26 February 2015

many is moso

moso = many (adjective) (some things Google found for "moso": an uncommon term; moso bamboo (AKA phyllostachys edulis) is a species of bamboo; MOSO International B.V. of the Netherlands sells bamboo flooring and panel products; Moso Natural Air Purifying Bag which contains moso bamboo charcoal; Moso video software; the Moso (AKA Mosuo) people are a Chinese ethnic group; in Haitian Creole moso means piece; name of an small island in Vanuatu; Moso in Passiria (AKA Moos in Passeier) is the name of a town in northern Italy; name of places in Eritrea, Chad and South Korea)

Word derivation for "many":
Basque = asko, Finnish = moni
Miresua = moso

Many is an indefinite large number.

The word many occurs a dozen times in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

22 February 2015

few is hatxi

hatxi = few (adjective) (some things Google found for "hatxi": a rare term; user names; a rare first name; name of a dog that was adopted from a shelter group in Alicante, Spain; HATXI is an aviation waypoint in California; name of gaming characters; bad OCR of old text documents; may mean something in Vietnamese (transliterated); similar Haxi is the name of a place in Gansu Sheng, China)

Word derivation for "few":
Basque = gutxi, Finnish = harvat
Miresua = hatxi

The TX consonant combination in Miresua, as in Basque, is pronounced like CH.

I found ten occurrences of the word few in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Six of them refer to few minutes, and two of them refer to few things.
For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

18 February 2015

desk is kirtazpöhai

kirtazpöhai = desk (noun) (some things Google found for "kirtazpohai": an unique term, did not match any documents, which is hardly unexpected because it's a huge, eleven-letter compound word)

Word derivation for "desk":
Basque = idazmahai (seems to be a form of write + table)
Finnish = kirjoituspöytä (writing + table)
Miresua = kirtazpöhai (writing? + table)

I found two instances of the word desk, actually writing-desk, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"You should learn not to make personal remarks," Alice said with some severity; "it's very rude."

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he SAID was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"

14 February 2015

table is pöhai (revisited)

pöhai = table (noun) (some things Google found for "pohai"; an uncommon term; Pohai Nani is the name of a retirement community in Oahu, Hawaii; Pohai Kealoha is the title of a Hawaiian song; a rare to unusual first name; a rare last name; in Hawaiian similar pohai means circle or group, as of people or trees; Pohai is a variant name for Bohai which is a gulf or sea on the coast of northeast China)

Word derivation for "table":
Basque = mahai, Finnish = pöytä
Miresua = pöhai

My previous Miresua word for table was paimö. I think this new word is less of an alphabetic scramble.

I found sixteen occurrences of the word table, an item of furniture, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it...

10 February 2015

chair is uolki

uolki = chair (noun) (some things Google found for "uolki": a rare term; user names; a very rare last name; uolki tolki is (or was) a brand of walkie talkie or two way radio from Midland; bad OCR of scanned old texts; similar Uoli is the name of a place in South Sudan)

Word derivation for "chair" :
Basque = aulki, Finnish = tuoli
Miresua = uolki

I found one instance of the word chair in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This quote is from Chapter 7 - A Mad Tea-Party.
"No room! No room!" they cried out when they saw Alice coming. "There's PLENTY of room!" said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

06 February 2015

black is metza (reinstated)

metza = black (color) (adjective) (some things Google found for "metza": an uncommon term; a unusual last name; a rare feminine first name; user names; Metza bar ceiling spotlight and Metza barstool from UK sellers; Metza bath accessories sold by Alder Tapware of Australia; title of a house techno song by Reggy Van Oers; metza metz is a misspelling and mispronounciation of the Italian phrase mezzo e mezzo which means so-so; gaming character names; similar Metze is the name of a place in Germany)

Word derivation for "black" :
Basque = beltz, Finnish = musta
Miresua = metza

I'm reinstating metza as the Miresua conlang word for black. I changed metza to metz because I thought I would be adding a suffix of -A for the definite article on adjectives. In Basque, adjectives are at the end of a noun phrase. Instead I've decided to modify the word order within noun phrases so that the noun is at the end of the noun phrase, more like Finnish (or English). In other words, I'm good with ending adjectives in -A.

The word black doesn't occur in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, although blacking (a shoe polish) is mentioned. I found black a handful of times in Through the Looking-Glass, including in the first sentence of the book.
One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it: -- it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

02 February 2015

tree is puiz (revisited)

puiz = tree (noun) (some things Google found for "puiz": an uncommon term; an unusual last name; a rare first name; user names; a misspelling of quiz; means a well in Middle French; similar Puis is a place in the Philippines)

Word derivation for "tree" :
Basque = zuhaitz, Finnish = puu
Miresua = puiz

My previous Miresua conlang word for tree was pauzu. I'm redoing this word mainly for esthetic reasons. I like that this change makes the word for tree more like the word for wood, pur.

By the way, putz would have been a good alphabetic mix of the Basque and Finnish words, but I don't want to insult trees by calling a tree a putz.

The word tree (and also trees) appears quite a few times in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
...she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.