Re: Láadan

I know I should reintroduce myself, after so much time of shameless
lurkiness, but...

On Sat, 30 Nov 2002 09:52:30 -0600, Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
wrote:

>        I printed out a copy and handed it to my wife, asking her to
comment on them.
**********

Some seem to have equivalents in English or Portuguese (I suppose in other
languages, or at least in German :p, too):

>ashon love for one who is not related by blood but is heart-kin
Friendship?

>azháadin to menopause uneventfully
Is there a "to menopause" verb in English? (There is not such verb in
Portuguese... menopausar?! ugh!)

>dólhorado to dominate with evil intent
Doesn't "domination" already imply an evil intent?

>héena sibling of the heart
Comrade? (Portuguese: companheiro, camarada, irmão de fé [sibling in faith])

>honáal the hours between midnight and dawn
Portuguese: madrugada

>nehena contentment despite negative circumstances
Portuguese: resignação

>niná the one responsible
Responsible? Portuguese: responsável

>ninálh the one to blame
Portuguese: culpado

>nuna contentment for bad reasons '
Portuguese: acomodação, comodismo

>radíidin non-holiday, a time allegedly a holiday but actually so much a
burden
>because of work and preparations that it's a dreaded occasion; especially
>when there are too many guests and none of them help
Christmas. :)

>radodelh non-interface, a situation which has not one single point in
common
>on which to base interaction, often used of personal relationships
Portuguese: incomunicabilidade

>radona unfriendliness for foolish reasons
Portuguese: rusga, querela, quizila

>rarulh non-synergy, that which when combined only makes things worse
Incompatibility? Portuguese: incompatibilidade

>rashida non-game, a cruel "playing" that is a game only for the dominant
>player who has the power to force others to participate
Portuguese: jogo de poder (OK, not just one word, but the concept is clear)
***********

I have always the impression that SHE hasn't a good grasp of word genesis.

For instance, the 'engulf' thing: in Portuguese, women had no specifical
words for what they do when they make sex - because they didn't use to do
anything, after all. At the moment they started to do something, they
either started to use the 'masculine' words - often with suble changes in
regency:

ancient 'masculine' use:             modern 'feminine' or 'unisex' use:

trepar em (climb on)                 trepar com (climb with)
foder (fuck)                         foder com (fuck with)
comer (eat)                          comer (eat) / nos comer (eat ourselves)

(Also there was an ancient 'feminine' word for making sex, "brincar" (to
play, as in 'to play a game'), which is, I guess, a semantical borrowing
from Tupi-Guarani, and was unusual for a long time, being recently
ressurected)

I also fear that SHE has a poor comprehension about the psychology involved
in oppressive relationships. In my experience, the ability to lie is
essential to the oppressed, at least as much as it is to the oppressor.

And I also think that doens't correctly understand the complexity of
emotions and the impossibility of lexifying them all in a systematic way.

In Portuguese (and I suppose in Castillian and Italian as well), we have a
grammatical resource to express emotions that, in my opinion, easily beats
Láadan for simplicity and usefulness. It is the use of diminutives and
aumentatives:

Mulher - woman
Mulherzinha - ridiculous (because or pettyness) woman
Mulherzinha - cute, nice, afectuous woman
Mulherona - very attractive woman
Mulherona - ridiculous (because of clumsiness) woman

I don't think it is possibly to predict what precisely an aumentative or
diminutive will mean (a "mesona" is certainly not 'a very attractive
table), but this is, I suppose, one of the niceties of the language.

And then there is the Sapir-Whorf thing, but I am feeling epteiaat, I mean,
excessively polite to engage in an argument today...

Luís "enjoyng the nice, comfortable sadness that takes over one just after
a good lunch" Henrique

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