LL-L 'Phonology' 2007.01.25 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 23 January 2007 - Volume 03

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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.24 (04) [E]

Sandy wrote:

One problem with this, I think, is that for any group of words that fit
the theory you can find plenty that don't. It might be that any given
language offers so much variety in semantic-to-phonetic relationships
that you can look for order and find order, or you can look for chaos
and find chaos.

...

If you look at sign languages, you'll find that visual onomatopoeia are
much more common than aural are in spoken languages. The
reason for this seems clear enough: much more of human discourse
describes what we see than describes what we hear. The proportion of
words that are onomatopoetic depends on how much of the human world
occurs in the medium of the language, and therefore in spoken languages
onomatopoeia are relatively thin on the ground.

Thanks, Sandy! A very interesting lesson you gave.

But- the last, regarding sign languages, brings me to the idea, that words
which obviously are onomatopoetic could be younger- they haven't gone
through a lot of vowel shiftings and changes as older ones might have.
Because: sign languages also have been invented and developed in younger
times.

Just an idea...

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm
----------

From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L 'Etymology' 2007.01.24 (03) [E]

Dear Paul,

you wrote:

> I don't know where "lautmalerish" comes from, but it's definitely my
offering for "Wort der Woche" at my next German Conversation Group meeting!

> I wish English had such a wonderful word rather than a clumsy Greek
borrowing.

Psst- don't say such things! It could encourage Heiko and Ron to make one of
their dreadful LS-translations ;-).

Greutens/Regards

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo. com>
Subject: Etymology

Jonny (above):

> Because: sign languages also have been invented and developed in younger
times.

What makes you assume that?  Can you think of any sign language that was
invented and adopted in recent times?  I thought the roots of sign languages
were somewhere in the murky past just like those of other types of languages
-- and all languages are in a perpetual state of development ...

... with the exception of North German Low Saxon, of course, because
according to some people its development is verboten, and, unbeknownst to
Amnesty International, it's sitting bound, gagged and blindfolded in
solitary confinement at the language police headquarters somewhere between
Marsch and Geest.
> Psst- don't say such things! It could encourage Heiko and Ron to make one
of their dreadful LS-translations ;-).

You bet your sweet ninny, mate!  It looks like you're finally catching on to
the fact that Heiko and I are among the top kingpins of a global conspiracy
network dedicated to the purpose of keeping you in a perpetual state of
exasperation.

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

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