|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
a made-up word by someone who wasn't too fussy about mixing languagesSounds likely. So, caradea, perhaps not so much an architectual feature as an architected one 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428 |
No "cheminations" or "chimenations" in the architectural dictionaries I could lay my hands on. I did find "chemin du ronde" -- which is a walkway behind a rampart, providing communication along a fortified wall (you know, where Robin Hood and the like are fond of having their duels with the evil Sherrif/King/Baron when they're not on a spiral staircase) and I was reminded of "chemin de fer" -- which is the French for railroad (lit. road of iron). Maybe there is some connection there? Perhaps it refers to the layout of streets or something?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
>>a standard linguistic process...
>.. by someone who wasn't too fussy about mixing languages
It my be a standard linguistic process and all, but it's also mighty dangerous. In England I watched an elderly lady lean over to the waiter; her request went so:
'May I have a tooth prick, please?'
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
I love the thought of the look on that waiter's face, BY!
the layout of streets
I think you have it exactly there, Flats. It does indeed sound very much like chemin + ~ation from analogy with other English formations. I suppose all borrowings from other languages must start somewhere - perhaps Caradea has just found one. So in plain English the phrase might have been referring to the layout of buildings and roads.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
(and losing the /h/ somewhere in there, probably at the omine stage but I won't swear to it)
That excellent slim volume Vox Latina, you know, the one that asks, and answers those burning questions How the [bleep] do we know? and Who gives a furry rat's [bleep]? suggests that pronunciation of the intial h in classical Latin was a shibboleth that marked your social standing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
Oh I do swear by Vox Latina, a thoroughly invaluable slim volume. The one problem I have is the apparent preservation of H in French: after all, virtually all H-initial borrowings from Norman French have a pronounced H in Modern English. (Very few exceptions: 'honour', 'heir', 'hour', and dialectally 'herb'.) The simplest explanation for this is that Latin H stayed pronounced in Gaul until past the Conquest, and then disappeared in France but not in England. However, all the other evidence suggests that H disappeared very early, even as Vox Latina says, within the Classical period.
Now a handful of spelling H's could be turned into pronounced ones by scholarly influence, but the whole lot? So Middle English azard, Ector, eritage, ermit, ideous, omage, Omer, orizon, oroscope, ospital, ost, uman, umble, ydraulic, Ymen, ypolydian, and a great many more all of which could have occurred in Chaucer, were spelt with a silent H (in most cases: Ector, eremite, umble survive without), and at some point the spelling influenced the pronunciation and caused the insertion of an H? It sounds so unlikely -- yet I suppose that's what must have happened.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
We should also remember that the Romance languages, as a rule, derived not from Classical Latin but rather from Vulgar Latin.
A good book along these lines is From Latin to Portuguese which has a section on Vulgar Latin. It apparently had departed from many of the Classical Latin structures well before the spread of Latin into the hinterlands.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
Well, now you've all got me wondering... so i emailed the author this morning (michael chabon; the book was _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_, which has been woven into a few other recent threads) and simply asked him what he meant. i don't honestly expect a response, but it was kinda fun writing to someone who made me even more cold-fingered than tsuwm or max  EDIT: Oh, and BTW... as for Mav's suggestion that perhaps this is evidence of architecting, this is the same author who gave us the "aetataureate delusions of grandeur" thread a couple of months ago.. remember that one?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
In a amazing departure from that which one would expect (or even dare hope) from a Pulitzer-winning author, Mr. Chabon graced me ( and from all appearances *personally* graced me, not through a publicist) with a timely and informative response, which i quote in part as follows:
"As far as I can recall, I coined 'cheminations' on the model of
'fenestration.' It refers to the way a house is furnished with chimneys. I
suppose 'caminations' would have been more correct, coming from Latin, but
sounded less like what I wanted it to mean, not possessing the h of chimney.
There are a few other nonce words in there... aetataureate... and a couple
more besides that I can't now recall."
So, it appears that Mav was correct (gee, there's a surprise), and Nicholas was on the same wavelength as the author (i can't think of better company, from either perspective)...
thanks for the responses =)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
Ah, now that's my kind of author. I must make a note of the name.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,330
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
1,577
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
