A tentative entry about language

[muckefuck]

Right now, there is on my desk a book entitled A tentative grammar of the Efe or Mbuti language. I love the notion of a linguist so uncertain that he can't even decide what to call the language he's describing. It led me to expect sentences like, "Well, you could use the instrumental case here, but, uhm, I'm not sure I would; I mean, it wouldn't be wrong, but would it be the best way to express what you have in mind?" Of course, nothing really distinguishes the style from thousands of other descriptive grammars.

I searched the title and found that we also have a "tentative grammar" of something called Kipsigis-Nandi (mind you, that could change) and Mycenaean Greek. It makes me want to start my own popular series to compete with Routledge's "Colloquial" and the English Universities' "Teach Yourself". After all, I hate giving definite answers when people ask, "How do you say that in X?" I mean, seriously, it depends, doesn't it? How many ways are there in Engish to imply that someone's statement is false? Or even state it outright?

Oh, though I do feel a responsibility to post a bit more about my attempts to learn Mandarin Chinese, if only in order to reassure teapot_farm that this is a not a hopelessly quixotic task. I've learned how to say quite a number of things over the past two months. Statements, questions, requests--simple, but basically unambiguous. Yes, it may be highly "idiomatic" to say "Precious surname, huh?" when you want to know someone's name, but it's not confusing after you've done it a few times. We're also lucky to have a teacher who's very responsive to our curiosity about variations and distinctions.

Comments

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

I want you to learn about Mandarin as teenagers speak it-- not the slang, 'cause you'll never keep up, but the Mandarin equivalent of every other word being "like".

'Cause that would be funny.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

This is precisely the kind of speech I am least likely to learn from my present teacher. However, I'm hoping to take away enough comprehension from this course that I'll be able to take a stab at deciphering the conversations I overhear on campus.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it would be useful if you knew that that one word you hear so much is the conversational equivalent of "like", not, for example, the word "titrate".

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I have my sources...