Auto presentatzioni/Self-introduction

I recently learned about this listserv and am
proud to have joined it. About 50 years ago (I am
61) I started to develop a language I called La
Petro. Words were borrowed from a number of
languages or self-generated. I was especially
interested in the question of grammar. I wanted
to develop a clear and workable grammar. Over the
years, La Petro has grown to a language of about
10,000 words. I have also written a grammar book,
a text book and a 3,000-word dictionary which
translates each word into English and Spanish and
classifies it according to its grammatical usage.

On a personal level:

I speak fluently English, Spanish (I train cops
in Spanish), Portuguese, Hebrew and a pretty
descent French. I also struggle through Hawaiian
and Italian, and when needed do ok in Catalan. I
read Aramaic but of course no one speaks it.

I live a triple life. I am the rabbi at Texas
A&M. I am also a member of the University's Dept.
of Philosophy. The other side of my life is that
I also have a Ph.D in sociology with a specialty
in tourism security and counter-terrorism. You
can look me up on the web and find thousands of
entries about me or go to my website
<www.tourismandmore.com>

La Petro is about two thirds borrowed vocabulary
(but then most languages are) and one homegrown
words. Often the word changes meaning, for
example, sufrir in Spanish means to suffer, but
in La Petro it carries the meaning of "to be
bothered by"

De vüs yil sufrir?  means "What bothers you?".
Other expressions come from my conversations with
my son, Nathaniel. Thus, the term "bane" meaning
"a person of low social and/or cultural/academic
level" comes from a conversation my son and I had
about one of our less than elegant friends. We
have many words of this type.

I started developing the language as a hobby when
I was about ten, (I am now 61). Perhaps it was a
form of escapism. Over the years it grew. I spoke
to my children in it, they understand but speak
poorly and have not learned to write it very
well. I also speak to my wife in it (she gets
mad, but now understands most concepts so I gave
her a degree as a salshuleh complet (full
professor) dü La Petro. I also taught my dog to
take all his commands in La Petro, but
unfortunately he died.

Y vant yilim gratitud-don'ne orp yilim
atentzioni/ I want to thank you all for your
attention.

Miht cavod/sincerely, Peter


--
Dr. Peter Tarlow
1218 Merry Oaks,
College Station, Texas, 77840-2609, USA.
Telephone: +1 (979) 764-8402.

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