Re: Some Observations

Wow!! This all sounds good to me. I like your idea about dubi.

I have a question I’ve been meaning to ask somebody here.

I know the word “the” can be done without. But it seems like it’s a lot of work to say what you want to without it. “The” and “a” are not perfectly interchangable as in the two sentences, “A reporter and I walked into the media crowd and a reporter hit me!” and “A reporter and I walked into the media crowd and the reporter hit me!” both translate into the following: Mi e un media-pe pa ambula ad-in un poli-pe de media-pe e un media-pe bate mi!! But the two english sentences are not synonomous. The meanings are completely different. I know that I could re-word everything to make it say what I mean in Glosa, but the utility of the word the is so great, Why not include it in Glosa?

Also, are there easy workarounds to the absence of “the” in Glosa. A Chinese friend of mine says that the word they use for “the” translates to “that” for instance.

Regards Bill — In glosalist@yahoogroups.com, “syntonica” syntonica@... wrote:

Wow! Need some air after diving in so deep. I never realized how many concepts in English were expressed in Latin compound words and didn’t really have any Germanic synonyms. (de-, con-, ex-, etc.)

1. (centi <> hekto) = trainwreck! Don’t use extra words when you can let the math do the work for you. Let centipedes be centipedes!

100 = “centi”=”hekto”=one hundred 1/100=”verte-centi”=”verte-hekto”=one one-hundredth

Facili, ne?

1. I think I get the “ne” vs “no” distinction. No(n) is the opposite of something. “Ne” just denies the quality.

Amo love Non-amo hate Ne-amo not loved, but not necessarily hated either. (The nice way to let your suitor down!) Ne-xeno not a stranger (but not a friend either); acquaintance An es ne-xeno. He is known to me.

1. I don’t think the word “zero” hit western culture until the Pope was speaking Italian. Hindu/Arabic numerals and the zero (sifr[Arabic]=>cypher, zefiro=>zero) didn’t arrive until the 11th or 12th century!)

2. “Vagona” is definitely from the German, probably arriving 410AD with Alaric and his armies. I would suggest “harma” [Gr.] or “carrus” [L] instead. Both mean “chariot.”

3. The verb structures still seem a little Western-centric. While most moods can be expressed, I would suggest adding the following verb modifiers:

“dubi” for a dubitative or a hearsay mood:

qo-lo es Fred nu-di? Where is Fred today? Fred dubi es pato. Fred, (I guess), is sick.

Irene dubi dice mi; … Irene told me (it’s hearsay)…

“ja” for a cohortive/energetic/counterfactual mood:

Na ja dice glosa! Let’s speak Glosa! Mi ja pote dice glosa! (But) I can speak Glosa! Id ja es boni di! It’s a bee-a-utiful day!

Boni sani a pan! Sintonika

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