Re: CHAT: Hello

On Tue, 1 May 2001, David Peterson wrote:

>     Is it just me, or does this seem completely ridiculous?  First of all,
> it's just a translation exercize--just to see how the grammar works, et
> cetera.  Second, if you don't want those words to be in there, then simply
> delete them after you're done.  It's just an e-mail, anyway.  Or if you have
> to use scratch paper to figure things out, you can burn the paper and throw
> the ashes into the sea.  I mean, contaminate the culture?  You're creating
> it!  If it's others' opinions of or feelings towards this language and it's
> made up culture, then maybe you have something there, though I personally
> could not care whether or not the words really exist in your language or
> whether the very translation of these concepts would destroy the foundations
> of this faux culture.  Heck, a couple of times when I've translated things
> for this list and I didn't have a word for whatever was being translated yet,
> I just made one up and had it function the same as any other word of that
> type would in whatever language I was doing at the time.  So I really don't
> see how translating harms these non-real cultures over which one has complete
> control, or why one would get so defensive about it.  If it's the Bible,
> political documents and Kipling you've got issues with, take it up with them.
I think it's a matter of working styles.  I do not approach my languages
logically, but by emotional response.  The phonological shape arises from
intuition before it is codified, and I see the entire language as a whole
existing in harmony.  This is why I rarely finish a language; I often lose
the thread, the emotional tone, of the language before finishing it.

If, I've discovered, I translate a text inconsistant with the emotional
tone of the language too early, I lose the thread earlier.

Now, once a language is more or less solidly in mind, like, say, Hatasoe,
I can translate anything I like into it and not be the least bit troubled.
I've translated bits of the bible itno Hatasoe without any difficulty.

But not Hrondu.  I can translate Buddhist things into Hrondu, because
that's consistant with the flavor, but not Christian, not yet.

--Pat


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