CONLANG Digest - 15 Oct 2000

> From:    Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
> Subject: Re: CONLANG Digest - 14 Oct 2000 (maglangs plea!)
>
> > I know I've seen at least one or two maglangs on here in the past... why
> > don't I hear about any anymore?  I'd like to hear what yall have thought
> > of!
>
> You can ask Boudewijn about Queeste, a maglang from a Dutch roleplaying
game. I
> have a printed copy of a post he sent something like one year ago about
it, so
> you should find it in the archives of the list.
Hmm, ok, [search, search..].  Ah, I remember reading this before!   (The
lang's called "Old Hyksos")  Interesting...

> From:    Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
> Subject: Re: [OT] sound changes (was Conlangea Dreaming)
>
> I suppose everyone who is learning a foreign language has some equivalent
> experience. It depends on the age of the teacher in my opinion. My own
> experience about that was with Spanish: I began to learn Spanish with a
25-to
> -30-year-old woman who always pronounced ll /j/. When I changed school my
new
> teacher of Spanish was nearly 50, and with her I had to pronounce ll
/l_j/! I
> still wonder how young Spanish people (of my age: 25 or so) pronounce
ll...

/j/ or /Z/ for me, usually (not Spain Spanish though).
Not _entirely_ sure about others, but I could pay attention around school
here...

> From:    Adrian Morgan <morg0072@...>
> Subject: Re: conlang website
>
> > I have a Good News Bible, which is so colloquial sometimes it worries
> > me. I really should acquire a NSRV copy.
>
> I have an NRSV. For general purposes I prefer the freer translation of
> the J.B.Phillips, but as I said, one really needs at least two different
> translations to get the most out of it.
I have KJV, NKJV, NIV, NCV, the "Message" NT (one of my favorites), and the
"Clear Word" (--written by a professor at my university; I'm not _entirely_
fond of it..)

Plus I have http://unbound.biola.edu/ ...

> From:    Mangiat <mangiat@...>
> Subject: R:      Re: T shirt Price Info
>
> Excuse me if I'm completely ignorant of economic subjects (darnit, every
> time I see the word 'Nasdaq' I think: 'wow, what a wonderful word! I
should
> buy an Eskimo grammar!'),
Rofl!

> From:    Carlos Thompson <carlos_thompson@...>
> Subject: Re: târuven vowels and diphthongs
>
> > 2. What's /H/? x-sampa says "voiced labial-palatal approx."
>
> French <u> in diphtongs.  The aproximant (semivocalic) version of
> Swedish <y>.  Inverse h in IPA.
Hey!  That sound's in Hadwan!  As <ÿ> intervocalically (e.g., <haÿalis>,
"sun").  I can't pronounce it well
though--(apparently neither can the Terras; it disappears later).

> From:    Adrian Morgan <morg0072@...>
> Subject: Re: conlang website
>
> > BTW, although different people groups in Aratasa have different
> > religious beliefs, magic is necessarily the same for everyone, and it
> > follows my idea of how "ideal" supernatural events work.  There is no
> > latent or neutral power which can be drawn for good or evil, but
> > rather good and evil spiritual entities which can be summoned for
> > various purposes.
>
> Mmmm, I don't bother much with good and evil spiritual entities. As for
> magic, well, everyone has their own view of what magic is, so naturally
> I won't pretend to pass judgement on all of these views. But one of the
> most common views sees magic as something that actually manipulates
> spiritual forces and directs events toward a desired outcome.
[snip]
> After all, if you could just
> make things happen by casting spells, would you bother to bring your
> concerns before God?
I have to think about this too.  The Terras' "inherent" magic isn't thought
of as something "supernatural"--supernatural is the acts of God or angels or
spirits or whatever, that cannot be sensed or imitated any more than a human
can with magic.  (The Terras' race has the most _facility_ with magic than
others in the conworld, but they have the weakest abilities with it--you
can't just use it to solve all your problems.)

> From:    "Daniel A. Wier" <dawier@...>
> Subject: Re: conlang website
>
> ObConlang: What approaches do you take (or plan to take) on translation
> of literature, secular or sacred?  I ask because there are basically two
> ways of translating the Bible, the Qur'an, the Vedas and what not.  You
> have *literal* translation, which preserves the text the most but can be
> confusing as it doesn't explain certain idiomatic expressions (especially
> if you're translating Hebrew, Sanskrit or Chinese into English or
> Spanish).  Then you have *liberal* translations which are easier to read
> but are often tainted with the translator's (-s') interpretations of the
> text.
The "sacred" translations would probably try to remain literal, and the
"secular" ones would probably get visibly distorted.  ;p

> And maybe someday I'll have a New Testament in Tech.
I might start something like that also for Hadwan.  (Yes, it doesn't matter
if there's Biblical influence in the language, they _are_ Christian[ized],
after all...)

     *Muke!
--
http://muke.twu.net/