Re: Auto presentatzioni/Self-introduction

Peter, Great to have you with us!
BTW, there are still Aramaic speakers, not of Classical Aramaic, but
descended dialects spoken by ca. 200 000 speakers, mostly Jews an
Christians, in remote mountainous areas of the middle east, near Damaskus,
in eastern Turkey an near Lake Urmia. Several very distinct dialects and the
dialects of Jews and Christians are quite different, even if spoken in
relative geographical proximity.
Dan

From: Dr. Peter E. Tarlow
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 11:33 PM
"I recently learned about this listserv and am proud to have joined it.
About 50 years ago (I am 61) I started to develop a language I called La
Petro. Words were borrowed from a number of languages or self-generated. I
was especially interested in the question of grammar. I wanted to develop a
clear and workable grammar. Over the years, La Petro has grown to a language
of about 10,000 words. I have also written a grammar book, a text book and a
3,000-word dictionary which translates each word into English and Spanish
and classifies it according to its grammatical usage.

On a personal level:

I speak fluently English, Spanish (I train cops in Spanish), Portuguese,
Hebrew and a pretty descent French. I also struggle through Hawaiian and
Italian, and when needed do ok in Catalan. I read Aramaic but of course no
one speaks it.

I live a triple life. I am the rabbi at Texas A&M. I am also a member of the
University's Dept. of Philosophy. The other side of my life is that I also
have a Ph.D in sociology with a specialty in tourism security and
counter-terrorism. You can look me up on the web and find thousands of
entries about me or go to my website <www.tourismandmore.com>

La Petro is about two thirds borrowed vocabulary (but then most languages
are) and one homegrown words. Often the word changes meaning, for example,
sufrir in Spanish means to suffer, but in La Petro it carries the meaning of
"to be
bothered by"

De vüs yil sufrir?  means "What bothers you?". Other expressions come from
my conversations with my son, Nathaniel. Thus, the term "bane" meaning "a
person of low social and/or cultural/academic level" comes from a
conversation my son and I had
about one of our less than elegant friends. We have many words of this type.

I started developing the language as a hobby when I was about ten, (I am now
61). Perhaps it was a form of escapism. Over the years it grew. I spoke to
my children in it, they understand but speak poorly and have not learned to
write it very well. I also speak to my wife in it (she gets mad, but now
understands most concepts so I gave
her a degree as a salshuleh complet (full professor) dü La Petro. I also
taught my dog to
take all his commands in La Petro, but unfortunately he died.

Y vant yilim gratitud-don'ne orp yilim atentzioni/ I want to thank you all
for your
attention.

Miht cavod/sincerely, Peter"

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