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Re: CHAT: Rumpelstiltskin (was Re: milimpulaktasin)

From:jesse stephen bangs <jaspax@...>
Date:Friday, May 4, 2001, 0:05
Roger Mills sikayal:

> A rare phenomenon, though not unattested. English "cleave" 1. split 2. > cling to (arch.) is at least one ex. I've come across isolated cases in AN > languages, where an adjective will mean the opposite of the expected > meaning-- though both forms don't occur. Bob Blust some years back reported > on a language of Borneo IIRC, where many common AN adjectives had undergone > reversal of meaning.
What's an AN adjective? AustroNesian? Hmmm. I'm glad I've heard this, because it lets me explain some weird semantic drifts in Yivríndil: there are sets of three nouns w/ final vowels in -a, -o, -u representing grades of the same idea. However, sometimes the a-grade is the strongest and sometimes the weakest. For example: ana - ano - anu love - affection - lust i.e. the a-o-u continuum represents a weakening of the idea. BUT thol(da)-tholdo-tholdu fear-terror-horror, trepidation i.e. the continuum represents a strengthening. I think that the original form was for all a-o-u series to represent a strengthening, but some of them reversed for some reason. Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu "If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in frightful danger of seeing it for the first time." --G.K. Chesterton