Re: Láadan and woman's speak

Marcus Smith wrote:
> >I'm currently reading a book called _Gender_ by Corbett.
> I'll add my recommendation to yours.  A truly remarkable book.
If that's the book I'm thinking of, I'm adding my recommendation too.
It triggered my creation of Watakassí, actually.  :-)

> My favorite system was the one used by the Algonkian languages, where the
> gender system is intimately tied with mythology in ways that don't make sense
> to foreigners.
Or the Dyirbal system, wherein "bird" is placed with "female human",
because they believed that birds were the souls of deceased women and
girls.  And I love their gender 3 - "non-flesh food"!  In full:
Gender 1: Male human and other animates
Gender 2: Female human, fire, fighting, danger, and birds
Gender 3: Non-flesh food
Gender 4: Everything else [presumably including meat]

Young People's Dyirbal [Dyirbal as spoken by the younger generation] has
simplified that, moving G3 to G4, and moving birds to G1, and I think
there's other changes.

--
"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men
believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of
the city of God!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Glassín wafilái pigasyúv táv pifyániivav nadusakyáavav sussyáiyatantu
wawailáv ku suslawayástantu ku usfunufilpyasváditanva wafpatilikániv
wafluwáiv suttakíi wakinakatáli tiDikáufli!" - nLáf mÁldu nÍmasun
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor