Re: Ungrammaticalization?

Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> Sally Caves wrote:
> > This REALLY aggravates me.  Age? Distraction?  Anxiety?
> > Drugs?  Allergies?
>
> I should hope it's not age, cause I'm only 20 and I sometimes do that
> same thing!  God forbid it should get worse when I'm older!  :-)  I
> suspect it's distraction/stress.
It gets worse as you get older... only because you have more stress
in your life!  nah... don't worry.

>
> > Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an.
> > "The gods have retractible claws."
> >                                 from _The Gospel of Bastet_
>
> I just love that sig.  Does it mean that the Gods can be vengeful at
> times, but at other times hold back their wrath?
Thanks, Nik!  Actually, its a refrain: "Even the Gods have retractible
claws."  It comes from a longer poem I've been grooming for publication
(in English) and that I used as an epigraph for a story called
"Ketamine"
(published in _Fantasy and Science Fiction_).  Yes, indeed, it's
intended
to suggest that the gods are merciful, that if they can sheathe their
claws, then so can you.  Maybe I'll put the whole thing on a webpage
with a Teonaht translation... after it gets accepted somewhere.

And Nik, I love your quote below.  For the curious, this comes from
Caxton's _Preface to the _Eneydos__, late fifteenth-century, printed
on his new printing press.  The preface explains his frustration over
the various English dialects.  Which dialect does he invoke?  Which
system of spelling?  "Eggs" are northern, come from the Norse, and
"eyren" is southern, which is why the ignorant southern woman thought
the merchant was speaking French!  After Cax. tells this story, he
writes:
"Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren?
Certaiynly it is harde to playse euery man by cause of dyuersite &
chaunge of langage."

> "[H]e axed after eggys: And the goode wyf answerde, that she coude not
> speke no Frenshe ... And then at last a nother sayd that he woulde haue
> hadde eyren: then the goode wyf sayd that she vnderstood hym wel." --
> William Caxton
> http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files
> http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html
> ICQ: 18656696
> AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor
--
============================================================
SALLY CAVES
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves (bragpage)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html (T. homepage)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html (all else)
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Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an.
"The gods have retractible claws."
                                from _The Gospel of Bastet_
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