I’m curious about the middle name "n’ha" in the quote I’m using
in my signature file. I’m told it means "daughter of" but I can’t
find it in any reference. What language is it? Is there an
equivalent for "son of" in the same language? Inquiring minds
want to know!

–
=====================================================================
Adams Douglas   | Always tell the truth, | You can die like the rest,
adamsd@         | then you make it the   | or be one of the best.
crash.cts.com   | other bloke’s problem! | – Cyndi n’ha June, 1992
Chula Vista, CA | – Sean Connery, 1971   |

Some time back, I read in a book (I’ve now lost the reference) that
about 5000 words in the Spanish language constituted 90% of common
reading material, or something like that.  

I’m assuming that other languages will similarly require the learning
of only a small portion of the language’s lexicon for most reading.  

I’m interested in trying to acquire lists for German, Spanish, and
possibly even Hebrew and Yiddish.  I *don’t* want just any old list,
nor do I want lists with seldom-used words; I want lists that will
give a good return for the study effort.  

If anyone can help, I would appreciate it.  Please e-mail me at:

rhoro…@mondrian.csufresno.edu

Please use that address rather than the UNC address, as it is my
"normal" account and makes my receipt of mail more timely (because I
don’t check UNC all that often).  

Thanks very much.

–
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80

In article <1992Dec22.211442.25…@enea.se>, som…@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:

|> This is a translated conversation from a Swedish-speaking group:
|>
|> )Erland Sommarskog (som…@enea.se) writes:
|> ))Despite Hungarian and Finnish are related, it is supposedly only
|> ))the numbers 1-6 which are the same. (And you have to look twice
|> ))to see it.)
|> )
|> )Actually one has now concluded that Finnish and Hungarian are not
|> )related.
|> )One still has a division of Finnish-Ugrian languages, but where the
|> )parts are not related to each other.
|> )The reason one earlier believed them to be related, is surely due
|> )to that that they sound superficially dissimilar.
|>
|> I have to say, I am quite surprised over this piece of information.
|> Any of you linguists out there who can shed a light on this?

As far as I know, the hypothesis that the Fennic and Ugric languages
are related as Fenno-Ugric is uncontested.  Bjorn Collinder discusses
Uralic (Fenno-Ugric plus Samoyedic) in An introduction to the Uralic
languages (Berkeley, CA:  U of California Press, 1965). and provides
about 100 cognate sets (not all including specifically Finnish or
Hungarian examples), as well as tables of sound correspondences,
lists of cognate inflectional endings and derivational endings, etc.
The cognate sets go far beyond the numerals.  Numerals are actually
not very good places to look for cognates and regular
correspondences.  They are particularly subject to analogical
reformation, and, as cultural vocabulary, they are often borrowed.

Again, as far as I know, the literature on Uralic in English is not
very extensive.  Collinder’s Introduction doesn’t really discuss the
literature, so I’m not sure what to recommend apart from it.

—-
John E. Koontz (koo…@bldr.nist.gov)

Disclaimer:  Views and recommendations, express or implied, are my own, and
do not reflect the opinion or policy of my employers.

(I’m surprised there’s no group devoted to rhetoric… Maybe we
don’t get it. Maybe *I* don’t get it. Oh, well…)

Does anyone out there know of a rhetorical term (or maybe a logical
one) for a statement that may be interpreted two different ways,
with the result being the same basic meaning? For instance, a
sign reads:

        "No smoking section inside."

This can be interpreted as 1) there are multiple seating sections, one
of which is for non-smokers; 2) no smokers allowed at all.
The implied result is that non-smokers will always be accommodated.
I know this is just semantic fuzziness, but I thought it was fun
enough that someone might have labelled it. Email your thoughts to
me, as my net-days are numbered (under a dozen).

——– e…@npri.com ———- or ———- …uunet!uupsi!npri6!eric —–
   "We do not fear. We are great. Woldercan does not petition; she ordains."    
Eric C. Williams/ NPRI/ Alexandria, VA/ USA/ (703) 683-9090/ Usual disclaimers.

>>(I’m surprised there’s no group devoted to rhetoric… Maybe we
>>don’t get it. Maybe *I* don’t get it. Oh, well…)

>I hereby issue a request for discussion for sci.rhetoric, unmoderated,
>with a self-explicable charter.

I don’t know how widely available it is, but there is already a group
devoted to rhetoric: bit.listserv.rhetoric, and it’s unmoderated.

        -dp-

on the French language.  I heard that it is the authority about
what is considered official French, and that no French dictionaries
can be published (at least in France) without their approval.
To what extent does it actually affect the spoken language?
Do French dictionaries under-represent the lexical innovation
going on?  I know that no dictionary can completely cover the
lexicon, but this seems to be a different matter.  Do any other
languages have a comparable organization?
From: krov…@sydney.cs.umass.edu (Bob Krovetz)
Path: sydney!krovetz

Thanks,
Bob

krov…@cs.umass.edu

The passing of labio-velar to labials is a well established fact (e.g. I.E.
*kw to Greek p before back vowels, or I.E. *gw to Greek b/Latin v), but has
anyone ever heard of a p or b becoming a kw or gw? Just curious. Any
examples of either direction of change would be appreciated.

John S. Robertson
Professor of Linguistics/BYU
e-mail: robrt…@yvax.byu.edu

This is an automated monthly posting to
rec.arts.{books,sf.{misc,written}}, sci.lang and alt.fan.tolkien.

TolkLang

    Contact: tolklang-requ…@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Julian Bradfield)

    Purpose: Discussions of the linguistic aspects of
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OK, I swore I would never do this, but I need some help.  I need to do a  
project for an AI course and, my main interrest being linguistics and  
natural language processing, I would like to work with that in some way.  
What I would really like is a some kind of program that I could ftp from  
somewhere, ‘play around’ with for about a week (day and night most likely  
, then write a paper on the results.  This project is due on December  
18, so I need to figure out what I’m going to do within the next day or  
so.  Thanks a bunch!!!

–

Lisa Hoffmann
hoffm…@cps.msu.edu

In the national press recently:

     "A bizarre case of a woman briefly recapturing the language of
      her childhood after a stroke has recently been reported in
      New York. The 65-year-old, who, it was thought, had always
      spoken with a Bronx accent, spoke with a Northern Irish
      accent for about four months after the stroke. She had never
      lived in Ireland, but her mother was Irish and she had grown
      up in an Irish community."

     "People who suffer strokes may lose their ability to speak
      acquired languages but remain fluent in their mother tongues.
      The New York Woman, according to the journal Medical Monitor,
      is the first recorded case of an early accent re-emerging
      afer a stroke."

From The Independent, Tuesday 8th Dec.

Brian Kelk
Cambridge
U.K.