Subject: Re: rafsi - the Lakhota way?

From: "Alfred W. Tüting" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 20:26:41 -0000

> JCB's official story, I remember, was that he got the idea from
German, 
> where, he claims a German friend told him, no one needs a
dictionary, because 
> all the words bear their meaning on their face. In German you can
get away 
> with pretty much running two words (or twenty) together unchanged...

In German, there are no rafsi-like pieces (i.e. smaller parts of root
words). But like in Hungarian, one is able to add lots of 
different pre- and affixes to a root word, thus creating many
different words - yet(!) usually you are not allowed to create *new* 
words using this method! - I'm talking of examples like: kommen
(come), be-kommen (get), auf-kommen (get up, arise etc.), 
aus-kommen (come out, break out - animal etc., get along with -
friends etc., do without ...), vorkommen (come infront, occur, it 
seems to me ...). You might realize that one has to learn each single
expression to really get the meaning of it (so you indeed will 
have need of a dictionary).
Creating *new* words and expressions is like in Chinese, Hungarian -
but one only is allowed to connect entire words (because 
there aren't rafsi-like pieces!).
What JCB's friend might have had in mind most probably referred to
the homogeneous vocabulary of German (Hungarian and lots of 
other languages too): e.g. König/kiraly (king),
Koenigin/kiralynö (queen), königlich/kiralyi (royal) etc.
All German words "bear their meaning on their face": Yes, if you know
the word ;-) (like in every language you're familiar with!).

There's a nice Yiddish joke: "Tate (Daddy), for what reason are
Lokshe called by 'Lokshe' (kind of noodle dish)?" And the son's 
father replied: "'Yingele' (my little boy/son), they look like
Lokshe, they smell like Lokshe, they taste like Lokshe - why
shouldn't 
they then also be called by 'Lokshe'?!"

But it's true: psycho-linguistically, every word you're familiar with
in language, is bearing a special 'face'. E.g. pronouncing 
German 'Blitz' evokes a different picture in my mind than pronouncing
the English word 'lightning'! (a sudden zig-zag vs. a short 
shine of light in the sky).

co'o mi'e .aulun.

BTW, like in Lojban, in Lakhota there is only I and you (mi, do), but
he/she/it is expressed by different means.