Interesting article…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4172085.stm

-Tim

I guess that I am sentimental in a way!  I feel sad about the loss of a single language, not because I feel that a way of thinking is lost, but because a unique expression of the (infinite?) ways that human language can take form is buried.

But I think that this has been happening from the beginning, and it is just part of the ephemeral nature of human experience, and I guess that makes it all the more precious.

But, in truth, it is impossible to keep a language alive, because it is not static, and subsequent speakers, native or not, will surely change it into something different!

It’s like an old house being torn down, not matter the state of its repair, there is something, some history or memory, that will never be known again.

Sitran

The Inuit language of Inuktitut, for example, has many verbs for the word "know", ranging from "utsimavaa" - meaning he or she knows from experience to "nalunaiqpaa" - he or she is no longer unaware of something.

Doesn’t that mean you forgot it?

Brazilian dude

Very good, BD!  Some people (sociolinguists and cultural anthropologists?) love to make (native) languages seem so mysterious and obscure, but when you shake off the gobbledygook, you usually find a common human experience.

Thanks!

Sitran

(Oh, my God!  He’s more clever than I thought!)

Thank you.  You’re not bad yourself.  I do think that some people just fantasize about languages, so I tend to tend everything cum grano salis (with a pinch of salt).

Brazilian dude

How is being "no longer unaware of something" like forgetting...?

Isn’t that the opposite?

-Tim
...Am I confused, or did I miss something…?

I hadn’t seen that.  You have a point there.  I have to mull over that.  I’ll give you an answer later.

Brazilian dude

Someone just likes double negatives.

I think a more straightforward rendering would be "nalunaiqpaa" - he or she is newly aware of something.

But maybe it’s just me.

-Tim

It’s always just you.   ;D  

Brazilian dude

I was enchanted by this in Tim’s linked article:

None knew since the parrot spoke Atures and was its last native speaker

[my emphasis] - gailr

ps: admit it, B_d, you don’t know squat about English double negatives.  :)

Picky, picky, picky, Tim!

That eye for detail is going to get you into trouble someday!

But what is the word for "no longer aware of anything" in Inuktitut!

Puijilittatuq? why that’s an Inuktitut (eskimo) word meaning "he does not know which way to turn because of the many seals he has seen come to the ice surface". man that’s some kind of efficient communication.

Always comes in handy!

Sitran

[quote author=Sitran link=board=translate;num=1106263532;start=0#10 date=01/20/05 at 23:16:57] But what is the word for "no longer aware of anything" in Inuktitut!

I don’t know, but in English I think it’s "comatose."  Or, possibly, obtunded.  I like the different words they have to express the different nuances of knowing.

Puijilittatuq? why that’s an Inuktitut (eskimo) word meaning "he does not know which way to turn because of the many seals he has seen come to the ice surface".

English: "An embarrassment of riches?"  I might grab hold of that:

"In some ways I’m very lucky.  I was puijilittuatuq from job offers as soon as I got out of college."

So did you major in clubbing seals or was that an elective.

I think a more straightforward rendering would be "nalunaiqpaa" - he or she is newly aware of something.

Doesn’t that means that you discovered or found something out?

And Gailr is right, I don’t know nothing about no double negatives.  

Brazilian dude

I suppose it could be discovery, but it could also simply be an indication of plain and simple learning, couldn’t it?

Or it could be one of those awarenesses that settles on you like a falling feather…

Who knows?  I don’t speak no Inuktitut.

-Tim

I see you’re very partial to Inuktitut, Tim.

Brazilian dude