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Re: USAGE: "I want crazy two years ago"

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Thursday, July 13, 2006, 17:49
Sai Emrys wrote:

> > This would make a lot more sense with "went" rather than "want". > > I needed three readings to get the point. > > Doh! Typo, my fault. > > > > My response as a question: "What sort of crazy did you go?" > > > > A translation exercise! Wheee! :D > > *laugh* What I get for posting it to a conlang forum. >
Taking this completely seriously.......:-)))) There's no way to capture the humor (such as it is) in Sai's question, since "to go crazy" is simply a derived verb form in Kash, though it's colloquial and irregular. 1. honga (vt) 'to lose s.t.' 2. konga 'lost (of things)', (accid.) cakonga '(accidentally) lost, misplaced, mislaid'-- this would fill in for the non-occurring inchoative *çukonga 'to become lost (of things)' 3. hañukonga (soul/mind+lost) insane (the medical and polite term), crazy-- ine ... 'he/she is insane' (3s/DAT ...); colloq. and somewhat pej. hañukoko, hañukók equiv. 'crazy, nuts, loony'; even more colloq. and pej. koko, kok, ~cakoko, cakók, also used as interjections, "that's crazy! ~you're crazy/idiotic etc.' But (finally!) these ca- forms can be used for "to go crazy" So: "macakók ro pehan cosa" I went crazy two years ago And the question: kandraya kokoti cakena? what.kind crazy-your accid.-suffer? (But that's not the way a shrink would necessarily phrase it-- Hmm-- we need a polite/med. form for "insanity", I suppose _akañukonga_.) Which would imply an answer "schizophrenia / catatonia / mania/depression etc.". The original statement could also mean (in Engl.) something like "I did some really stupid/wild things 2 yrs. ago"-- a mad shopping/sexual/ whatever spree-- not necessarily something requiring meds or hospitalization.

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Sai Emrys <sai@...>