Biloxi update
Alan H. Hartley
ahartley at d.umn.edu
Tue Oct 12 13:44:32 UTC 2004
Koontz John E wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Oct 2004, David Kaufman wrote:
>
>>I would imagine documenting an "extinct" language has its own problems,
>>since there are no longer native speakers left with which to confirm
>>data.
>
>
> The operative phrase is hapax legomenon.
Well, by a stretch, maybe. A hapax legomenon is a word or phrase that
appears only once in the record (i.e., 'once' meaning 'one time only,'
not 'at some time in the past').
For example:
APNEUMATIC Of or pertaining to the non-existence of soul or spirit;
non-spiritual, e.g., "The apneumatic theory of Dr. Rogers."
Many words, of course, deserve their hapax status.
Alan
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