Re: Hressa-Hlab (was: Re: Martian conlangs?)

Sally Caves scripsit:

> He might also have felt that his fellow inkling (wasn't Tolkien part of the
> Inklings?) was the language inventor par excellence, or that he himself
> couldn't put the time into it that Tolkien did.
JRRT denied that Ransom (the hero) was a portrait of him, but he said
"I may have some part in him (qua philologist) and recognize some of my own
opinions Lewisified in him."

> BTW, I've noted with some irritation that the word
> for "rational alien" in lots of science fiction discourse is "sentient";
> shouldn't it be "sapient"?
Some writers do use "sapient", in reaction I think to the standard
meaning of "sentient" which is simply "equipped with senses and sensation".

Hal Clement in his early work _Needle_ (the first SF novel that was also a
formal detective novel) promoted the word "symbiote" for a participant in
symbiosis, and it spread widely and is sometimes seen today.  25 years later,
he wrote a sequel, _Thread_ (retitled by the publisher _Through the Eye of a
Needle_ over his objections), where he apologized for the barbarism and
announced that he was switching to "symbiont", the Greekly correct form.

--
John Cowan                              jcowan@reutershealth.com
http://www.reutershealth.com            http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Humpty Dump Dublin squeaks through his norse
                Humpty Dump Dublin hath a horrible vorse
But for all his kinks English / And his irismanx brogues
                Humpty Dump Dublin's grandada of all rogues.
                        --Cousin James

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