Re: FYI re: Greenberg's Universals

On Wed, 4 Oct 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> > The "controversial" was what I meant by "next best thing."  Sorry.  :-p
> > I've heard several theories on Japanese and Korean and where they fit
> > into the world's languages, but my understanding was that no one really
> > had a consensus.
>
> It's been my impression that the Japanese-Korean connection is pretty
> well-accepted, it's just theories about where they fit in regards to
> other languages that's controversial.  Or am I completely wrong here?
<rueful look>  What I've heard is:
1.  Japanese and Korean are isolates that happen to have Really Similar
Grammar but only similar lexis where words stolen from Chinese are concerned.
2.  Japanese and Korean are related but in a family of their own.
3.  Japanese is Altaic but Korean isn't.
4.  Korean is Altaic but Japanese isn't.
5.  Japanese and Korean are *both* Altaic.

Crystal's _Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language_ lists these possibilities
and doesn't take a stand on the issue.  So have all the linguistics texts
I've seen (unfortunately not very many) that mention the two.

> > ObConLang: letter-writing protocols in conlangs?
>
> Hmm ... I'd never given that any thought.  Letters wouldn't be very
> common, as there's no formal postal system.  You'd probably just wait
> until you found someone who was heading to the place you wanted to send
> your letter to to give it to him/her, most likely one of the Traders.
Letters aren't *terribly* common in Qenar or Avrezin.  Qenar has a
messenger system used by the military (when things aren't urgent enough
for the drum codes).  Otherwise messages go through
traders/merchants/travellers.  People in Avrezin do likewise, or else
have their own private messengers (but this applies mainly to nobility).

As for drum codes...<sigh>  I wanted them to be gong codes at first, but
then I realized I had no clue how well gong-sounds carried over distances
as opposed to drum-codes.  (I've heard both, but neither in a
message-sending situation).  I scoured the web with no success.  Someday
I may actually figure out musical traditions and the actual drum-codes,
though.

YHL