Re: 1996 archive request...
| From: | Tim May <butsuri@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, January 7, 2003, 18:32 |
|---|
Amanda Babcock writes:
> I *know* I have 1996 archives saved on one of my computers *somewhere*,
> but no idea which one or where...
>
> Does anybody have a copy of a 1996 message (sometime in the fall, I think)
> where I translated a fragment of the Charge of the Goddess into a short-
> lived conlang that featured merging the place of articulation of the
> beginning of one morpheme with the manner of articulation of the end of
> the previous one (or vice versa)? Apart from an equally un-findable paper
> copy, that would be the only existence of this particular conlang sketch.
>
> I believe I used the word "sandhi" in the body of the message to describe
> this phenomenon.
>
> Thanks!
> Amanda
>
Is this it? I have no idea if that's you or not, as I wasn't there.
If it's not, then I don't have it (I'm missing everything between May
and November - if you find your 1996 archives, let me know).
|Date: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 20:26:56 -0500 (EST)
|From: Forest Sprite <dryad@...>
|Sender: owner-conlang@diku.dk
|To: conlang@diku.dk
|Subject: CONLANG: Write-only language, part 2
|
|I am trying out a switching reference system for clauses. Word order is
|currently ABS V ERG in the main clause, V ABS ERG in subordinate clauses.
|I never realized how much havoc clauses can wreak until I started trying
|to translate some florid prose :) Anyone want a clause challenge? Try to
|translate this sentence into your language:
|
|"You who think to seek for me, know that your seeking and yearning will
|avail you not, unless you know the mystery: for if that which you seek,
|you find not within yourself, you will never find it without." (From The
|Charge of the Goddess, more or less as written by Doreen Valiente)
|
|I have only got as far as "mystery" myself, and have already broken it
|into two sentences. If anyone is interested, this is what I have:
|
|kuzi temangobaghif ladashuzis
|kuzi tema-ngoj-vav-gif lada-shuv-tis
|the following be known-COMMAND-you.Pl-ERG intend-REL-SW.ERG[1]
|Let the following be known by you who intend
|
|tuchudaten. temakachughav sumajam
|tuchu-dap-den tema-kak-shuv-gav suma-jam
|be sought-I-act of be known-not-REL-SW.ERG[2] mystery-DEF
|the act of seeking me. Who knows not the mystery,
|
|vudakachubav tuchuvaghisengif
|vuda-kak-zhug-vav tuchu-vav-gif-den-gif
|be helped-not-will-you.Pl be sought-you.Pl-ERG-act of-ERG[3]
|you will not be helped by your seeking
|
|saravaghisengif.
|sara-vav-gif-den-gif
|be desired-you.Pl-ERG-act of-ERG
|and by your yearning.
|
|[1] This particle, tis, states that the ergative position in the
|subordinate clause is filled by the ergative noun in the main clause.
|
|[2] This particle, gav, states that the ergative position in the
|subordinate clause is filled by the head noun. The head noun in this
|case, vav (you plural), is actually missing, since vav is appended to the
|main clause verb. I haven't decided if this is a bug or a feature :)
|
|[3] Yes, I noticed I constructed a phrase with a supposedly ergative verb
|and no noun or pronoun in the absolutive position. This might end up
|being ungrammatical.
|
|Worse writing (though less clause-heavy) from the Washington Post, Metro
|section, Dec. 6th:
|
|"The head of a Northeast Washington charter school at the center of a
|controversy over a tussle with a reporter portrayed herself as having a
|passion for molding young blacks and being unafraid of confrontations with
|institutions that she sees standing in her way."
|
|So, which natlangs rank among the worst for examples of hideously
|over-engineered sentences? I suppose it isn't a fair question, as
|literary style tends to fluctuate between ornateness and simplicity.
| ____
|------------------------------------------------------------------ \ /__
| dryad@access.digex.net "There's a fish... \X /
| Forest Sprite ...in the percolator!..." \/
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