Thursday 2 October 2014

WELCOME TO NIKAMIA!

“The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.” - R.W. Emerson

Nípali Nikámi? Éo sin pálo ka gádo sofiné on nípalo Nikámi. Éos mádha min sin didáhe! Nikámi éosi pádha e!

Have you understood anything in the sentences above? I doubt it very much – in fact I would be surprised if you had the foggiest idea of what I had written about! So what is it all about, what am I getting at?

People that know me a little through this blog, may know of my fascination with language and words. I love languages, linguistics, etymololgy, grammar, writing, alphabets, symbols, spelling, orthography, history and evolution of language. So for something to do (call it an intellectual diversion, if you like), I have taken it upon myself to invent a new language, “Nikamian” spoken on the imaginary world of “Nikamia”. I am nearly through writing a book called “The Grammar of Nikamian”, but progress is slow because simply there are not enough hours in the day (or night!).

Some people may say this is a useless exercise, a waste of time! But as for me, I find it extremely interesting and amusing. As most hobbies tend to be, this diversion of mine is self-gratifying and it pleases me, the person who is pursuing it, the most. I am in the process of devising a unique alphabet for the Nikámian language at the moment and ideas for this can be jotted down anywhere on any scrap of paper, instead of doodles. The script in the illustration is a prototype of  the word “Nikamia” written in Nikamian.

The word for the day, aptly is:
hobby 1 |ˈhäbē| noun ( pl. -bies)
1 an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure: Her hobbies are reading and gardening.
2 archaic a small horse or pony.
historical an early type of velocipede.
ORIGIN late Middle English hobyn, hoby, from nicknames for the given name Robin. Originally in sense 2 (compare with dobbin ), it later came to denote a toy horse or hobbyhorse, hence [a pastime, something done for pleasure.]

Oh, and in case you were wondering what I said at the beginning of this post, here is the translation:
“Do you speak Nikamian? I certainly speak it and I enjoy it very much when we speak Nikamian. My mother has not taught it to me. Nikamian is my own child!”

OK, I admit it. I’m weird! Now tell me what is one of your weird pastimes, diversions, hobbyhorses?

1 comment:

  1. How fascinating! Most people can't even speak their own mother language well and to create another one from scratch, wow! My weird hobby is collecting old bobbins used for lacemaking :-)

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