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From: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: aUI
Message-ID: <6728@boring.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Jan-86 21:44:35 EST
Article-I.D.: boring.6728
Posted: Wed Jan 15 21:44:35 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jan-86 06:41:15 EST
References: <2703@sjuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens)
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Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
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Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax

I have always suspected that natural language originated as constructed
language.  Now I have conclusive evidence that English is a constructed
language.  aUI supplied the key.  Apparently, the mapping "invented" by
Weilgart originated independently before--quite possibly, it is hardwired
into our brains, which is consistent with the Chomskyan hypothesis.

Look at how English words can be decoded using the aUI key:

abbey:      space-together-together-movement-negation

Apparently, the original meaning of the word "abbey" is: a place where one
is very close together, so that one can hardly move.  Now this may seem
tenuous and contrived, but the number of English words that can be
deciphered this way is just too large to be ascribed to coincidence.

Some more examples:

academia:   space-exist-space-through-movement-quality-light-space

We have here a space (the campus) on which there exist other spaces
(buildings) filled with class rooms or "teaching-spaces".  Teaching is
moving the students towards "quality-light" (understanding).  Need I point
out the prevalence of torches or radiating suns in university seals, and of
words like "lux", "lumen", "sol" or "illuminat"?

advance:    space-through-action-space-quantity-exist-movement

Here we have a word built up from two parts, each of which already carries
the meaning. "adv" means "action through space", i.e., advancing, whereas
"ance" means "movement covering an amount of space".  Why we have this
duplication, I don't know.  One possible explanation is found in the
development of Chinese, in which many similar duplications occur.  Also, it
is possible that the original word "adv" through the usual inflation of
positive words (by which "advances" are claimed, e.g. in science, that are
all but imperceptible steps) became so weak that the need was felt to
strengthen it with "ance" to stress the amount aspect.

Lest one think that this decipherment covers only the initial part of the
English vocabulary, one "final" example:

zombie:     part-life-quality-together-light-movement

Here we find a very apt description: zombies are ascribed the quality of
life, but only partly.  The together-light-movement refers to the habit of
zombies to march together toward light sources (cf. the excellent
documentary movie on the behavior of zombies, The Night of the Living
Dead).

In case you are not convinced: that will not surprise me, as their will
always remain skeptics, however massive the evidence, as witnessed by the
history of the decipherment of Linear B.

-- 

     Lambert Meertens
     ...!{seismo,okstate,garfield,decvax,philabs}!lambert@mcvax.UUCP
     CWI (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science), Amsterdam