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Re: Here, *Here*, and There, *There*

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Thursday, June 27, 2002, 14:12
On Thu, Jun 27, 2002 at 09:18:41AM -0400, Steg Belsky wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:58:30 +0200 Christophe Grandsire > <christophe.grandsire@...> writes: > > En réponse à Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>: > > > Hmm... you know how different languages have different numbers of > > > "here/there/yonder" "esta/esa/aquella" etc. gradations?
Hmm, good point. Currently, Ebisedian only has a scant few words for referring to "here" and "there". Well, actually, it only has "here" :-P uu'ri ['?u:.r`i] - "here", "this place". Cognate with _uro_, a prepositional demonstrative meaning "this" or "this one", e.g., _uro bis33'di_ "this person", as opposed to _aro bis33'di_, "another person" and _oro bis33'di_, "the second person", "the next person". I haven't decided on a word for "there" yet. :-( But on that note... Ebisedian *prepositions* do have a 3-fold gradation: _ibu'ro_ [?i'bu.r`o] "at", "in", referring to a location coincident with the noun being modified. _ili'ro_ [?i'li.r`o] "around", "near", referring to the immediate vicinity of the noun being modified. _ita'ro_ [?i'ta.r`o] "at a distance from", "far from": referring to a point far away from the noun being modified. Hmm, now that I think about this... I *could* combine these prepositions with _uu'ri_ to make words for "there" :-) Here goes: _li'ri_ ['lu.r`i] "around here", "nearby". _ta'ri_ ['ta.r`i] "over there". Cool. That means the Ebisedian lexicon shall now attain to a grand total of .... <drumroll> ... 210 entries. :-P
> > > Imagine a > > > conlang with a level used for alternate realities, where |here| > > and > > > |*here*| are different lexical items...
[snip] Hmm, that could be interesting. The con-world of Ebisedian *does* have "parallel" dimensions, although I've never thought about using different demonstratives to refer to them. That could be an interesting twist in the language. (As if there aren't enough already.) :-P T -- Not all rumours are as misleading as this one.