A review of "Dictionary of Ro: The world language" by Edward P Foster
Ro must be the most insane
constructed language ever, well, constructed. Its constructor, Edward Powell
Foster, supposedly enjoyed the support of Charles G Dawes, a future U.S. Vice
President. If true, Dawes must have been a pretty excentric man, at least in
private!
Ro is based on some kind of logical system, although I admit I don't get half of it. Apparently, all words denoting substances begin with a "b", all words dealing with property, possesion or theft begin with an "h", etc. You get the drift.
This, and perhaps some other principle I haven't grokked, gives us endless lists of near-identical pseudo-words such as this one: gobob (short), gocob (narrow), gocod (slender), gocok (scant), godob (small), gofob (light), gogob (oblique)...and so on. Or how about this one: babgab (hydrogen), babgak (copper), babgam (silver), babgas (gold)...
Here's a sentence in Ro: Ac weduvi ruf id ad uf ac edi ril av ac eli ril alit? (Would you have written to him if you had known what you know now?)
No, Mr Foster, I probably wouldn't. Insanity, thy name is Ro.
Ro is based on some kind of logical system, although I admit I don't get half of it. Apparently, all words denoting substances begin with a "b", all words dealing with property, possesion or theft begin with an "h", etc. You get the drift.
This, and perhaps some other principle I haven't grokked, gives us endless lists of near-identical pseudo-words such as this one: gobob (short), gocob (narrow), gocod (slender), gocok (scant), godob (small), gofob (light), gogob (oblique)...and so on. Or how about this one: babgab (hydrogen), babgak (copper), babgam (silver), babgas (gold)...
Here's a sentence in Ro: Ac weduvi ruf id ad uf ac edi ril av ac eli ril alit? (Would you have written to him if you had known what you know now?)
No, Mr Foster, I probably wouldn't. Insanity, thy name is Ro.
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