Re: Poll: Basic vocabulary test of an IAL

Carlos Thompson wrote:
>This is a little poll to test the recognisibility of some words in an
>IAL.  Please answer with a translation (and part of speach and a
>definition if possible) in either English or Spanish of the following
>words.  Please include also the pronunciation you would use when
>reading.
(Drat.  This went to Carlos directly; I repost here.  I wish I had risen to
the occasion as Teoh did...... ROFetcLOL.)

Interesting list, and many are immediately clear-- especially in view of the
author's known native lang. :-) and one's own afición a lenguas románicas.
So in
general I'd pronounce these as if they were Spanish/Italian words, keeping
voiced stops always as stops (it's assumed to be an "easy" IAL, after all).
The only problem is stress.  If it is regularly penultimate, some words are
less than recognizable........

If it is meant to be a purely Romance IAL, then some of my Germanic guesses
are off-base.

(I count at least 27 as ???, quite unclear; 13 as ?, somewhat unclear or
multiple possible meanings--  40-odd out of 95, leaving aside the
meaningless
Proper Names #70,71.  Is almost 50% (non-)comprehension good enough in an
auxlang?)

1. arboro tree of course, whether árboro or arbóro
2. avio ??? probably airplane avió (why not avionV?), but unclear if avío or
ávio
3. akua water (if akúa, odd to the hearing)
4. beber drink?  less clear if béber (-er must mark verbs, however); if
béber, it could be Gm. beben 'tremble'
5. ben well (adv.)
6. blanki white-- apparently all adjs. end in /i/; or it could be 'blank,
empty'
7. boni good
8. chadi  ??? (I assume /ch/ is [tS])
9. choko ???
10. dento tooth? or deformed "dentro" 'within'
11. diter ???
12. ekino ???  horse?
13. elfano ??? elephant? loss of the -nt- seems randon; it survives
elsewhere.
14. fema woman, though prob. obscure if one didn't know French.
15. fogo fire, or Engl. fog??
16. fridi cold
17. fuli ??? Engl. full?
18. fumo smoke
19. gol goal!!!
20. grandi big
21. idea idea
22. idioma language
23. indi ??? indian?
24. jako ??? How is /j/ pronounced? Could be Jacques or Jack.
25. jorno day?
26. kana ???
27. kapito head?  chapter??
28. kata ??? cat (f.)??
29. kibo ???  food < Lat. cibum?
30. koner ??? (Typo for komer 'eat'?, syn of manjer???)
31. korno horn; or Engl./Gmc. corn= grain
32. kuna cradle?
33. largi long
34. libero free
35. lingua tongue; language?
36. luna moon
37. manjer eat (presumably [manZer])
38. mano hand
39. monto mountain?
40. morter ??? bite? does Sp. morder < PRom *mortere?
41. negi ??? (adj.)
42. nokto night
43. novi new
44. oksiter ??? (verb) Lat. occidere 'go down, descend' or occi:dere 'kill'
come to mind.
45. orsa bear
46. pedo ??? foot? fart?
47. petro stone
48. pikoli little
49. pisco fish ( or less likely, a Peruvian brandy-type)
50. pluvia rain
51. preti ready? (Fr. pret, It. presto)
52. quarko quark (sci.)
53. rondi round?
54. rosi red
55. saper to know
56. siter ??? (a verb-- to cite? or Gmc/Engl. sit?)
57. sol sun.   CVC nouns seem to be rare.
58. tela tape? gauze? cloth?
59. telo ????
60. tino tin?  or an infamous auxlang.....:-)
61. uni one ( or slang, 'university')
62. uso use (noun)
63. verdi green, or a famous composer
64. vider to see
65. viro man? virus?
66. voler to want? to fly? (to steal?)
67. watt  electrical term (sci.)
68. yanki estadunidense; perhaps 'imperialistic' in this IAL?
69. zebra the animal

70. Chlewey ['tSleweI] a pseudonymous Colombian gentleman
71. dij Schdzjarvk 'great spiritual power', as in "May the Schwartz be with
you" (I've always liked that one-- me sainted mother's maiden name)

72. atenter to wait? to try?
73. broma joke, or bromine (chem)?
74. cali ??? (an adj.)
75. doter to endow, give?  or < Gmc. 'daughter'?
76. emino ??? eminent? or a pop-music genre known as "white rap"?
77. fabuli faaabulous!
78. gruta grotto? grout, for tiling??
79. helada ice-cream? (pure Span. this, and the sole /h/; shouldn't it be
jelata?)
80. imeilo email (but I read Ideolengua, so have seen this before.......)
81. justa ??? (a noun?-- justi would presumably be 'just' adj.)
82. kilo kg.
83. lando Gmc. land?
84. mika mica, the mineral? otherwise???
85. nu now
86. oper ??? (a verb)
87. parto part
88. quid prob. Pound Sterling; but in US, a gob of something in the mouth
89. rolo role? roll (edible)??
90. sapo soap (accent?); toad?
91. turo ??? tour? tower?
92. uro ???
93. valer to be worth
94. wiski mmm, firewater, heap good
95. xero zero (why x-)?  dry? a (TM) copying machine?
96. yrida irridium (sci)???
97. zambo ??? unknown Colombian slang term? a Brazilian dance?  a little
African/Indian boy? why z-, and how is /z/ pronounced?

Personally, the more I see of Europanto, the more I favor it.
Am reminded of two amusing bits--
1. an article in a French newspaper once, "how to get by on your Italian
vacation"-- just add an -o to the French words.
2. GI slang in post-WW2 Occupied Japan-- troops and natives alike devised a
rough-and-ready English that involved adding -o to Engl. words, "Hey GI, you
give me present-o?"  Probably the source of just-passé "same-o same-o"
(which I used to hear in the Army, late 50s) despite claims that it's from
"same-old".

-- Carlos Th

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