Re: A Cornucopia of Questions...
Rob Zook 
Sun, 21 Dec 1997 02:54:28 -0600

At 04:49 PM 12/20/97 -0600, McReynolds wrote:
>To All (primarily Saul and Rob, though)-
>
>I've got two main topics here...

I'm not sure if Saul, is gone yet or not. I'll try and fill you in
on as much as I remember. I'm one of those unlucky few who has trouble
accessing Randall's archives so I keep all the list mailings.

>1.) Even though I've been with the group since its inception a while 
>back, I had been away for a while and inadvertently deleted most of the 
>messages here.  I was wondering if anyone had a "master list" of all of 
>the new information that's not in the original ZC Lexicon and 
>Dictionary.  This could include vocabulary, grammar, or anything else.

At this point and I think Saul agrees somewhat we don't feel quite ready
to make many additions. Marketa added a word a few days ago, for 
father in her lovely short story. I personally don't want to make more
than suggestions, and I would hope that we can get Marketa to put her
"seal of approval" on what she agrees we should include in a new version
of the Lexicon.

>What I don't have are all of the words and phrases that have been coined 
>here, or any of the grammar ideas that have been tossed around.  Also, 
>even though I kinda remember it, I misplaced by 1:1 conversion for ZC-
>Epstein  notation with regards to the sounds.  I know all of this may be 
>a lot to ask, but I'd really appreciate being brought up to speed with 
>the new stuff.

As far as ideas go, we've had quite a bit of grammar ideas lately. 
Before that Saul and I have been analyzing the corpus of the words in
the language now to try and work out the phonemic and morphemic rules.
I have forwarded a post of mine a while back which contained a summary
of all we've done till about 26 Nov. It also contains Saul's notation.

Since then I have posted on my ideas to expand on the logic grammar and
the Temporal and Spatial,..,er, particles. If you lack those posts
I can forward them as well. 

>2.) Also, a suggestion of sorts.  I seem to recall there being a method
>posted to indicate different words from different languages.  The method 
>we use on the KLI mailing list is as follows: Vulcan words would be in 
>{}, and definitions would be in "".  So, for example, you might write:
>
>The phrase {plaak tau} means "blood fever."  This is endured during {pon
>faar}, the "time of mating."
>
>This is a simple way to keep things in order, and I suggest implementing 
>it on this list, too.  What do you think?

Well, it sounds useful. I don't remember the posting about indicating
different languages though. I do remember posting a short explanation
of the various linguistic notations I saw Saul using: // for phonemic
spelling, [] for phonetic, and <> to refer to a spelling convention.

>Just FYI, I'm going to try and contribute a little more around here.  
>Right now, I'm working on the STII and STIII dialogues, and trying to 
>find out if there's anything salvageable aside from {-'wiimic} and 
>{banu}.  Its probably a fruitless attempt, especially considering my 
>relative inexperience with Vulcan, but its something, eh?  

Well, if anything I found in the last few weeks that I've learned a
tremendous amount about linguistics from our efforts here. So don't
discount your own effort, anything you do will help.

Currently, I'm working on trying to explained my previous suggestions
for the grammar for logical statements.

If Saul hasn't left on his vacation yet, hopefully he will post about
anything I forgot.

Rob Z.