Re: Pejorative words (was: Introducing myself, and several questions)

Jeff Jones wrote:

> On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 08:17:15 -0500, Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > On Feb 17, 2005, at 2:26 PM, Roger Mills wrote:
> >> My little secret-- lately I've been adapting some Yiddish slang terms
> >> into Kash slang, but with phonological distortions, of course. They
> >> haven't made it online yet, however.
> >> çamak(a) /Sa'mak(a)/-- penis, erection (schmuck)
> >> takas-- butt, rear end, ass (tuckas)
> >> peçukas-- crazy, silly, ridiculous (meshugas); pepecuci-- such a person
> >> nundik-- a boring, irritating person (noodnik)
> >> In genl. I'm viewing them as loans from Gwr languages........
> >> Would anyone consider these offensive?
>
> I should borrow some Yiddish words into 'Yemls, too.
>
> > Only if by "offensive" you mean 'wow that's so cool!  i love it!'  ;-) .
Excellent!

> > What you wrote as |tuckas| sounds more like /'tUx@s/, btw, with a /x/.
> > /m@'SUg@/ = crazy
> > /mISI'gas/ = craziness, mess, crap (in the non-excretory sense)
I got the anglicized forms from a Yiddish slang website (neglected to
bookmark it :-((( but will look again). I've also heard/seen variations-- a
gay guy I met in NYC wrote down his name and number as "XXX Tuckus .....";
when I commented on the unusual name, he explained it-- actually the first
time I'd heard the word. (OT odd telephone book listings: another friend had
himself listed as "Quyne, Y. Amaya"...)

I once attended Yom Kippur services with a friend; the rabbi-- a young and I
suppose progressive sort-- was using a lot of psychobabble in his sermon,
and at one point an elderly gent burst out, quite audibly, "meshuganah" or
somesuch. General giggles; another first for me.

Actually I changed the m@- syllable to /pe-/ to make it the old Kash prefix
meaning 'having..., endowed with...'; but there's no word "çukas", at least
not yet.

> > So when Kash speak about "the big kahuna", they mean something somewhat
> > different... :P
Well, it is [ka'xun@], so not total robbery.

Jeff to Steg:
Yesterday, however, your "gabwe" came to mind. I
> never remember how it's supposed to be pronounced, so I think ["ga.bwe]
> when I see it. If borrowed into 'Yemls, it would become ["gO.bwE:]
> (written
> {AbE}), which is awkward. Then I thought of metathesis: gawbe. The nearest
> adaptation would be ["g_j&O.bE] (written {GOP}). What do you (and Roger
> and
> others for that matter) think?
>
Generally I think it's a Good Idea to deform casual borrowings; also, as you
note, sometimes they just don't fit the phonology of your language.

I have a long list of Terran loans that my Kash informant here on Earth
might adopt-- things like pero, kavayo, kiri ~kato; naranja [na'randZ@],
paplamús, lece, keso; Yesu, Teyus or Andeyus ~Yehova ~Ala; Ambuta (puta for
Buddha just wouldn't do) etc. etc.