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Re: Ancient conlang

From:Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
Date:Thursday, January 15, 2004, 21:40
--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:

> > Circumlocutions. For "hominid", use > > "manlike"; for "chimp" use "monkey". > > > > Email could be "lightning courrier" or > > similar. > > Why?
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 - ours fly on the backs of electrons and in no real sense of the word ever "exist" (unless printed). I am not certain why crafting a descriptive word (like for ex. "iron horse") is giving folks so much trouble!
> English doesn't have to use > circumlocutions nor do other > natlangs AFAIK (tho many [most?] do translate > "electronic mail" > - courier électronique, rather than the English > abbreviation).
Did it really have to be this difficult?
> 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. Not just providing a loan word that fits the phonology. I guess if all you want is a simple loan, I suggest iimeyallas. Padraic. ===== la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu. -- 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@...>