Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Ancora help: Il "Marziano" di "Miss Smith"

 So er an îr ufgestigen ist (Vogelweide)
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** "Miss Smith" and her "Martian Language": A Case of Glossolaly **
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by Riccardo Venturi
[ Short Introduction ]
Th. Flournoy, a Swiss psychologist and physician, gave in his study
"Des Indes à la planète Mars" (Paris/Genève, 1900) an account of an
interesting case of glossolaly. 
"Miss Smith" (her real name is unknown) was a Swiss medium. She was
born in Geneva, but her family came from Eastern Hungary.  Though her
father was a polyglot, "Miss Smith" spoke only (Swiss) French.
In 1891, during a séance, "Miss Smith" fell into a trance identifying
herself as a Martian (Mars = "Espenie"). She began to talk and write
in an unknown language; each "Martian" phrase was then translated into
French by "Miss Smith" herself  (with her own voice), and explained by
a Martian "guiding spirit" (with a different voice). When "Miss Smith"
roused herself from trance, she could not  remember anything at all. 
It should be remarked that "Martian" had its own alphabet, in which
each grapheme corresponds exactly to its French counterpart (for
instance, the phoneme <sh> is a combination of the < c > and < h >
graphemes, exactly like in French). 
"Miss Smith" was not satisfied with being a Martian: in other séances
she was a reincarnated Arabian princess married to a prince living in
Southern India. During these "Indian" séances, "Miss Smith" would
often utter words of Sanskrit flavour. According to Flournoy, "Miss
Smith" created at least three "subconscious novels" during her
trances: the "Martian" and the "Indian" novel, as well as a
complicated story about Marie Antoinette of France, whose
reincarnation she was, of course.
The "Martian novel" is of great interest because of Flournoy's careful
account and transcription of the "Martian" language. It is maybe the
only case of this kind for which a number of translated texts and even
a "descriptive grammar" are available.
[ A short descriptive Grammar]
Flournoy transcribed 41 texts, 12 of which using the "Martian" script.
There is no stress mark and the only punctuation mark resembles an
upside-down "v" (the equivalent of a full stop). Plurals are marked
with a special sign similar to a Greek "xi", a merely graphical sign
(like -s in French!).
Here's a "basic grammar" of the "Martian" language:
Articles: 	
Definite
	sing. masculine:		ZE
	sing. feminine:		ZI
	plural (all genders):	ZÉE
Indefinite
	sing. masculine:		MIS
	sing. feminine:		MISE
Prepositions are combined with the definite article, like in French or
Italian:
	TI "of"	>		TE (ti + ze) "of the" (s.m.)
		>		TIE (ti + zée) "of the" (pl.)
	E "to"	>		INI (e + zi) "to the" (s.f.)
		>		INE (e + ze) "to the" (s.m.)
Nouns: Singular nouns have no special ending, though many end in
[vowel + SH] (e.g. METISH "man", EMESH "hand"). The commonest plural
ending is -E:
	METISH "man"		>	METISH-E "men"
	MIZAIM "flower"		>	MIZAIM-E "flowers"
	FINAIM "perfume"	>	FINAIM-E "perfumes"
The ending -Â also occurs:
	MIM "father"		>	MIM-Â "fathers, parents"
	ATTAN "world"		>	ATTAN-Â "worlds"
There are some invariable nouns, usually ending in -A  ( in this case,
plural  is marked in the "Martian" alphabet with a "xi"-like sign, s.
above):
	BRIMA "word"		>	BRIMA-[X] "words"
	LEZA "lip"		>	LEZA-[X] "lips"
As in French or Italian, adjectives may precede or follow the noun
they determine. The plural ending is added to the adjective only (as
in Basque):
	EFI MERV		>	EFI MERV-E 
	"wonderful thing"		"wonderful things"
	("thing-wonderful")		("thing-wonderfuls")
	ATEV KAVIV		>	ATEV KAVIV-E
	"strange creature"		"strange creatures"
	("creature-strange")		("creature-stranges")
KEMÂ = "male", KEMISI = "female":
	MIS BIGÂ KEMÂ	>	MISE BIGÂ KEMISI  
	"a (male) child"			"a (female) child"
Feminine adjectives (especially participles) are marked sometimes by
-E:
	DEVINE "lucky"		>	DEVINÉE "lucky" (woman)
Pronouns:
a) Personal pronouns 
	SE " I "		LE "(to) me"		SE "me"
	DE "thou"	DI "(to) thee"		VI "thee"
	HED "he, she"	PI "(to) him/her"		PE "him/her"
	NINI "we"	=			=
	SINI "you"	=			=
	HED "they"	=			=
b) Reflexive pronoun:
			RÈS " -self/ -selves"
c) Possessive pronouns / adjectives (with singular feminine and plural
forms, exactly like in French):
	EZI "mon"	EZE "ma"		EZINE "mes"
	SHE "ton"	SHÉE "ta"		SHI "tes"
	BI "son"	BE "sa"			BÉE "ses"
	etc.
d) Demonstrative pronouns:
	TÈS "this"		>		TEZE "these"
	(masculine)
	TES			>		TEZÉE
	(feminine)
e) Relative pronouns (with subject/object form,  cp. French "qui -
que"):
	KÂ "who, that"		>		KE
	(subject)				(object)
KIZ "which" has a feminine and a plural form, cp. French "lequel -
laquelle - lesquels":
	KIZ			>		KIZE (f.s.)
				>		KIZÉE (pl.)
 
Verbs 
The forms gathered from the "Martian" texts cannot be easily arranged
in a "regular" verbal system or conjugation. Many verbs are
"irregular", f.ex. "to be" :
	SE EVE					" I am"
	DE EVE					" thou art"
	HED NE				" he/she is"
	NINI VE				"we are"
	SINI OVE				"you are"
	HED ONE				"they are"
	EVAI !					" be ! "
Note the following special form rendering  French " c'est" or "on est"
: ANE
Another highly irregular verb is, obviously, "to have". As in French,
it is also an auxiliary verb:
Compound tenses are  formed with the auxiliary verb "to have":
SE MEI	"I have"	>			SE MEI NIE "I have
been"
					(French: j'AI été)
DE ME "thou hast"			DE ME NIE "thou hast been"
HED E "he/she has"			HED E NIE "he has been"
The commonest infinitive ending is -E:
		POV-E			"to remain, to stay"
		KUM-E			"to pour"
There are some infinitives in -I:
		POVIN-I			"to arrive"
The perfect participle ends in -E, fem. -ÉE (an omnipresent ending,
indeed), but there are many examples of "irregular" participles ending
in a consonant:
		BENEZ-E		"found"
		BENEZ-ÉE		(fem.)
		NIE			"been"
		NI-ÉE			(fem.)
		VESH			"seen"
					(> VETESH "to see")
		> DE ME VESH		"thou hast seen"
 
Present participle:
		ESSATE "to live"  >	ESSAT "living"
The "Martian" texts show scattered present tense forms:
		DE SÜRÈS		"thou believest"
		DE VESHI		"you seest"
		VESHEZI		"we see"
		HED AMI		"he comes"
		SE AMÈS		"I come"
The future tense ends in -IR[E]:
		SE MASH "I can"   >	DE MASHIR "you'll be able"
					HED RENIR "he'll bring"
					HED FURIMIR "he'll love"
					SE SEIMIRE "I'll understand"
There's also a reflexive prefix I- :
		HED LASSÜNE		" I approach" (someone)
		SE I-LASSÜNE		"it's approaching"
[ A text ]
Here's one of the "Martian" texts transcribed by Flournoy. I'll
provide a word-for-word translation into English:
MEN		MESS		ASTANÉ	SE
friend		great		Astané		I
AMÈS		E		VI		ITÈSH
come		to		thee		always
LI		TÈS		ALIZÉ		NÉÜMI
through		this		element		mysterious
ASSILÉ		KÂ		IANINÉ		EZI
immense	that		envelops	my
ATÈV		NI		LE		TAZIÉ
being		and		me		run
MED		IÉE[X]		EZINE		RABRI[X]
to		all		my		thoughts
NI		TRIBA[X].
and		needs.
"My great friend Astané, I always come to thee through this mysterious
and immense element in which I am enveloped and I run to thee with all
my thoughts and needs".		
[ Conclusion ]
In 1901, one year after Flournoy’s study, "Martians" was studied by
the linguist V. Henri. The French structure of this subliminal
language is clear, but Henri discovered 55 debased  Hungarian words
("Miss Smith" ' s father was Hungarian, though she did not know a
single word of it], 25 German words, 5 Slavic or Slavic-like words
(one example in our text is TRIBA "need") and even 3 English words.
When "Miss Smith" was not in trance, she could not remember a single
word of her "Martian" language. Maybe, the most amazing feature of
this unconscious or subliminal language was the fact that "Miss Smith"
could remember and use it only when she fell into trance.
[ Sources ]
I read this story about 20 years ago in a very interesting book by the
well-known Italian Orientalist and philologist Alessandro Bausani, "Le
lingue inventate" [Non-natural languages], Rome, Ubaldini Editore,
1974. Therei s also a German translation of this book by Gustav
Glässer, "Geheim- und Universalsprachen: Entwicklung und Typologie",
Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, 1970 (it was published 4 years
before the Italian original).
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 wrote:
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*** CHIARA PETRENI ????? ****
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Har du prøvet to gange at komme i kontakt med mig via e-mail? Jeg har
inte fået noget email...der MÅ være problemer med min e-mail addresse,
sågu, ellers ville jeg have svaret dig LIGE STRAKS!!!! Jeg HAR lyst at
at svare....det er næsten UMULIGT at have træffet igen PÅ INTERNETTET
en gammel og så fin veninde!!!! Jeg husker et par kurser vi gjorde
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Jeg elsker Internettet LOL :-)))))
Hvordan har du det? Jeg læser at du bor nu i København og at du har
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ser du går...barfodet (barfød..)! 
Jeg er gift, bor i Livorno (det er min fødselsby, men ingen vidste det
ehehe) og er en ganske berømd oversætter. Hmmm...du kunne arbejde for
mig, hvis du har lyst at gøre det. Jeg oversætter såvel tekniske som
litterære tekster, og det skulle være fantastisk at medarbejde med
dig.
TUSIND TAK for hjælpen du så venligt tilbyder mig. Jeg HAR brug for
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Du kan maile til mig på den addresse der står her:
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Din gammel ven


 for over 15 år siden i Firenze....
Would you please be so kind as to share your happines with us?
Ciao,
Dario.
ITA

 Would you please be so kind as to share your happiness with us?
Ciao,
Dario.
ITA

 So er an îr ûfgestigen ist (Vogelweide)

inaspettatamente un'amica su Internet, tutto qui.
Serendipity...?
felice per voi
Isa
Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching

And dance like no one's watching
bye
Gennaro
----
Stay! Is the spike so low a thing as the rusty spike on the top of a post of
an old bedstead that has tumbled all awry?
----
Per rispondere eliminare ".HELL" dall'indirizzo.
To reply remove ".HELL" from the end of the address.

 So er an īr ūfgestigen ist (Vogelweide)

te non sarebbe mai successo..... :o))))
già
ora che mi ci fai pensare fui io a trascinarti costì pei capelli
sono proprio contenta e serendipitosa per conto terzi
wow
ciao
