Re: Signs that prove I have way too much time on my hands.

> Date:         Wed, 19 Jul 2000 21:25:50 +0200
> From: Irina Rempt <ira@...>
> On Tue, 18 Jul 2000, Danny Wier wrote:
> > Quadrupled vowels:
> > Dutch: zeeeend "sea duck"
>
> With a diaeresis on the third 'e', or in the new spelling: zee-eend.
> We're not allowed to have fun with the spelling any more :-(
Danish used to have smaaaal = small eel. (It's småål now). OK, you
won't find it in the dictionary, but compounds of små- and animal
names are freely productive.

And then there was the nicely ambiguous graaand = gråand = grey duck
(literally, I don't know what the real English name is). Inversely
firmaaand = firmaånd = company spirit.

It seems to me that most items in Danny's list are either constructed,
or have been matched by other languages --- which perhaps shows that
there are natural limits to naturally occurring complexity.

Except for those initial clusters in Georgian. No other language wants
to try to match those.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)