Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Zjklardkzjlabrezkd

This posting is titled "Zjklardkzjlabrezkd" because "Land of Many Consonants (Which Are Usually Unpronounceable When Placed Next to Each Other)" was simply too long.

I've made up a joke:
Q: What do you get when you cross the Croatian and Hawaiian alphabet?
A: A normal alphabet

OK, it's not a very funny joke, but the point is that Hawaiian, with just 12 letters and well over half the letters used being vowels, seems to be pretty much the polar opposite of Croatian, which has a very full alphabet and places 3 or 4 consonants next to each other on a regular basis.  The consonants seem to always include Z and J, two letters we're not accustomed to pronouncing together. 

Here: a typical Croatian street sign, photo by G:


P often goes around speaking imaginary languages, and Anthony has now identified her pretend secret language as pitch-perfect Croatian.  We are convinced this is another past-life case like in the book Many Lives, Many Masters where a child who could not possibly speak another language does, fluently, thereby proving reincarnation.  In her past life, P was a turnip farmer, who died of a broken heart when the object of her affections, the entrails salesman from the neighboring stall at the weekly market, became betrothed to the cobbler's fair-haired daughter.  P's name was Zjeldjlgrzlebeb, and she can still be heard on occasion singing to her shoes a mournful ballad, in Croatian.

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