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Re: CHAT: Bob's Introduction

From:Robert Hailman <robert@...>
Date:Wednesday, March 1, 2000, 3:27
Nik Taylor wrote:
> > Robert Hailman wrote: > > That's an interesting quote > > Yeah, I like it. It was, incidentally, the inspiration for Asimov's > story "Nightfall".
I can't say I've read it.
> > > and a strange language. > > Thanks, I try to make it a bit "exotic", a few unusual features thrown > in like case-agreement (wherein a word can have more than one case > suffix, one suffix to agree with the head noun, and one to show its own > use). :-) Wafsafíif means "of births", waf- = gender 6 plural, safí = > birth, -i = plural, -f = genitive, watyánivaf = "in the year" wa- = > gender 6 singular, tyáni = year, -v = locative, -af = genitive (to agree > with the head noun wafsafíif), plal is a particle indicating apposition, > derived ultimately from _pli sál_ = "which is"; 273 is the current year, > thus it means "16[th day] of [the month of] Births in the year 273" >
Tasty! I rue the day children have to learn Watakassí at school. I haven't thought of any ways of making my language exotic, but it doesn't correspond to English very much at all.
> > I see there's a culture behind it, that's always fun. What did you do > > first, the language or the culture. > > The language, but there was from the beginning a vague notion of the > culture. I've also vaguely sketched out ancestral forms and related > dialects, as well as experimenting around with descendants of it. The > language as described by me is Classical Watakassí, spoken around the > year 1 in their calendar; specifically, it's the dialect used by the > Prophetess, and the calendar counts from the Revelation. >
I got lost in all the religion talk. I see what you're saying, though. Smile & nod. :-)
> -- > "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 > 16 Wafsafíif watyánivaf plal 273 > ICQ: 18656696 > AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor