Re: Ancient conlang
| From: | Tristan McLeay <zsau@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 15, 2004, 4:12 |
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On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> > Provided it had the necessary modern
> > vocabulary: there's no word for
> > "email" or "hominid" or "chimp" in Hittite.
>
> Circumlocutions. For "hominid", use "manlike";
> for "chimp" use "monkey".
>
> Email could be "lightning courrier" or similar.
Yes, but 'lightning courier' doesn't _mean_ 'email'. You might just as
well borrow email into Hittite, but either way, an ancient Hittite (or
even relatively modern people like my great-grandparents) wouldn't know
what it was. You can't talk about email till it's been thought of.
--
Tristan
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