Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

Bryan Maloney wrote:
>
> Maim?  Maim?  My dear fellow, /meim/ is a very SOFT sounding word.  Where
> would you put /gIft/ or /gift/?  How about the adjectival form of the
> German word "Gift"?  It's even softer-sounding.  This is more in the
> realm of pop-philology than really examining language.  I'm reminded of
> someone in an early linguistics course I took who just WOULD NOT believe
> that "ma" did not mean "mother" in every language on earth, no matter how
> much the Japanese professor tried to explain things...
        I hope this person left linguistics before it was too late. It's not
the right behaviour to have if you want to be a linguist. Yet it's true
that "ma" is a very spreaded way of  kindly meaning "mother", even in
unrelated languages. Where does it come from? Areal influence?

--
        Christophe Grandsire

        Philips Research Laboratories --  Building WB 145
        Prof. Holstlaan 4
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        Phone:  +31-40-27-45006
        E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com