Re: Fluency Wish-List

Okay, my wishlist.

I would love to be much more fluent in Teonaht, of course.
I have far more words committed to writing than I do to memory,
T. structure is daunting and baroque, and I'm constantly
making errors.

I would like to work on a dialect of Teonaht called
Menarilihs.  I've started truncating some of the words,
and SOVing the grammar.  There is an entirely mysterious
language called Nenddeyly that Teonaht has borrowed
extensively from that I haven't developed.  Then there
is Rrodaly... the language spoken by their enemies, in
a land where there are no mirrors.

Skerre, of course!  Issytra and Tsketar have been having
an interesting conversation... with an interpreter.  Issytra
says that she must try Skerre, "but with broken success,"
she is sure.

Valdyan because it is beautiful, and the same for Denden,
if I had world enough and time!

One of the Kolagian languages of Herman Miller's.  Herman
and Irina are one of very few conlangers to record and
sing in their languages.  Why don't other conlangers do
that?  Embarrassment?  Lack of technical equipment?
Boudewijn, don't you have some samples in Denden?

If I had world enough, and time, definitely Tokana...the
concept of "kemet" is a wonderful one.  So is "empty thunder!"
And of course there is now "Eyes for the owl, legs for the
rabbit," a borrowed proverb that I wrote incorrectly
when I posted it.  See what I mean???  In Teonaht, as in
Skerre, there are two separate plurals for doubled parts of
the body:  epa, "eye"; timmepa, "two eyes" (when you speak
about the eyes in one person's head); epan, "eyes" (when you
say something like "all eyes were upon him").  This is meant
to disambiguate the old problem with "To vote, raise your
hands."  Two hands?  "To vote, raise your hand" (your collective
hand?)  I got it wrong-- it should have been:

        to orta timmepan;  to harod tivllarod.
        for owl two eyes;  for hare two legs.

(but then, does a rabbit have TWO legs?  Or four?  What do we
do about animals, Doug?????)(actually, animals have legs and
arms, just like humans).

And I love the sound of Draseleq.  It was from Draseleq that I
borrowed _meavalht_ and _smalik_.

NATLANGS:

I have a recurring science fiction fantasy that they could load
my head with language programs, and in a trice I could be multi-
lingual.  I learn languages slowly, and with difficulty, so I've
often resorted to this solution in my dreams.  But had I world
and time, I'd want to learn Italian.  Actually, I think that's
feasible.  I knew Latin and lost it (alas...takes constant
practice); I'd like to learn Old Irish and Modern Irish.  I'd
like to learn a Scandinavian language, probably Danish.  And
even though I should really take up German again (another lost
language), Dutch is more appealing.  Now there's a tongue!
That one I'd really like to learn, and it may revive my German.

Sally


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SALLY CAVES
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves (bragpage)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html (T. homepage)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html (all else)
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Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an.
"The gods have retractible claws."
                                from _The Gospel of Bastet_
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