Posted by Glenn Kempf on 1:46 5/2/02
In reply to: Verdurian source materials & KZ once again . . . posted by Christopher O'Regan on 20:36 5/1/02
I agree with Mark that the root vs. word issue makes a difference, since it sets a context for the words in question (i.e., Verdurian has the Russian-like negatives nikto and Nëcto, but rho rather than ne, nyet for "no, not"--one of the things that jumped out.
In answer to Chris' question, Russian has definitely influenced Kazakh in terms of vocabulary, especially with the high degree of bilingualism (although grammar and syntax remain largely untouched). Kazakh has influenced Russian much less, apart from a few borrowed terms (including slang and profanity) among Russian-speakers familiar with Kazakh. On the other hand, cuisine, for example, may be a greater influence; as a non-Kazakh friend told me, in southern KZ, even the non-Muslim peoples make Kazkah and Uzbek dishes such as beshbarmak (flat pasta with meat--Kazakh), plov (rice pilaf-Uzbek/Tajik), lagman (a noodle soup from the Uighur and Dungan peoples of northwest China). On the other hand, the Kazakhs and Uzbeks eat borsch and Russian salads and swig down vodka, and some of the more specialized dishes (such as Kazakh boiled sheep's head) are not as widespread.
(The latter is one dish Mark might want to keep in mind for the southern nomads; it is accompanied by rules about who gets what part of the head--the right cheek to a guest, the ears to children so they will learn to listen, and so forth. And how many dishes can look back up at the plate at you? As you might have guessed, I've tried koi basy myself, but I'm not a big fan.)
Ad onlelán,
Glenn
Hey, it only makes sense to use the whole sheep! I like the part about who gets what part.
I tried to take care of the Verdurian negatives when working on Cadhinor. Rho is simply a borrowing; Cadhinor had a negative morpheme nis. (It's not unheard of for a language to change the way it does negatives... French is a good example; in the spoken language, pas has almost entirely replaced Latin ne and later ne...pas.)