Amiu - When hobbies collide.
Jul. 16th, 2004 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkI haven't done one of these in a while. For those of you who are new to the flist, Amiu is a fictional language I've been developing when I'm bored at work in my spare time.
This morning![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chresimos and I were talking about the "My hed iz pastede on yay!" business, and how the catchphrase was translated into various languages. She asked what it would be in Amiu. So:
mlengúnong jáu Róoj!
My head is pasted on, yay!
In the first word (reading right to left), each character represents one morpheme:
m- No actor. Represented in the written form by blank space.
-le- To use intentionally. Ideogram.
-ngú- Head (in the target or indirect-object position). Pictogram.
-nong First person possessive. Ideogram.
The second word is only one morpheme, but happens to be represented by two characters:
jáu Glue (in the direct-object position). The phonetic character is júu "pain", an ideogram. The determinative character is "rabbit", a pictogram. Why a rabbit? The Amiu-speakers make glue out of boiled rabbit skin.
The third word is tricky. Since Amiu writing is not alphabetic and was not designed to be used for casual purposes, the spoken word Róoj "yay; hurrah" has no standard written form. A modern writer, attempting realistic dialogue in literature, might use Róó "dog", as I did here, and hope to be understood.
So, the phrase might be rendered more literally as "Glue is used on my head, hurrah!"
Also, I worked out how to write "fandom" a long time ago, but never shared it:
Náéem "fandom"
To explain:
mái "rat". A simple pictogram. (Hint: The rat is facing right.)
Here "rat" is used as a phonetic, solely for its sound. The determinative is "nose", telling us this is an emotion that sounds like mái. It must be máí "obsession; infatuation".
Adding the animate-bringer derivation, we come up with máée "infatuated person", or "fan".
The double bar indicates the plural, giving us Náéem "group of infatuated people", or "fandom".
I believe it wasthatfangirl who asked why "nose" determines emotions. I'm afraid it isn't a very exciting reason: The Amiu-speakers aren't human. They can sense one another's emotional states by pheremones, which they consider part of the sense of smell.
The discussion of Dumbledore and Peter has been fascinating. A summary of points made should be forthcoming.
This morning
chresimos and I were talking about the "My hed iz pastede on yay!" business, and how the catchphrase was translated into various languages. She asked what it would be in Amiu. So:mlengúnong jáu Róoj!
My head is pasted on, yay!
In the first word (reading right to left), each character represents one morpheme:
m- No actor. Represented in the written form by blank space.
-le- To use intentionally. Ideogram.
-ngú- Head (in the target or indirect-object position). Pictogram.
-nong First person possessive. Ideogram.
The second word is only one morpheme, but happens to be represented by two characters:
jáu Glue (in the direct-object position). The phonetic character is júu "pain", an ideogram. The determinative character is "rabbit", a pictogram. Why a rabbit? The Amiu-speakers make glue out of boiled rabbit skin.
The third word is tricky. Since Amiu writing is not alphabetic and was not designed to be used for casual purposes, the spoken word Róoj "yay; hurrah" has no standard written form. A modern writer, attempting realistic dialogue in literature, might use Róó "dog", as I did here, and hope to be understood.
So, the phrase might be rendered more literally as "Glue is used on my head, hurrah!"
Also, I worked out how to write "fandom" a long time ago, but never shared it:
Náéem "fandom"
To explain:
mái "rat". A simple pictogram. (Hint: The rat is facing right.)
Here "rat" is used as a phonetic, solely for its sound. The determinative is "nose", telling us this is an emotion that sounds like mái. It must be máí "obsession; infatuation".
Adding the animate-bringer derivation, we come up with máée "infatuated person", or "fan".
The double bar indicates the plural, giving us Náéem "group of infatuated people", or "fandom".
I believe it was
thatfangirl who asked why "nose" determines emotions. I'm afraid it isn't a very exciting reason: The Amiu-speakers aren't human. They can sense one another's emotional states by pheremones, which they consider part of the sense of smell.The discussion of Dumbledore and Peter has been fascinating. A summary of points made should be forthcoming.
