[lit-ideas] Re: vocative particles
- From: "Mirembe Nantongo" <nantongo@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:44:37 +0100
Many thanks to all, especially Jorge Luis, for contributions on this thread.
Although I cannot say that visibility has improved inside this particular
fog as a result, its opacity level is now definitely finer and higher. I
propose to begin my vocative particle newsletter contribution in the
following obscurantist manner:
"Vocative particles have an uncertain status in the English-speaking world
and there seems to be disagreement among the very few who care as to what,
if anything, constitutes a vocative particle in English. Our take -- which
you may take or leave -- is that Anglophones tend mostly to do without and
prefer to launch straight into particle-free appeals, a la Mark Antony
("Friends, Romans, etc"). If pushed, they may call upon "O", as in "O mad
fools and fellow students of Arabic," or "Ho" as in "Ho, you great lump! Get
your foot off my Sharq al-Awsat!" or "Hey" as in "Hey, how do you say fog of
total incomprehension in Arabic?"
It will come as no surprise to our readers to learn [...segue into
interesting pour ne pas dire maddening precision and profusion of Arabic
vocative particles]..."
Glad to see David is still out there gallantly defending the indefensible,
such as Burns and the Picts and Burns supper hangovers ("Sup'd our tifty
neeps"??). And Happy New Year, Ceri!
Meanwhile, I am saddened but not surprised to note that I am immortalized in
Judy's mind as she-to-whom-sheep-&-goat-are-as-one. Yes, we feasted a great
feast with Tunisian friends this year, noting that people here don't seem to
tie up their sacrificial sheep/goat in their urban front yard prior to the
Eid as they do in Dakar. The sheep in Tunisia, you will be happy to learn,
are the fluffy woolly kind even *I* can't confuse with goats.
All best, Mirembe
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