a word that fit - or > thinking up words and then > > searching for something that smelt right for the > sound. My thought processes > > at one point went something like this. > > "zurvin... Is that cloves?" <sniff> "No, > definitely not cloves. How about > > thyme?" <sniff> "Yes, that's right, zurvin is > thyme." > > > > Pete > > >