Re: For Sally: Ursula LeGuin's conlang Kesh

Thanks, Amanda!  How nice of Ursula Le Guin to write you this!  She is
something!  Did I tell you I met her at Rochester almost sixteen years ago?
We had a lovely discussion about what boots you had to wear in this
gawdawful weather.  Any praise of her writing and she'd become instantly
glassy-eyed.  Most celebrities want to forget, in chit chat, that they're
revered celebrities.  So hard for admirers to remember that!

I wonder if the lack of a "complete" grammar indicates that she made up just
enough to fulfill her purposes for the novel, which was I guess my original
obnoxious question! <G>.  Mea culpa!  But then, Teonaht doesn't have a
"complete" posted grammar, either.  Or a "complete" posted lexicon.  I
wonder to what extent we are conlangers first and novelists second, or
novelists first and conlangers second.   I wonder if my conlanging is a
sublimation of my ignored need to write and publish novels.  Sigh.  I've
written one.  Started on another.  Host of Teonaht stories I never thought
would get published because of the odd vocabulary and names in it.  In
English.  My best language.

I like her sense of a distinction between you of my House, and you not of my
House.  Gedadin seems to stand in for "a certain one is going."  I'm curious
to know how it differs from "unspecified."  Yeah, yeah, I realize that "a
certain" is a kind of specification.

Ailly, hemykkranya hterme rybbadon. :-(

----- Original Message -----
From: "Amanda Babcock" <langs@...>


> ....and anybody else who is interested when this came up a few months ago.
>
> I unearthed that letter from Ursula LeGuin.  Apparently what I'd asked
about
> was the lack of a complete set of verb agreement suffixes (suffixed
pronouns)
> in the attested examples.
>
> In response, she wrote:
>
> --- begin typed-in paper letter excerpt ---
>
>         I can't send you the Complete Grammar (there isn't one!) but -
> yes - the person of the verb is/can be indicated by a suffixed subject
> pronoun - take the word _dad_ as verb _to go_: in the continuative-present
> tense (prefix ge-) -
>
>         Singular                        Plural
>
> 1. gedadr*, I am going                  1. gedadsur, we [=you + I] are
going
> 2. gedadres, you-singular [thou]           gedadrin, we [they + I] are
going
>    [belonging to my House] art going    2. gedadreres, you [of my House]
are
>    gedades*, " [not belonging to my        going
>    House]                                  gedadres, you [not of my House]
> 3. gedad, sexless or unspecified           are going
>    subject - it is going                3. Same as singular -
>    gedadin, it, he or she, is going        gedad, they are going
>    gedada, he is going                     gedadin, they +O and/or O-> ...
>    gedadó, she is going                    gedada, they O-> ...
>                                            gedadó, they +O ...
>
> * you asked about these
>
> --- end typed-in paper letter excerpt ---
>
> "House" is a type of clan system among the Kesh.  There are five Houses
> that the Kesh are born into, and four non-human ones for the various
> animals.
>
> Did anybody find out if the Music and Poetry of the Kesh tapes are still
> available?  The offer to provide copies if they aren't still stands.
>
> Amanda
>

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