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Re: Ancient conlang

From:Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
Date:Saturday, January 17, 2004, 1:24
--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:

> > Because we understand what is entailed, while > a H > > speaker will not. He'd probably know what a > > message is, but not what an email is. His > > messages are hacked into clay and baked > > A slightly unreal scenario, I think.
And presenting a Hittite speaker with an email exchange is slightly more real? ;)
> I don't understand > why anyone would want to do this?
It's an intellectual exercise. You know, a what if.
> And surely by fixing the Hittite vocabulary at > what we > have recovered and reverting to (strange) > circumlocutions, > we are re-enforcing the erroneous notion of > "primitive > language" that Paul was arguing against.
Who said anything about "fixing" the H vocabulary? We've added three virtual words to it in this exchange!
> >> We've plundered Greek and Latin in order to > >> extend our vocabulary, > >> and borrowed 'chimpanzee' from some west > >> African source. I am not > >> aware of any evidence that Hittite couldn't > >> have similarly extended its vocabulary. > > > > Apparently so! I thought the whole point of > > John's comment was to make the thing > > understandable for a speaker of an ancient > > language. > > That is _not_ how I understood Paul's reply to > Gary;
I don't know. I'm going on the premise that "this email" can be translated (comprehensibly) into any ancient or modern language; to which John replied that H has no word for email; to which I replied that one can easily be fashioned. Hope that straightens it out!
> I assumed John was simply making the > observation that > Hittite would have to have these vocabulary > items for > Paul's translation to be made.
Quite. That's why I "made" some new H words to help us along!
> > Not just providing a loan word that > > fits the phonology. I guess if all you want > is a > > simple loan, I suggest iimeyallas. > > _I_ want nothing. I was merely making the > observation that > it is my belief that all natlangs have the > resources to > adapt and extend their vocabulary.
Sure. I'm only helping the process along!! I guess a H speaker might call it his equivalent of "thingamabob" or "whatsit" - I'm only suggesting that there are easy ways to overcome his lack of (modern) vocabulary.
> Nor, if you read my > mail properly, did I ever say the only way to > do this is > by having loan words which fit the phonology > (as, e.g. > 'chimpanzee' in English).
Never said that was the only way. My first suggestion was to give him a word that could be understood by his limited technology (like how "iron horse" came to be). That idea was shot down.
> Languages have a variety of > ways of extending vocabulary; I do not see why > Hittite > should be any different in this respect.
I agree. In what ways have I violated this notion AT ALL? None that I can see! Padraic. ===== â-dim peresatî Zarathustrô: ko-nare ahî? yim azem vîshpahe a&#331;hêuš astvatô sraêštem dâdaresa. â-dim prcchat Jarathustrah: ko nara asi? yam aham vî&#347;vasya âsoh asthivatah &#347;restham dadar&#347;a. ççoç peparcti Çaratostariyyas: his hanaras ossta? icom acâ, alohostanoççexomes, takam maxamâsanar a-hawisesâ. -- Yasna ix -- Ill Bethisad -- <http://www.geocities.com/elemtilas/ill_bethisad> Come visit The World! -- <http://www.geocities.com/hawessos/> .

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Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>