Re: Interesting Words

>From: William Annis <annis@...>
>Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 08:40:41 -0600
>
>  >From: Adam Walker <dreamertwo@...>
>  >
>  >Well, let's see.  In Graavg'aaln, I have three words for pillar:
>  >There are seven words for strong or strength:
>  >
>  >hrti^g (the strength to continue doing something -- endurance)
>  >naarllv (the ability to do many repetitions of lift)
>
>         Are you a weight-lifter?
No, I do a little weight training with very little result due to the
fantastic infrequency of my workouts.  The Graavgurrdaan, however, are
obsessed with it.  They are, after all, a kratocracy.  If you want to get to
the top you have to be stronger than anyone else.  It's a weird way to
govern, but then the Graavguurdaan idea of strength covers twelve (the
sacred number) concepts.  Only three of them are what we would call physical
strength.

>
>  >There are eight words for upper arm:
>  >There are seven words that could be translated as wrestling:
>  >
>  >And finally there are nineteen words that could be translated "lift":
>
>         Woah.
>
>  >waazhoov (a humongous bowl like the ones they serve soup in at
>Vietnamese
>  >restaurants)
>
>         Mmmm.  Now I'm hungry for some pho.  Perhaps I'll run off for
>Bun thit for lunch...  Oh, no!  I lack a word for "fish sauce" in
>Vaior!
>
I had some passable pho last week in Taipei.  If only I hadn't been eating
with Taiwanese friends I coulda had fun with the chili sauce.

>  >
>  >So I like weird lexemes.  So sue me.
>
>         I wouldn't think of it.
>
>         This creation of "weird" lexemes is part of the reason I
>invent languages.
Meee toooo.

>The most recent one, Vaior, has a lot of this sort
>of thing, but nothing approaches your lifting words.  My own
>obsessions come into play for this, of course, so there I keep working
>on fairly precise terminology for:
>
>         * internal martial arts (i.e., taiji, xingyi and bagua)
I've never really looked at any of the three you mentioned.  The only
martial art I ever studied was kenpo and that only lasted about 6 weeks.
Then I moved out of country and the commute was just a killer!  LOL

>         * food of all sorts (southeast asian and middle eastern focus
>           these days)
I have to get more food vocab.  The Graavguurdaan *must* love to eat.  So
far I only have the names of a few fruits and veggies, an edible flower or
two, acouple of drinks and that soup I posted.  Oh and a couple of meat
animals.

>         * electronic music (a lot of timbre terms)
>         * microtonal music (many ratios get their own name)
I know nothing about Gaavguurdaan music.

>         * some politics
Adn little about their politics, though I *need* to learn.

>
>In the past I've studded my languages with a precise vocabulary for
>sexual frustration, but I'm not 18 any more, so I refrain from much of
>that these days.  It makes straight guys nervous anyway. :) But,
>here's a quick sampling, mostly in the theoretical root form:
>
I've never done sexual vocab for any of my langs.  It's sort of blind spot
for me since I'm celibate.

However, Lrahran had a huge color and texture vocab and had a wonderful word
in the music sphere which meant "mechanical, non-musical sounds produced by
an instrument" and would include such things and the squeak of fingers on a
guitar string, the clacling of saxiphone stops, the squeek of a piano pedal
or, by metaphorical extension, the gasp of breath by a singer between
phrases.

>LID - v.intr. peaceful, but an externally enforced peace;
>
>OLV - v.intr. peaceful, mutually agreed on lack of discord
>
>SÚIN - v.intr. peaceful, enforced by the speaker or his agents,
>        associates, family, etc.
>
What about actual concord?  Or peace in the midst of adversity?

>CIHAP (cihaf) v.st. inelegant, hobbled or dreadful, but useful
>        regardless, often because there is no option or choice
>        (This was invented after I had to program in Perl for a
>        while).
>
LOL I love it.  What a useful word!  English should borrow that one.

>MÚEN v.st. "swooshy," "slow-pad sounding" describes sounds with slow
>        attack and decay and a rich, often rolling timbre; originally
>referred
>        to sounds like wind through trees
>
>MUND v.tr. be-sexually-attracted-to (eros). Do not confuse with
>        NOLG. Mundia is a sexual attraction to someone known and at least
>        somewhat respected. Nolgia is sexual attraction to a random
>stranger
>        whose character and personality are unknown. MUND also implies the
>        object of desire is aware of this attraction. If not, use instead
>        solmund-
>
What about sexual attraction to someone hated, ro for someone not valued as
a person?

>         The default meaning of any interval or gamut name refers to
>just intervals, so _paipathe_ refers to the major second 9:8. A
>tempered interval is usually indicated with the word _corsauth_
>colored which doesn't specify what sort of tempering is going on. Take
>care to distinguish this from a _hemsauth_ changed interval, which
>refers to normal note changes to add variation to a theme, including
>raising and lowering intervals, for example, raising a minor to a
>major third.
>
Woah!  Way to techincal for me.  My 4th grade piano lessons are totally
inadequate!

>         I make and listen to a lot of electronic music, so things
>like, achurnaure n. "near timbre," which refers to ambient,
>non-musical sounds embedded within a musical texture, is very useful
>to me.
>
Well, that part I understand.  Quite a useful term for all those nature cd
on my shelf.

Adam

>--
>William Annis  -  System Administrator -  Biomedical Computing Group
>"When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do
>towards other humans."                       Marcus Aurelius  VII.65

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