Re: Primary Interjections - Universals?

A sort of late reaction on the thread:

This whole thing reminds me a bit of something I once
noticed about sneezing. One would expect that sneezing
is not language-bound, since it is just a natural,
human-like thing to do. Languages, of course, have
their own way of transcribing ("interpreting" might be
a better word to use in this case) such a sound: a
Dutch cock says "Kukeleku", while a French cock says
"Cocorico"),
When a Dutch person sneezes, he says: "Hatsjoe!"
When a Polish person sneezes, he says: "Apsik!"
I was quite astonished when I heard people in Poland
really making an "apsik"-like kind of sound when they
sneezed, which to my Dutch ears sounded quite funny.
Probably, this was just the "sophisticated" way of
sneezing, while pronouncing the word on purpose.


--- Roger Christian <rogchr75@...> wrote:
> By the way, since that was my first post, I'll say a
> few words of introduction.
Welcome!

> ... with no conlangs to my name as yet, just a
> grammatical idea here, and a phonology there, and
> big binder of background matierials I've collected
> for the day when a language leaps out of my head.
May this day come soon!

Jan


=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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