I published Cyber-Psalm 1. Aren’t those susserating* sibilants simply succulent? English orthography: Cy=Ps=S!!! English is the dominant language in the world because it defeats anyone who tries to master it. Today I tried to explain to some Mozambicans that “through” and “threw” are homophones. I had a terrible time in phonetics class. Happily for me, I married the teacher’s pet. That wasn’t the reason I married her. But it was added incentive. Morcielago is the only word in Spanish to use all five vowels. It means bat. English has several words like that including abstemious. The longest word in the Nyungwe Gospel of Mark is in 3:10, akhambagwinyana-gwinyana “they kept crowding in.” The longest word not using reduplication is acimbam’nyang’anisisa in 15:39. It means “he was looking at him.” I bet Cheyenne can beat that. I’m not sure if Nyungwe has a word that uses all the vowels.
I turned off comments on the Cyber-Psalm because it is directed toward God and if he wants to comment he won’t have any trouble doing so. And yes, the whimsical penguin was inspired by the movie, March of the Penguins.
Today I got to hold the finished version of the Nyungwe Gospel of Mark in my hot little hands. Only long enough for it to get stuffed in an envelope. It will be hand-carried to Tete, photocopied and reviewed by church representatives. Next on the translators’ plate is the Gospel of John. They have an old draft done by someone else in 1995. They’re going to clean it up and then the fun begins. How do you make sure that the Nyungwe means what the Greek says when John seldom says anything with a single meaning? What’s the technical term for that? How about polysemous implicature? I just noticed that implicit comes from the Latin implicitus “entangled.” I like that a lot.
More Grasshopper Greek coming up next week. A fun one, too. Word origins. Philology, afflatus but no philately.
* OK, “susserating” is not a real word in English. I borrowed it from Portuguese sussurrar: to whisper. Sounds nice even if you don’t know what it means.
“English is the dominant language in the world because it defeats anyone who tries to master it.” That’s pretty funny! My kids would all agree. I started to explain their take on the topic. Then I remembered that it is better to post than to comment, so I’ve copied my thoughts into LiveWriter and some day I’ll post them with a link to Lingalinga. (Do my links actually help your technorati ranking, since I’m so far down on the totem pole myself?)
Congratulations to the Nyungwe team on completing Mark.
if he wants to comment he won’t have any trouble doing so
Indeed. But I’m glad I won’t be standing next to you when he comments on your blasphemous claim that he “rejected” his beloved Son! Yes, on the cross he forsook him, left him for a while, but he never rejected him.
Oh, it’s Zeus who hurls thunderbolts, not our God who tends to do things more carefully, like casting people on a bed of suffering until they repent (Revelation 2:22, I won’t scare you with the next verse).
Perhaps you had a terrible time in the systematic theology class as well?
[...] seems to mean no more than “communicating only on the Internet”.) On his lingalinga blog he notes: Aren’t those susserating* sibilants simply [...]
I think Peter is being very hard on you. But he is using this as an opportunity to spin out his series on atonement. I, on the other hand, hope to make my posts on kindness outnumber my posts on Junia – if that is possible.
I’m also delighted with your poetry so tell Peter to have his own fun and let you have yours.
Well, Suzanne, I know that only hyperbole works with Lingamish. If he had been British, I might have tried the “Look, my dear brother, there’s something not quite right here” approach. But understatement is a waste of time here.
Partly I’m just jealous that I can’t write poetry like you and him, I can only tear it apart. I have resisted the temptation to tear apart your lyrical lauding of longanimous love. Well, I can try some alliteration, as I also did with “Cyber-psalm is suspect”, if anyone noticed.
Just kidding, Peter.
PS You have been trumping me with Fee’s commentary all week so I had to retreat into poetry.
It’s alright, Suzanne, I appreciate Peter’s insights. Scholarly review is a first step on the road to a Nihil obstat and an eventual inclusion in the expanded canon. Peter’s theme verse for blogging might be, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.”
If he’s sniffing out a heretic, I can retreat into the safety of poetic ambiguity.
Someone once said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And somewhere else it says, “He was pleased to crush him.” Sounds like rejection to me.
As always, thanks for the traffic.
[...] expressed very valid arguments in favor of a different phrasing. Fellow poet, Suzanne, also gave some level-headed input. I’ll confess I’m not quite happy with the new wording but it is at least not [...]