CHAT: Magick (was ( Re: CHAT: "Nik"names :) (was Re: Middle Initials))

On 19 Feb, John Cowan wrote:

>Eric Christopherson scripsit:
>
>> [...] I thought about that too and figured it
>> was just because it seems more "natural" to spell final /k/ with <ck>, at
>> least after lax vowels. Of course there are lots of exceptions in
English,
>> but I think most of them are loanwords, such as the very popular -ic
>
>Most of which once had -ick, as in musick, critick.  Removing this -k
>was one of the reforms Dr. Johnson made in his dictionary, on the
>grounds that k was a "Saxon" letter.
    Very interesting! That would explain why spelling the word
"magic" as "magick" in books on the occult (and in some RPGs)
 would  give it an "olden" or "ancient" flavor (in English).
    Hmmm. Question for those conlangers who write stories or play RPGs
in langs other than English: how do you get a similar effect in other langs?
    ObConlang: does anybody's conlang have a way of giving the feeling of
"old, ancient" without coming right out and using adjectives? (In rtemmu,
I can express "ancient" as a tense, for example,  but it doesn't carry any
special
"ancient flavor". )

Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.