Re: Aesthetic Language Sense

Nik,

I think you misunderstood me... I meant that languages I don't know
well have an aesthetic effect peculiar to the *language* but that
overwhelms the music of particular texts in that language; with a
language I'm more familiar with I can appreciate not only the music of
the language itself but that of an individual text.

Your points about expressive Klingon words are well taken... I guess
I just didn't notice enough of them early enough to be very
encouraged.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Ed doesn't know everything, but he hasn't figured that out yet.
Please break it to him gently.              edheil@postmark.net
---------------------------------------------------------------

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Ed Heil wrote:
> > But languages I
> > don't know well all have the same music to me -- a distinctive music
> > representative of the language itself;
>
> Really?  To me, even languages I don't know have distinct sounds.  Tho I
> know neither Arabic nor Welsh, they definitely have different "feels" to
> them.
>
> > Does anyone feel the same way?  Or did anyone look into it and have a
> > very different experience of it than mine?
>
> I find a lot of Klingon words quite expressive sound-wise, like:
>
> 'uH (/?ux/) = be hungover
> 'ugh (/?uG/) = be heavy
> wuQ (/wuR_0/) = have a headache
> yIH (/jIx/) = tribble (appropriate because Klingons hate 'em)
> qIp (/qIp/) = hit
> yay (/jaj/) = be victorious
> Qut (/R_0ut/) = be vicious
> Hugh (/xuG/) = throat (tho, perhaps, QuQ would've been better, QuQ is a
> word, meaning "engine")
>
> On the other hand, I can't imagine asking for "bIQ" (water) with a sore
> throat.  :-)
>
> --
> Oh Lord, grant that we may always be right, for thou knowest we will
> never change our mind. - Scots Prayer
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