Re: VMs: Is it a human language? (was Moot points, getting long)

["Larry Roux" <lroux@xxxxxxx>]

Even your email replicates words  Note the double "Sumerian" (if you ignore punctuation, which we have no indication of punctuation yet in the Voy)

"I am sure you could construct similarly repetitive sentences in...
Sumerian! Yes, Sumerian. Sumerian used reduplication to express:"


Larry Roux
Syracuse University
lroux@xxxxxxx

>>> jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 08/06/04 3:31 PM >>>
6/08/2004 11:32:12 AM, Pierre Abbat <phma@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


>It might be that "qokedy qokedy" and "qokedy" are two distinct words which 
>happen to both occur on that page. To give an example in Tok Pisin, "i gat 
>planti sipsip longlong long dispela sip" means "there are many crazy sheep on 
>this ship".

Nice example.

They don't even have to be different words. This describes the shambles
that is my collection of books: di rumahku ada buku-buku di mana-mana, 
di kamar-kamarnya ada buku-buku. Buku-buku itu...

I am sure you could construct similarly repetitive sentences in...
Sumerian! Yes, Sumerian. Sumerian used reduplication to express:

1. the plural
2. the superlative
3. some verbal aspects

Oh, and here, I just remembered a snippet of a legend told me
by one of my Sakao informants 30 years ago: 

mököökölkölnes mökölkölGjà pr

Meaning: he fished for a long long time, he did not catch any.

Which you could express thus in Bislama:

Hem i lukluk fis, luk luk luk luk luk, ko ko ko ko ko ko, nokat.




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