with Vladde Kshorble Dgiorptf
Copyright 1999-2000, Daniel E. Talkington USA
Back to Miscellaneous
Click here to send me your comments.
SPLIZZINI, THE PEOPLE'S LANGUAGE, A MANUAL THAT ANYONE CAN USE
Version 2 as of 20 September, 2000 AD
by Bard Larrou de la Von Buthwensgery
with Vladde Kshorble Dgiorptf
Copyright 1999-2000, Daniel E. Talkington USA
Back to Miscellaneous
Click here to send me your comments.
OUTLINE
i Introduction to the Introduction
I Introduction
III Proposed Alternative Writing System
IV Appendix
A. The Lexique
****************************************************
i. Introduction to the Introduction I want to have this supplemental introduction (or prologue, or forward, if you will--I don't know the proper term; I'm not an insider in the publishing industry, nor probably ever will be.) because I felt that the "main" introduction is insufficient and substandard. Plus, I want to make some comments relevant to the current status of the project. For quite some time now I've had an announcement on my main page about Zplizzini (or Splizzini, or Çplizzini--there's really no "standard" spelling of the name) coming soon, with the accompanying disclaimer that "soon" is a relative term. Although this appeal to relativism may have bought me some time, I figure, or reckon, if you will, that those who may have actually read and considered this announcement may be waxing impatient (and the disclaimer may be waxing impotent), so I felt the urgency to throw together something in HTML form just to get something up, ready or not. I also wanted to say more about Esperanto. One thing is, Esperanto claims to be a universal second language, easy to understand for anyone. This is all good and well if the only people in the world are those whose mother tongues are of European origin. But the last time I checked, the world contained a whole lot of non-European language-speaking people, even beyond the Indo-European language family, if you want to make that extension. In what I've seen of Esperanto, there appears to be not even an attempt to accommodate this obvious fact. (Click here to judge for yourself.) (The link will open in a separate window.) It is true that the "creators" of Zplizzini are Westerners, and a lot of the vocabulary we have up to this point consists of words whose etymologies are basically European, at least we have acknowledged non-European languages in our declarations and commentaries, and are making attempts to include them in our vocabulary (and have already done so to some extent). I'll go even farther in admission and say that many of the non-European words in our Lexique may have been used without complete understanding of their original meanings. But at least they are there. Furthermore, many of our words, such as "udbip", "sness", and "spumb", have no origins at all (save for seemingly English spellings). In sum, we have not perfectly reached our ideals, but we are indeed trying, and we admit our shortcomings. Another problem I have with Esperanto is its writing system, claiming to be 100% phonetic, or having a one-to-one relationship between letters and phonemes, with no exceptions. As well, Esperanto claims to have a simple grammar with no exceptions. I believe that this aspiration for complete conformity within the language and no exceptions is unnatural and unrealistic and leaves no room for growth and "evolution". In Splizzini we embrace the exceptions and incongruities (even its very name has no standard spelling), because, well, for one thing, to have a healthy laugh at the incongruities of "real" languages. As well, I believe that exceptions, nonconformities and incongruities reflect diversity, and the rich tapestry that is human survival (and thriving) on our tiny Biosphere which lurches through space. One last note for this introduction to the introduction: this "supplemental introduction" is imperfect, if not incomplete, inadequate, and substandard. However, I have gotten what I wanted to off my chest. |
I. Introduction This is the first ever grammar book for the Splizzini Language. But more than just a grammar book, this is a search for the depths of its creators' minds. And since theoretically, a mind is a reflexion of the world or universe around it, maybe this will also be a pursuit of the nature of reality itself. Indeed, this is what we hope for. There are those who have said, upon hearing that we have formulated an "artificial language", that we must be people with way too much time on our hands. To this I have more than one thing to say. One is, I don't think we can yet really say we have created "a language". We are merely in the process of developing an alternate method of viewing reality (if there really is such a thing as reality). And we have only just begun--up to now we don't even have a sufficient vocabulary to carry on a meaningful conversation of any significant length. As well, in this age of superfluous consumption and meaningless and unnecessary entertainment, do these folk have the right to so casually dismiss my collaborator and me with "They must have too much time on their hands."? Anyway, the fact remains that we have embarked on this "absurd" voyage, and the question remains, "Why?". Do we have the same grandiose visions as the creator(s) of Esperanto, to encourage a mentality of peaceful coexistence of individuals, communities, classes, races, ethnicities, religions and nations? I don't think we're that naive, even though those may be worthy ends. It is more of a gargantuan joke, than an attempt to "save humanity". We believe that taking a good long look at ourselves, and being able to laugh at the absurdity, is a good thing. And maybe by doing this, we can help humanity in some way. (I even wrote a poem a few years back about wanting to make the world laugh, because joy destroys darkness, or some such platitude.) Another question the public might ask is, "What is the etymology of this language?", or maybe "What is it based on?", or "What are its origins?". Well, I must say our vision for the language has broadened since its inception. This fact is well reflected in the change in names it's undergone. The name was at first "Fraspiningit-Slager". (although there were those who "mistakenly" called it "Fraspiningit-Slagert". I put the word "mistaken" in quotes, because since languages are like organic, evolving entities with erratic and arbitrary features, which morph over time, who am I to say this spelling was a mistake?) The "Fraspiningit" part was meant to hint at the roots in French, Spanish, English, and Italian, whereas the word "Slager" was meant to signify loosely and broadly, "language". I picked it up from part of a Germanic-sounding family name. This part of it was rather arbitrary, and in any case, I think the name "Fraspiningit-Slager" sounds silly, and I'm a bit embarrassed to have ever been associated with the name. Anyway, we needed to branch out, embrace a new vision which was truly global, or universal, not just European-based, as I believe Esperanto is. And to do this, we needed a new name. The new name, Splizzini, means "Language of the People", or "People-Language". "Splizzo" means "person", and the plural is "Splizzi" (reminiscent of the same grammatical phenomenon in Italian), and "ini" means, roughly, "communication", or "language". Now, in light of this explication of the change in names that this artificial language has gone through, I'll mention that I have friends who say that I've made a language which uses words (that is, borrows them or is influenced by them) from every language, including Native American languages. I really think I need to qualify that grand statement, because by no means have we used every human language. Nevertheless, it is our intention, with the renewed vision, to represent all languages, and I consider it especially appropriate to include and honour the indigenous traditions of Earth. Now, after having beat around the bush about the change of the name of this language, and about what the language has not gotten its words from, I ought to discuss the words which ARE in it so far, and how we arrived at this present collection of entries into the "Lexique". And of course I should apologize for the length of the preceding sentence. So then, up to this point, what is the general etymology/background of Splizzini? By the time you are reading this, my generalization may be a grand inaccuracy. But that's ok. This is a growing, evolving language, at least that's the goal. The idea is, as much as promoting diversity, and the validity, dignity, and preservation of indigenous traditions and the rights of indigenous peoples, as it is to conduct an experiment in the growth and development--the evolution, if you will--of a language. Maybe I'll get to something, if I ever stop beating about the bush. Ok. The basic background of the structure of Çplizzini up to this point is English, of the Midwestern American variety (you gotta realize that this is the mother tongue of the authors.), German, French, Italian and Spanish (and therefore, by way of these three, Latin). Now, this small list does not completely cover the origins of all the words we have to this point. There is also a smattering, here and there, of words derived from some other languages. I say derived, because most of the words are only similar to the words they came from. This other "minority" of words come from (now, help me, somebody, if I miss somethin'!): Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Swedish, Armenian, Arabic, Pidgin, and then there are some words I've gotten from some modern music which contained bits of languages I'm not sure what they were. Then there is just plain old invention out of the blue, creating words that happen to stir our fancy at the moment of creation, or maybe using someone's name we think sounds cool or nice. Often this process entails creating the word, then assigning a meaning to it later. I almost forgot--there's another method, and I can only think of one word we have now which fits the description of this method. This method is the acronym. The word in question is "cobatwasir", which is the basic greeting in Zplizzini. It originated as an acronym for a sort of whim-society, the "Cult O' Bitterness Against Those Who Are Successful In Romance". I came up with this idea in a moment of despair and frustration when I was suffering a bad case of unrequited love. The motivation behind this may or may not still be there, but the word "stuck", and so it is included in the Lexique. So by now, if you've actually read this far, the only thing I've probably accomplished so far was to convince you of my madness, and I clearly have no more hope now then to convince you further. Therefore, let's dive into the Lexique! |
II Discussion of parts of speech SORRY. THIS SECTION IS NOT YET AVAILABLE
|
III Proposed Alternative Writing System  BACK TO TOP |
BACK TO TOP IV. Appendix A. The LEXIQUE aard:letter anantharam:the gyration or combination of gyrations performed during belly dances; not applicable if the navel does not appear azao:therefore,so babijan:sister-in-law banerjee:sunshine Bard Larrou de la Von Buthwensgery:Daniel E. Talkington bastig:head bir:to be blandig:astronaut blee:Friday bludgeon:to grease the palms of, to bribe bluk:no col:with col-molti-nippi:rich da:in dah:she,her dahlg:her,hers(pos.) dal:in the dang:in a(n) di:he,him dinkum: sibling dinpukum:sister BACK TO TOP dinvladkum:brother do:of ed:and etti:this ettur:that farnan:to drub festirin:to enjoy filchren:to do folla:page gandaare:to look gawa:certain gawa-dzu:certainty genghis-khan:overindulgence, virile triumph godwynnne:architect goldween:smith govoreetye:to recount grokken:to put, to place guerdonor:to give haappi:happy hamsahamnida: thanks, thank you, much obliged hexu:Saturday hilg:his hir:here hlimj:feast hmuj:wedding hormuz:to write hway-djia:to go home icki-icki-ptang:awayness ig:yes igow:it ihlg:your,yours ih:you ini:language init:word init-nizzo:book io:I,me isolde:irresistible jaaard (pronounced "zhard"):delicious jarbig:survival BACK TO TOP jeeet:beginning, creation jeeveejay:food augmented/ameliorated with curry julla:Christmas jumjgblaugdt:unpronounceable kaan:can (to be able to) kaarth:soil khafizz:peace kozul:thing kplabga:Tuesday kpragshthilkp:emphatically happy kprilder:to think, to know, to understand kroobbe:gold kurtir:to want kwa:that,which kwela:fox kwelane:foxes kwi:who,whom kwowor:to behave Lakota:true human being lavora:work lavorare: to work li:the lis:the m-sai-ha-hey: you're welcome, don't mention it maalmo:clothespin maipiur:no longer,no more marhabaht:love micen:to eat BACK TO TOP moeb (pronounced "mub"):train molta:very moltavané: abbreviation for vernacular moov-av-av:nurse morta:death mortallici:the throes of death nahly:where,there naukhdig:however,but neeebl:never ng:a, an nichotaare:to be jealous of nigh:not nivur:never(emphatic) nizzo:field (pl.:nippi) nolvo:new oykplinshthira:shards o' glass opta:good ow:to correspond ping-la:sickness perina:dog perinae:dogs (hint: what company other than Alpo makes dog food?) po:distress poemu:poem BACK TO TOP pwuaah:point quairn:dust qypiu:ever raaadmo:salt rabban:to have rabana:wine raarchnigu:inferno rew:food rokni:to smoke sakrepatna:elegant, eloquent sakrepatnag:elegance, eloquence salottuare:to greet sapos:when schlyeppe:grogginess schlaaange:love scrum:donut scrumj:donuts sharig:afternoon shendzai: now shkaurk:pod, including snow pea shlyeppino:mountain range shurpin:to suppose BACK TO TOP sinista:bad skjuttur:to push smaulberies:if splidge:unwanted food sness:so frail splih:cloud, clouds spumb:so sweet surire:to smile taghil:days tago:day tatanka:buffalo, bison und:and udbip:tapestry var:playfulness vermahkie = a combination of "thank you" and "good health to you"; a showing of gratitude and well wishes. vern:abbreviation/substitution for the entire Lexique vocabulary list vitta:life vitterare:to hate BACK TO TOP vlitch:green Washitch:Europe Waishichu:European wassa:water wilde:will,would wir:we,us wog:past progressive particle wok-long-rot:good bye yat:to haggle, haggling yaya:Sunday yuj:mattress zeem:handsaw zbreggin:to speak,talk zharzhig:thing zhya:Wednesday znaku:sign (plural:znakuya) Zplizzi:people Zplizzini:language o' the people Zplizzo:person |
