Re: Interesting discoveries

 --- Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> --- Estel Telcontar  wrote:
> > I'm not sure what to do about the duplication -
> > whether to keep the old forms, keep the new
> > forms, keep both as
> > synonyms, or keep both forms but give them some
> > semantic differences.
> > The last is the most attractive option to me,
> > but is easier said than done.
>
> Naturally, this is where you need to explore
> their culture some, if there is one. In thát
> process you can find your answer very easily.
Well, the new incarnation of the language, Ikanirae Seru, is spoken by
a group of children who invented it to be the language of the "kingdom"
they organized for themselves... most of them speak English as their
first language.  So insofar as their culture differs from ours, it is
their own creation, or in the process of being created.  You could say
it's sort of a kids' imagination game that has burst out into the rest
of life.

> > What nuances can I use to distinguish
> > two separate kinds of "to" and "from"?
>
> What sorts of dichotomies crop up naturally in
> this language? My Talarian has several where two
> forms of postpositions would/might be handy.
> There is the obvious animate/inanimate noun
> distinction. There are already two sets of
> pronouns, one used for active verbs the other for
> stative verbs. An extra set of postpositions for
> the use of inanimate "agents" would not be out of
> line. There are also "open" vs. "hidden" words;
> that is, a certain kind of prefix added to a
> common noun gives it a deeper often mystical
> sense [malcmar = animal milk; hamalcmar =
> treasure via semantic extension]. A set of
> postposititions for such words would be
> interesting, if unlikely.
A lot of distinctions - and lack thereof - are heavily influenced by
English, but there are others where it seems as though there is a
definite intention to differ from English.  An obvious anglicism is
that "rokiya" means "make" - both as in "create" and as in "cause".
Differences include things like the three words for different kinds of
foods - solid food, liquid food with pieces, and liquid food without
pieces, and the fact that the pronoun system does not encode
masculine/feminine distinctions, but rather distinctions of - roughly,
at least - animacy.

Hmm, maybe the old words for "from" (toma) and "to" (mita) will be
associated with the idea of giving - while the new words will merely
imply a change of location.  (Actually, there's a new word for "to"
(ma), but not for "from" yet.)   Especially since one of my
rediscovered words is means "gift" and is "tomamita" -  literally a
compound of the old words for "from-to".

And maybe with the two words for "go", one of them will mean "travel",
and one will mean "go (away)", as opposed to "come".  Or perhaps one
will have the implication of going by foot, and the other will not.

> > With the two words for "write",
> > I'm thinking of giving the
> > old one "nau" the meaning of "write by hand,
> > with pen or pencil" and
> > the new one "tera" the meaning of "compose a
> > piece of writing, whether
> > on paper or computer or other device."
>
> Excellent. Talarian has (at least) two words for
> write as well: sahem (from *dhe) is generic write
> and might be used to mean write a letter; while
> hatrem (from *ater) means to paint or carve
> symbols. Fancy writing is done with a brush, and
> there is a reminiscence of ancient days when
> their ancestors from beyond the West wrote "on
> stone and river clay". This is most often used
> for religious or important civic writing.
>
> > The other discovery was that at some time in
> > its first incarnation,
> > this language was associated with a conculture!
>
> Well, there you go!
>
> > rakasauti   "a piece of cloth worn by the
> > people of this land"
>
> Are you sure they aren't Daine? When Daine wear
> much of anything at all, it is a "raka". It's
> usually little more than a piece of hide or cloth
> wrapped around the waist and tied.
Could be, for all I know!

> > What land I meant, I still have no idea.
>
> A mystery!
>
> Padraic.

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