Thursday, February 4, 2010

Resisolrre re Sisolssi

What’s in a name?

Another question I’ve had almost from the get-go is how to go about incorporating names into Solresol. When I say this, I mean both the names of people (Bob, Gertrude, Hamilton) and the names of languages/countries etc. For example, if I wanted to say “I speak French,” I can say “Dore domilado…” (I speak) but then what? Do I leave French as “français”? "Dore domilado français" sort of breaks the flow of the language. Do I then try to match the syllables and Solresolize the word, perhaps as “farem’si”? That's really rough. On page XXII of the Langue universelle musicale, Sudre seems to try to give some method to transliterating names with his “Alphabet Phonétique,” but I can make no sense of his description and haven’t been able to find anyone who can…so if any of you, Dear Readers, comprehend what Sudre’s getting at, please fill the rest of us in.

Besides incorporating proper names from other languages, how does one tackle the problem of neologisms? Sudre’s language was made back in the early 1800s, long before the computerized age we live in now. How would one say computer, TV, virus, etc in Solresol? I had thought at one point that perhaps one could get into Jean-Francois’s head after enough reading of his works and been able to extrapolate…but this method now seems impractical to me. My guess is that once a community is created (so get on it, Solresol enthusiasts :) ) some de facto words will be created/employed…maybe somehow derived from “solsilado” (télégraphe).

That’s all for now. Lessons coming soon.