cgboeree | Words
Hi, everyone.
Excuse the English -- it is the beginning of school here (I am a
professor) and my head too cluttered to write in LFN. My head is also
spinning from thinking about some of the issues we have been
discussing. As you can guess, I take these things way too seriously!
Here is what I suggest, and I hope it is okay with all of you (yes, you
may feel free to complain!).
It is important to leave fio/fia as boy/girl as well as son/daughter.
One reason is that we have been using these words for some time now in
our small but painfully created literature. In many languages
(including Dutch), "my boy," "my girl," even "my man" and "my woman"
(for spouses) are the norm. The same happens in LFN. "Tu fia" can only
mean your daughter, right? If you, God forbid, owned slaves, you could
say "me slavo fia!" I would recommend that, if context doesn't make the
meaning clear, fio propre/fia propre pinpoints son/daughter (following
stefan, at least in terms of idea). In other words, everything stays as
it is, with room for clarification.
Likewise with om/fema. We had lots of great ideas, but each had
problems. As you know, we are trying to keep the vocabulary -- at least
the non-technical vocabulary -- small, like creoles do, for ease of
learning. Again, many languages (Dutch again) do use "man elephant" and
"woman elephant" regularly. However, Leon's ideas -- omal and femal --
are good, and we can use these as alternative, more precise adjectives
as needed.
Regarding some of the ideas that were problematic, my suggestions are...
male wolf -- lupo om = lupo omal
werewolf, wolfman -- om lupin
elephant man -- om elefantin
male elephant -- elefante om = elefante omal
Other good phrases for common ideas include:
boy friend / girl friend -- ami, ami fio, ami fia
boyfriend/girlfriend -- cara, cara fio, cara fia
boyfriend/girlfriend (more seriously) -- amada, amada fio, amada fia
(Notice that I use fio/fia as an adjective in the same way I used
om/fema. This has always been a part of LFN and shows its flexibility
nicely.)
In regards to some other relationships, I suggest (following some of
Antonio's suggestions)...
mother-in-law (etc.) -- madre, madre per sposi, madre de me sposo/a
stepmother -- madre, madre per lege
birth mother, biological mother -- madre, madre per nase
godmother -- madrin, madre per eglesia
half brother -- frate, frate per madre/padre
One more issue:
men's magazine (e.g. playboy) -- jornal per omes
a magazine belonging to men -- jornal de omes
a magazine on or about men -- jornal supra omes
The last is a real change. There is too much confusion using de for
both possession and topic, so I am suggesting that we adopt supra for
the latter, as is in fact the case in all the source languages.
I hope all of you understand: It is quite a different thing to change
already established words than adding new ones! I am not trying to be
some kind of arch-conservative (that, I believe, was the ruin of
esperanto!) -- I am just trying to keep the language from flying apart
before it even has a chance!
George