Re: CHAT: Rumpelstiltskin (was Re: milimpulaktasin)

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