Re: Writing Systems and Biscriptal Children

> > nicole.eap@snet.net writes:
> > >conlangers on the list, do you find
> > >yourselves dissatisfied with these horrid male-dominated natlangs and
> > >left brain alphabets, and is this why you conlang - and, do you make
> > >your conlangs/concultures/conworlds female dominated?  It's funny, China
> > >was so male dominated and their women came up with Nu Shu, but Chinese
> > >uses ideographs...hmm.
xkehmida! Hate to de-lurk, but... I LOVE reading popular theories as to
how "natural" differences b/w men and women cause something or other.
Well, considering the fact that 1 in 2000 births are genitally ambiguous
(in USA, these are usually "corrected" to conform to the 2-sex model,
often destroying reproductive capability), and biological sex also depends
on secondary sex characteristics, gonadal sex, chromosonal sex and
hormonal sex (all of which can also be ambiguous)- it would seem that such
things would be unlikely.  Then there's social sex (gender)- outside of
the West, there have been cultures with 3, 4 and 5 genders... Enough
ranting...

There are several societies with separate spoken lasnguages for women and
men, sometimes to the point where they don't ever speak a common language.

To the Drhaqa people, social division by sex or gender is one thing that
marks a culture as primitive (not speaking Drhaqa is another)  They don't
have any words for man, woman, boy or girl.  They do, however, recognize
biological sex: males produce the catalyst, females produce the offspring.
However, if there is no "proof" of your biological sex, then you would be
considered "male-like" (swernafar), or "female-like" (sakwilafar)
These terms are rarely used.  The only recognition of sex in Drhaqa
culture, due to the nature of their sex-lives, is the mother
(beas), who is obviously female.  Their culture is matriarchal, but not
female-dominated or male-dominated (they have almost no understanding
of the concept of hierarchy). Intersex is absolutely not remarkable.
Obviously, hetero- and homo- sexuality do not exist either: just a general
"if it feels good, do it" sexuality.

There is a folk tale which tells of how the Drhaqa used to divide up their
population like other peoples (due to the lack of terms, the story uses
the contructions "vagina-people" and "penis-people").  There was a war
between them, which led to a great a tragedy, which led to a sign being
sent from their god, which led to the dissolution of differences, and a
realization of "the Unity".  This was one of the first steps in their
becoming "civilized" (their definition).

As far as the language is concerned, there are 3 basic pronominal roots
distinguishing animate, inanimate and abstract.  There are around 20
classifier-type roots which distinguish a variety of sensory, shape, use,
emotional, etc. categories.

Apologies for the length...

beawan jin,
yasmin