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