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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Sat, 1 Mar 2008 16:38:28 -0500

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 12:15:06PM -0800, Mike Orr wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 9:23 AM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >  From what I recalled, and as confirmed by Wikipedia, Esperanto is
> >  "...a language lexically predominantly Romanic... the vocabulary derives
> >  primarily from the Romance languages." Seems like the most probable
> >  projection of what you'd get when comparing the two languages is exactly
> >  what you got.
> 
> Most of the vocabulary comes from modern Romance languages.  Some
> stuff does come directly from Latin ("post" being the most common),
> but it's rare enough that it's an oddity.
> 
> Zamenhof was pretty random in sometimes choosing words in their
> ancient form (post = after, patro = father), sometimes with French
> idiosyncracies (preta = ready, instead of presta), and sometimes with
> German idiosyncracies (lasi = to let, instead of lati), for no
> apparent reason.  

He knew that you'd try to speak it, and wanted to give you a few sleepless nights.

> I'm sure there are Russian idiosyncracies too though
> I can't think of any off the top of my head except:
> 
>     okopniki = to be a vicious pirate on the high seas

"Okopniki" - is that plural, like it would be in Russian? I like the idea, mind you - although I'd have to learn to wear those cheap pirate earrings [1] and yell "Orr, matey!"

>     perle okopniki = to do the same while using Perl, or in a
> Perl-like manner (e.g., shouting Haiku at your enemies)

"You bloody Orr-son!"
Sword-cleft head thumps deck
Wind sighs in taut silence.

[1] They cost a buck-an-ear, of course.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Mike Orr [sluggoster at gmail.com]


Sat, 1 Mar 2008 23:26:34 -0800

On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 12:15:06PM -0800, Mike Orr wrote:
>  > I'm sure there are Russian idiosyncracies too though
>  > I can't think of any off the top of my head except:
>  >
>  >     okopniki = to be a vicious pirate on the high seas
>
>  "Okopniki" - is that plural, like it would be in Russian? I like the
>  idea, mind you - although I'd have to learn to wear those cheap pirate
>  earrings [1] and yell "Orr, matey!"

It's a verb. Two Okopniks would be "du Okopnikoj". So if there were a story titled "How the Two Okopniks Quarreled", it would be "Kiel la du Okopnikoj kverelis".

If one of them were a female named Kat, you could use the dual-gender prefix "ge": "Kiel la du Geokopnikoj kverelis".

-- 
Mike Orr <[email protected]>


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Sun, 2 Mar 2008 21:54:13 -0500

On Sat, Mar 01, 2008 at 11:26:34PM -0800, Mike Orr wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Ben Okopnik <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 12:15:06PM -0800, Mike Orr wrote:
> >  > I'm sure there are Russian idiosyncracies too though
> >  > I can't think of any off the top of my head except:
> >  >
> >  >     okopniki = to be a vicious pirate on the high seas
> >
> >  "Okopniki" - is that plural, like it would be in Russian? I like the
> >  idea, mind you - although I'd have to learn to wear those cheap pirate
> >  earrings [1] and yell "Orr, matey!"
> 
> It's a verb.  Two Okopniks would be "du Okopnikoj".  So if there were
> a story titled "How the Two Okopniks Quarreled", it would be "Kiel la
> du Okopnikoj kverelis".

All this Esperanto stuff is just a cover - you just wanted to say "Kill the two Okopniks querulous" in your private language. See, I happen to know that "Esperanto" is almost an anagram of "resonates" [1] - which makes it obvious, yes, *obvious*! - that you want to take over the world. You madman.

> If one of them were a female named Kat, you could use the dual-gender
> prefix "ge":
> "Kiel la du Geokopnikoj kverelis".

I hereby assure you that Kat is not dual-gender; I have proof. (He is currently intently inspecting his bellybutton while contemplatively chewing on a book.)

[1] _Of course_ I wrote a script. How the hell else would I know that?

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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