Re: Terms of Endearment

On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 02:27:09PM +0100, Chris Bates wrote:
> I was thinking about terms of endearment, how many people have included
> them in their conlangs so far?
The Ebisedian "intimate" pronoun is, in fact, a term of endearment. A
phrase like _`ylii' `yjubii'_, which a naive translator would render as
"you, Ylia, ...", is probably better translated as "Ylia my dear, ...".
Similarly, the endearing phrase _jubi', ju'bi._ would make no sense if
translated as "you, you"; it really means "my dear, my dear".

> There seem to be a surfeit in english:  love, dear, darling etc.
[snip]

In Ebisedian you can stick one of the proper noun prefixes onto any
adjectival noun[1]. E.g., _emiiji'_ "loved one (masc)"; _`ymiiji'_ "loved
one (fem)", etc., from _miiji'_, "love", "affection".


[1] There are no separate class of words called "adjectives"; all
"adjectives" are nouns referring to that quality.


> While I was thinking about that I got onto "to love" and "to like". Do
> many natural languages distinguish between the two? French doesn't (je
> t'aime = I like/love you), but spanish does (amo = I love, me gusta(n) =
> I like (lit it pleases me)), and a quick peruse of a dictionary suggests
> that Latin didn't either. How many people have the distinction in their
> conlang?
So far, there is only one word for "love" in Ebisedian. But there will
likely be more, to denote parental vs. romantic love, degree of affection,
etc..

> And finally, adjectives used as nouns. Do many conlangs/natlangs allow
> free use of adjectives as nouns?
In Ebisedian, all adjectives *are* nouns. "Fast" is the same word as
"speed"; "tall" is the same word as "height", etc..

> English does but its restricted, there are only a few adjectives that
> don't sound wrong when used as nouns (ie the blond(e) the wise the old
> (the last two used only collectively)),
[snip]

These aren't really adjectives; they are substantives. Eg. "the brave" or
"the courageous" is referring to "those who are brave" and "those who are
courageous", not to the quality of braveness or courage itself.

Similarly, in Ebisedian, every "adjective" is actually an abstract noun
referring to that quality. Substantives are formed by using a relative
clause with the equivalent of a substantive "relative pronoun":

        ni Pa'n33 d3n.          "The majestic one".
        3ni tha't33 3d3n.       "The tall ones".
        ni m33j3' d0n.          "The lover" (the one who loves)
        3ni m33j3' 3dun.        "The loved (pl)" (the loved ones)


T

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