Re: McGuffey Readers and animals

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 22:54:55 -0500, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
> Poster:       Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
> Subject:      Re: McGuffey Readers and animals
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Carsten Becker wrote:
> > So I downloaded the first McGuffey Reader and skimmed a bit
> > through it. What gave me headache is that there are
> > frequently mentioned everyday animals. Since the Ayeri are
> > supposed to live on another planet, there are of course no
> > dogs, cats, duck(ling)s and such per se.
>
> Ah, the perennial problem for those of us who locate our languages on other
> planets........
>
> BTW, your orthography is GORGEOUS. (envy, envy) I came up with a lot of
> similar chars. before I settled on the Kash alphabet; now I wish I'd been
> braver (ease of [me] writing was a consideration, but I suspect Thais don't
> have any problem with their system).
There exists a sort of obsession on online conlang message boards that
when you create a script it HAS to be simplified, and everyone warns
that "all those curves are not amenable to hand writing". For a script
to be used by a broad range and be efficient, I'd agree, but if your
script is functional AND esthetic, I don't get it.

Anyway, I find it hard to create another indic style script because I
end up just not happy with the character shapes (Surprise, surprise).
I think what i'd need to do is start off with  a proto script and then
evolve it that way, just as I did for Kuraw. That, or I could create
yet another script style :).


> Also, there are no household pets, or zoos for that
> matter-- it's wrong to remove an animal from its natural habitat.
The Saalangal keep dogs as guardians of the house (great alarms) and
guardians of the chicken and pig pens. They aren't let inside because
they bring fleas and dirt into the house.  Cats aren't pets either.
Their sole purpose is to hunt mice in the granaries. Keeping animals
as pets is considered a strange notion. Zoos would be considered odd
since the Saalangal use pens and enclosures as places to keep animals
for food (be it pig or chicken pens, or fish corrals)

> The other
> night I saw a program on the "Tasmanian Tiger", which apparently still
> survives-- a cool looking beast (but I think a marsupial, and I'm not sure
> we need those on Cindu. Aren't they sort of an evolutionary dead-end? or
> non-competitive?) The idea of egg-laying mammals is fairly intriguing,
> however; another dead-end, no?
I don't think they're a dead end really, just that they don't compete
well with mammals like dogs and cats). Hell, the American possum is
pretty damn successful and they have to contend with all sorts of
predatory mammals like mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, foxes,
bobcats, etc. However, they're not too bright and seem to be oblivious
at night to things around them (one walked three feet in front of me
without so much as hissing or showing a fright response)






--
Inu payangyara unamey ati tal amariey ka sey, payangyara kria?
Yanaysatra sonataya atan inu jumoey ati atan matawsara jumoey ati.

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