Well I honestly intended to get a decent entry written this weekend, but what with everything that’s going on – illness, Doctor’s appointments, my brother’s 30th birthday, etc – I didn’t find the time. This is somewhat of a problem as it means more and more news is backing up that I want to write about, meaning that when I do get the chance to write it’s going to eat up a big chunk of time, and be a massive entry.
I suppose I could make some kind of resolution to write a little bit a day, but c’mon, there’s no way I’d keep it. So I guess I’ll just have to put an entire day or so aside for updates, probably next weekend. Probably.
This is turning into a rather awful entry really. Just moaning and excuses about why there aren’t any real entries. I should try and find something to talk about to try and make it worth reading. Which is difficult because I’m typing this out during my lunchbreak at work, with a sandwich in one hand and my co-workers peering over my shoulder with their beady little eyes (well, potentially peering over my shoulder with their perfectly normal eyes to be honest). Maybe I can find something interesting on Wikipedia to link to…
There we go, Ubykh, the (sadly) now extinct Caucasian language with 84 consonants, 2 vowels, and special linguistic classes for things to do with horses, and putting things in and out of fires (don’t even try to talk about putting horses into fires :). The last speaker died in 1992, and one has to wonder if he was playing some kind of obscure Caucasian joke on the field linguists.
Linguist: How do you say “I buy the goat”?
Informant: Rttgfuhgdnbodd sgfsfhodd gftrg
Linguist: So “to buy” is “sgfsfhodd”?
Informant: Yes, unless buy horse
Linguist: Unless you’re buying a horse? Why?
Informant: Horse special. To buy horse is “Rtthgufgfbog swdddfhad hfgth”. Horse have own words. Is special.
Linguist: OK…. what about “I put the goat in the stall”?
Informant: Mghfugghug fghohh gftrg
Linguist: But if it was a horse?
Informant: Mdfugghuu fgtott hfgth. Unless put horse in fire. Then is dugdugdog fghott groogol.
Linguist: ….
Stranger things have happened! (and yes, I know nothing about Caucasian languages, so don’t email to say that “rtthgufgfbog” is clearly Finno-Ugric or something :).
Better get back to work.
