Re: lexicon

----- Original Message -----
From: "Garrett Jones" <conlang@...>


> > Why? Synonyms isn't a Bad Thing.  Especially not for poets!
>
> i'm not a poet and i'm not big on reading poetry either. Real language is
> created first for communication, and secondly for arts, and that's the way
> i'm creating Minyeva. Minyeva kind of has some auxlang qualities, one of
> them being the lack of synonyms/homophones. It's a lablang, vs. being an
> artlang.
Hi B.P.!

My "theory" is that Real Language was created first for mystical reasons,
and secondly for communication. :)  But then I'm weird.  Teonaht was
originally apotropaic.  It was uttered to ward off evil when I was about
fourteen.

Teonaht has a host of synonyms, but I don't eradicate them.  I try to assign
them subtle differences in meaning, and I find them useful in rhetorical
flourishes.  But that gets me into trouble.

I don't know why I have so many words meaning: "enemy / attacker / aggressor
/ violence-doer"; so many words meaning "race / caste / class";  so many
words meaning "graceful / gracious," etc.  And almost no words for
government.  I guess I'm obsessed with intruders, upperclass, beauty, and
the home.  Must work on words for government.  There is even a word here in
my yellowed dictionary for government: ardyesil.  To govern: ardesmarem.
Let's see what I have here for "rule": panorem!  Just pulled from the air,
so many years ago.  No, probably is related to paneht, "strength, power."
Ardesmarem and panorem.  What would be the difference in Teonaht between a
governor and a ruler?  Smaller district?  Then there's mayor to worry about,
and president.  And what's the difference between a representative and an
ambassador?  The latter seems to come (in English) from Celtic Latin
ambactus, "servant."  I have omydivar, "messenger," for ambassador, but that
word can also just mean "messenger."  So lots of synonyms, but also lots of
double and triple duty words.  Whatever possessed me to express "reader" and
"lawmaker" by the same word???  That needs some reconstruction.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teotax.html

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