Re: History of constructed languages

On Saturday, April 9, 2005, at 08:44 , Steg Belsky wrote:

> On Apr 9, 2005, at 9:55 PM, Ray Brown wrote:
>>>>>> Canto VII, line 1: Papè Satàn, papè Satàn aleppe!
>>>>>> Canto XXXI, line 67: Raphèl may améch zabì almì!
>
>> My notes say that a Giuseppe Venturi of Verona took the words as
>> Hebrew,
>> meaning: "Here, here, Satan, here, here, Satan Emperor." I don't know
>> what our Semiticists would make of it.
>
> Not much...
I had a feeling you that would be so   :)

> "here" in Hebrew = |po| (written with final silent |h|) or |kan|
I suppose Giuseppe was thinking of 'po po' - but really not much like
'papè'.

> /sa'tan/ would be okay.
> "emperor" = |qeisar| (from 'Caesar')
Yes, the last word seems to be a problem with all would-be 'translators'.
Actually, i have been thinking and wondering why Pluto would use corrupted
Hebrew. Greek would be more likely. The were Greek speaking areas of south
Italy. I suppose it is not improbable that Dante had heard (maybe second
hand) some southern Italian Greek, and was trying to imitate the sound of
it, as he perceived it.

Another possibility is that it is simply some infernal jargon made up of
scraps of different natlangs of the denizens of Hell, in a similar way
that the Lingua Franca of the Levantine seaports was made up from the
natlangs of its various speakers.
===============================================
On Saturday, April 9, 2005, at 09:17 , Sally Caves wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Benct Philip Jonsson" <bpj@...>
>
>
>> Sally Caves skrev:
>>
>>> No disrespect to the Pope, today, on his funeral.  Pax.
>>
>> In any case Dante was referring to an earlier Pope,
>> now long dead, and they weren't all saintly you know.
>
> Yes I do know. ;)  CONTEXT!  I was referring to *myself,* bringing up this
> topic on the very day of John Paul II's funeral.  On other lists, this has
> been a very heated issue,
How very sad! Glad I'm on this list.

> and I wanted to tread carefully.
I assure you that your original email caused me no offense. But your
concern is much appreciated.

Ray
===============================================
http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown
ray.brown@freeuk.com
===============================================
Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

Reply