Re: TRANS: a lament under the rain

[John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>]

FFlores wrote:

> Sounds great! You know, it's really pleasant for me to
> try and read Brithenig aloud, since it has so much Romance
> sound to me...

I have a similar feeling about the language: reading it gives me the
*feeling* of being able to read Welsh with understanding, whereas
when I look at a passage of actual Welsh, I understand precisely
nothing!

It took me forever to figure out that the Welsh bit at the end
of Tolkien's essay "English and Welsh" means "For thine is
the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever",
despite ample (in hindsight) context clues.

>  It's like
> being in a strange country and suddenly running across an
> old guy from old ages and hearing him speak something you
> recognize as a bit *yours*... Like pleasant nostalgia.
> Does that make sense?

In Primo Levi's book about his return from Auschwitz, he talks
about having a related feeling when passing through Romania on
the train: the beginnings of words (on signs, etc.) make sense,
even if the endings are strange.  This after several years of
exposure only to German and Slavic languages.

--
        John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan      cowan@ccil.org
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! / Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
                        -- Coleridge / Politzer