Re: Lexicons and Langauge Borrowing

On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, FFlores wrote:

> Borrowing words (lexicon) from natlangs is another thing. I wouldn't
> judge anybody who does that (anybody in the list?). You might borrow
> words if you are deriving a futuristic language based on an actual
> language. I don't do that, and don't borrow words from any natlang,
> at least at a conscious level.
I do it unconsciously, like _bryn_ "mountain" that already existed in
Valdyan when I realized that it's the Welsh word for "hill"; and
sometimes I come across a word that sounds or looks very much like a
Valdyan word and I store it somewhere (in a file, on paper, or in my
head) until I figure out what it means.

_Orla_ "eagle" is the same as the Church Slavonic word, because I can
analyze it in Valdyan as "grand master bird" and that's sort of apt
for it. _Semte_ "person with psychic gifts" actually comes from
hearing people speak an obscure dialect of English behind me on the
bus; it was the way one of them pronounced "seventy". It sounded so
like they were speaking Valdyan that I remembered the sound of it
until I needed a word for a meaning and it came to mind immediately.

I'm curious how other people come up with words - I know some people
who can sit down and *make* them, but if I try that I usually have to
throw away ninety-five percent of the result. Most of the time, if I
need a word for something, I dip into my stock of unused stems and
consider them one by one until I hit one that fits.

   Irina

               ira@rempt.xs4all.nl (mailing list address)
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
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