Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Translation challenge: Fiat lingua

From:Sai Emrys <sai@...>
Date:Sunday, July 9, 2006, 20:03
On 7/9/06, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> As I understand it Sai's challenge is to translate the Latin "Fiat > lingua", which can mean 'Let a language be made' or 'Let language be > made' but which, because in our culture, of its association with certain > phrases in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures, also has the idea of > sub-creation.
A slight quibble: I don't really care about the Latin, or other source; no literal translations do I ever endorse (except for metatext of translating). It's the slogan; the "I am god of my world and, by this proclamation I create a language ex nihilo" phrase. I leave it up to you whether to interpret 'language' in signular, plural, mass, or other (?) forms; for that matter you're welcome to use specifically YOUR language (e.g. equivalent to 'fiat kelen', heh). Or whatever analogue you have to language ("let there be tongues"? "Let there be properly wired broca's and wernicke's areas in the brains of my people"? :-P) I am, as it were, asking for an incantation, whose speaking (writing? signing?) brings your language into being. :-) - Sai