11.1701, Sum: Novel without <e>, etc.

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-1701. Tue Aug 8 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.1701, Sum: Novel without <e>, etc.

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=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Mon, 7 Aug 2000 15:58:52 +1200
From:  Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauer at vuw.ac.nz>
Subject:  Novel without <e>, etc.

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 7 Aug 2000 15:58:52 +1200
From:  Laurie Bauer <laurie.bauer at vuw.ac.nz>
Subject:  Novel without <e>, etc.


I recently submitted two queries on sources to LINGUIST (11.1668, Qs:
Looking for Sources).  My sincere thanks to all those who answered.
(I hope I have responded individually to you all.)

1.  Who was it who wrote the novel in French recently which avoided
the letter <e>? What was the novel called?  I know it was translated
into English, what is the English title?

I was wrong about the recent publication - it is a relatively recent
translation:

Georges Perec
Disparition (original title "La Disparition")
Schoenhofs Foreign Books; ISBN: 207071523X
1990 (originally published in 1969)
"La disparition", Paris, Deno=EBl.

Perec, Georges, 1936-1982
    [Disparition] A void / Georges Perec ; translated from the French by
  Gilbert Adair. - London : Harvill Press ; 1995. - xi, 284 p. ; 22 cm.
     "179"--P. [4] of cover.
     ISBN 1860460984

There is a German translation by another member of Oulipo (Ouvroir de
litt=E9rature potentielle), Eugen Helml=E9, under the title "Anton Voyls
=46ortgang"

A partial translation into Danish (where the letter 'e' is extremely
prominent in grammatical endings etc.) was published some years ago
by a certain obviously Faroese translator Arni H=E5rl=F8v Paturson (who
then was revealed as a well-known Danish author Arne Herl=F8v Petersen.

There is a nice webpage with information on Perec:
http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/perec.html

The same author also wrote another novel with no other vowel than "e". It
is called "Les revenentes" (Paris, Julliard, 1972).

This is not the only such novel to have been written:
[Ernest Wright's "Gadsby" is a]
    novel written entirely without using the letter e. Here's an excerpt from
    page one

    "If youth, throughout all history, had a champion to stand up for it; to
    show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it
    practically; you wouldn't constantly run across folks today who claim that
    'a child don't know anything.'  A child's brain starts functioning at
    birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant
    atoms, into which  God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adults
    act, and figuring out its purport."

    ... and the last page

    "A glorious full moon sails across a sky without a cloud.  A crisp night
    air has folks turning up coat collars and kids hopping up and down for
    warmth.  And that giant star, Sirius, winking slyly, knows that soon, now,
    that light up in His Honors room window will go out.  Fttt!  It *is* out!
    So, as Sirius and Luna hold an all-night vigil, I'll say a soft 'Goodnight'
    to all our happy bunch, and to John Gadsby -- Youth's Champion.

    Finis."

Some further comments/references I was sent:

AUTHOR: Holland, Henry Richard Vassall, Baron, 1773-1840.
    TITLE: Eve's legend /
    PLACE: London :
PUBLISHER: Etchells & Macdonald, Chiswick Press)
     YEAR: 1928
PUB TYPE: Book
   FORMAT: 65,  2=D8 p. : col. ill. ; 31 cm.
   SERIES: Haslewood books
    NOTES: Illustrated t.p.
           Recto of every leaf is blank; illustrations included in the
           pagination.
           Uses no vowel but e throughout.
           Final page has a double-e monogram.
a sample:

"Men were never perfect, yet the three brethren Veres were ever
esteemed, respected, revered, even when the rest, whether the select
few, whether the mere herd, were left neglected..."


If you want to read some interesting commentary on the translation of
Perec's "lipogramme", read Douglas Hofstader's book "Le Ton Beau de Marot"
a wonderful book that compares the problems of Artificial Intelligence and
translation. A feast for the mind.

You might be interested to learn that in one of the first
issues of the "Spectator" (1711) Joseph Addison chastises
the toils of those alexandrian poets who endeavored to rewrite
the Iliad in such a fashion that each book would not contain any
occurrence of the corresponding letter: so, for example, the
first book would not contain any occurrence of the letter
alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and so on.

Also:
http://www.freespeech.org/forthright/liplinks.html
for other sites. A Web search under 'lipogram' will return many others.

[The Perec book] is mentioned in the very
interesting book I'm reading at the moment - The Code Book, by Simon
Singh

Victor Hugo wrote a series of poems, each of which omitted
a different letter, perhaps a different vowel.

My second question was:
2. I have a vague recollection of having seen somewhere a comment
from one of those polyglots of the 18th or 19th century who, when
asked how many languages he actually spoke, responded 'kaum meine
eigene' ('Scarcely my own').  Who was the polyglot, and can anyone
provide a reference for this information?

I received only one response on this one, a suggestion that it might
have been Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy.  While there
is much in Schliemann's life to suggest that it would have been
something that he might have said, I have been unable to find any
definite confirmation - so this  one is still open, folks!

many thanks
Laurie Bauer


Professor of Linguistics and
Programme Director for Linguistics
School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington
New Zealand
Ph +64 4 472 1000 x 5619 or DDI +64 4 463 5619
Fax +64 4 463 5604
www http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals
e-mail laurie.bauer at vuw.ac.nz

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