Pelton ikta (something crazy?)

[Jeffrey Kopp]

On Sat, 4 Sep 1999 20:57:54 -0700, you wrote:

>Many Hellos Everyone!  I just thought up something crazy; maybe good.
>Please respond about it.
>
>I hear the talk here about the guy who didn't like story-telling on the
>list.  Maybe he was the academic type, who doesn't like tales and stories
>in the study of language.  Enit?

Well, as far as I know, that was simply a case of an email snafu, our
messages getting misdirected to someone who didn't know what it was.
I don't think anyone here objects to wawa practice stories; it's
still a low-traffic list.

I do think it might be helpful, though,  if wawa messages were given
a prefix like "Wawa:" in the subject line, so that people who are too
busy at the moment to try to read Jargon could skip over the message,
saving it to look at later.

>This idea about making a new list - I like it; it's a good idea.  One list
>for "science and history" (whiteman tamanass, na?  - maybe that's a bit
>harsh, speaking as a hyas whiteman, albeit not deliberately a tamanass
>one), another list for stories, and for talking Chinook, like a village.
>Maybe one day, we could do a chat-circle; I have ICQ, if any of you do
>also.  We could have chat sessions on ICQ or a chat system on special
>days/times.

Well, I think the Chinook List can tolerate a little wawa practice--
though a more "sheltered" area for practicing might be reassuring,
especially for shy folks like myself who are reluctant to try out a
shaky new language skill on a stage such as this (in front of all
these esteemed linguists and natives!) I can finally read Wawa--and I
do try to read *all* the wawa on the list here--but I still have
great difficulty composing it, and moreso speaking it.

Another idea for communicating, which I only briefly thought about--
back before the list got started--is a "guestbook" type arrangement
on one of our Web pages.  It could become a sort of "graffiti wall"
in Jargon where people could exchange one-liners.  That could be
fun--and also less intimidating than the prospect of composing an
entire coherent email in Jargon.

(I do think such a guestbook can--and probably should--be set up so
it is "moderated"--i.e., the entries can be posted by the
Webmaster--which could keep things more or less under control.)

Of course, since the Chinook list moved to the Linguist List server,
all our stuff has become a "guestbook" of sorts--since all of our
messages are echoed to a Web site now.

(I sure hope everyone who posts to this list realizes that!)

>And I thought of something else [subt. maybe a little weird] - that we make
>a new UseNet group for the Jargon for making speech; not by writing - by
>sound with soundfiles (mp3, AVI, etc.).  Maybe a good name for the group
>would be alt.binaries.sounds.chinook.jargon, more likely
>alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.chinook.jargon or
>alt.binaries.sounds.wav.chinook.jargon.  I don't know how to do this
>like/with the bigshot sysadmin folks who run the Net; maybe together with
>the listserv.edu people?  Is this hard to do?

Well, I've finally figured out how to put sound on the Web, and I
also have enough space between two Web sites (which are mostly just
text and occupy only a fraction of my allowance) to put up a pretty
fair amount of compressed speech using RealAudio format (which I
think most people already have the capability to hear--it's a free
download "browser plug-in," and also a simple version is built right
into Netscape).  

Unfortunately, there is still a dearth of recorded material in
Jargon.  What little is around is either copyrighted or encumbered by
obscure origin (which makes copyright clearance nearly impossible to
arrange).  So this far, all I have had available to put up in sound
format is Duane's happy little song with his button accordion.

The solution is:  Get out that tape recorder, folks, and make some
wawa!  

>Do y'all like the idea?  Maybe crazy; I don't know.
>
>Mike

Good ideas--but you know, if we weren't a little crazy, Mike, we
probably wouldn't be here ;->

Regards,

Jeff