Kotava and Fedora

Dude, your distro is old!

It has come the time to update my current Fedora setup. It is running Fedora 11. Yes, I know, we're up to Fedora 18 which basically puts me in the end of having to do a full install on the system. Being that I am using it to do work, it is kind of hard to wipe everything out and start anew.

However, the problem is that the system is starting to show its age. I think I can hold on to it for a bit longer, but eventually I will have to back up everything, wipe out the system and install a newer distro. Which one? I am still undecided.

Kotava?

We got an invitation at the Toki Pona group in Facebook from a kind lady to learn about Kotava . It is a constructed language meant for international communications. Well, that sounds good, so I decided to read about it.

Well, It's an interesting language, but there's a bit to muster. This in itself is a chore for the following reasons:

• All documentation is in French. I can read French, but that does not mean that it's not an onerous process being that my knowledge of French is rather basic.
• It has different endings for verbs. In Esperanto, all verbs end the same depending on the tense. However in Kotava, they end according to the noun and tense. I have to admit that gives it a more natural sound than having all the verbs ending the same; but it adds complication while learning the language.
• Words were not made based on a starter language (a priori). This in itself is not bad, but this means that you have to learn a new set of root words without a familiar origin (like Latin or Greek). Yes, it makes it for an egalitarian language, but it also means, you have to learn everything from scratch. (Well, there's always Klingon...)
• Kotava uses a series of auxiliary words to indicate verb aspects. This is done in many languages. However, I think that the Kotava people went overboard because of the number of them.

My wife does not approve...

Even though these makes it a bit harder than other conlang it makes interesting, until I told my wife. She looked at me square in the eye and said.

Dear, just stick with Toki Pona and Esperanto...

She's not fun. :(.

Mystery is afoot!

Hurricane Electric

I have an IPv6 tunnel with Hurricane Electric. They provide tunneling services for 6 to 4 tunneling conversion. I like their services, but it is constrained into one of my computers due to some silly restrictions from some web providers. Too bad, because they're fast and own their infrastructure.

Mr. Alien

monsuto is new (or being accepted) word in Toki Pona that refers to:

monsuto

M fear, mysterious, awe

Some of these may refer to a pilin fear can be translated as pilin ike or feeling sick, but this can also be interpreted as having a stomach virus if you feel sick. So I guess that you need a term to explain, well, the unexplained.

The term for a ghost in TP is kon pi jan moli or the spirit of a dead person. But going through the roster of common monster, we can see the case for monsuto.

werewolf

jan monsuto pi lon soweli (mysterious man that becomes a critter).

vampire

jan moli monsuto pi moku pi telo loje (mysterious corpse that eats red liquid).

alien, outer space

jan monsuto pi lon ala ma ni (mysterious man that does not exist in this earth)

zombie

jan moli monsuto pi tawa kin (dead man mysterious that still goes, or yes, The walking dead. :) ) I am not sure if the monsuto is needed being that jan moli pi tawa kin should be enough to send the message.

the blob

ko monsuto pi pakala tomo (mysterious gel that destroys cities)

Godzilla

akesi suli pi pakala tomo (big lizzard that destroys cities, monsuto would be also optional. Change akesi to pipi and you get monthra)

the mummy

jan moli pi tawa kin pi selo lon (dead guy that still goes with a skin made of clothes. Now this is a mouthful :) )

Well, you get the picture.

There is certainly a case as a transitive verb in addition as a modifier (adverb/adjective), for example:

mi monsuto e sina

I scare you (i. e. boo... aah!)

ona li monsuto pilin e mi ale

The thing gave us all a feeling of dread.

and noun

a pona! monsuto li tawa!

Mystery is afoot!

Yes, I think that there is a case for this word in the Toki Pona vocabulary.