h a l f b a k e r yWhat was the question again?
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This pidgin would be constructed with two goals in mind: first, readers of English should be able to get the meaning pretty easily; and second, a computer program should be able to translate from English to Sempano using a fairly simple set of algorithms--so builders of Web Fiction pages can put them
into a consistent version of Sempano without a lot of labor. (Think simple! I wouldn't want to have to recreate Grammatika just for this purpose.)
For Web Fiction purposes, I imagine this dialect being used now and then for flavor and also as a translation pidgin for pages created in a wholly unintelligible faux language--a link on an otherwise unreadable page might be labeled "Be tawken yu Sempano? Clikk yu here!" and then English readers could glean content from the "translation."
'Sempano' is of course a contraction of 'semi panadero.' Google doesn't return any hits for 'sempano' and the closest I could find is 'sem pano' in Portuguese meaning 'no cloth' or 'without cloth.' (At least it's not an obscenity, eh?)
To keep the translation part simple, perhaps changes to standard English would be made in only two ways.
Vocabulary changes, ie whole-word or phrase replacements:
Possible neologisms:
baekt = dead, kaput
croissa = good, nice
fisboen = to deride, insult, disapprove
wibni = fantasy, impossible dream
marfodell = to be doomed, to be about to die
etc.
Possible dialect words:
maekasmalla = make smaller, shrink
maekabigga = make bigger, enlarge
littabit = little bit
yu = you
me = I, me, my, mine
be = are, am, is, be
etc.
Simple spelling changes:
-awk- = -alk- (tawk = talk, wawker = walker)
-en = -ing (fisboenen = fisboening)
-kk- = -ck- (blakk = black, decker = dekker)
etc.
Esperanto
http://www.esperant.../info/index_en.html
How do you teach a pidgin to swim? Throw one in the water and yell, "Talk to me!" [reensure, Jun 11 2001]
Yet another contrived language
http://www.brightid...932F0D2}&bucket_id=
Es un alimento muy completo. [LoriZ, Jun 11 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]
"The Language of the Baltimoron"
http://www.forwardg...m/forward/2424.html
A dictionary for outsiders unfamiliar with our dialect [Bert6322, Aug 20 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
a particularly interesting contrived language
http://www.energylanguage.org/index.php
A curiously infectious project of the Experiment Network [LoriZ, Oct 16 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]
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Meesa no like dis. Yousa tinking you so smarty. |
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If I don't have the time to learn Creole, I'll be unlikely to learn a (new) pidgin english. |
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They have 57 words for "penis", but no word for "shorts" |
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Misa thinkin Jar Jar gonna be plenty mad when he finda
yousa rippin him off! |
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Rats. Sounds like this is a private obsession. Everyone is right, the examples I gave sound way too much like the Gungan dialect. Should have gone with a Nordic or East European tilt. Brief clarification, then I'll let it drop: |
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Steve: Half the point is that you don't have to learn a new pidgin. It's designed so that software can translate it (transliterate it, really, I suppose) easily. I did a quick prototype in VB, and if the transliteration rules are kept simple then the programming is not difficult. Distribute the app to anyone participating in the Web Fiction and they can use it as they wish. |
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On existing pidgins and creoles: The other half of the point is that this fiction would not be impenetrable, like Papauan or Haitian creoles. Again, it's a matter of purposeful design. One such dialect was created by Russell Hoban in his novel "Ridley Walker"--and I wish I could quote a paragraph, but I've lost my copy. |
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*lets Sempano drop into the depths, glinting in the light*| — | Dog Ed,
Jun 13 2001, last modified Jun 15 2001 |
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Dog Ed: I think the idea has potential, but, aside from the
Gungan Quotient, I think the culture needs to be created
first, and then that will shape the dialect that is used. |
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There is a sort of typographic dialect that has evolved via
the internet, although it's probably not what you are
thinking of. It's called "L33T" and most everyone I know
hates it and derides its users. And that derision legitimizes
it if you ask me... |
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I got an email about the "dialect" spoken by some people in my area (Baltimore, MD), and I posted it to a chain-mail-to-send-your-friends website. I'll see if I can find the link, anyone who lives around here will think it's hilarious. |
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