tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21074984.post116355642555862040..comments2023-10-27T19:29:31.279-07:00Comments on Operation Billiards - Mitrokhin or Oshchenko ?: San Serriffe secrets of Guardian spy trial exhibit (Part 2)mjshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016722935977762769noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21074984.post-90556428749593532782010-04-02T14:20:29.393-07:002010-04-02T14:20:29.393-07:00A somewhat understated nuance to San Serriffe cult...A somewhat understated nuance to San Serriffe culture is that some of the social issues may have been caused by hitherto overlooked linguistic aspects of the Flong language, otherwise known as Ki-Flong.<br />After uncounted hours of study, it appears there are, in fact, two distinct (if I may be so bold as to overstate the situation somewhat) yet very similar dialects of Ki-Flong, which I have termed Flong A and Flong B.<br />The local descriptive names are something which appear to sound like Hu Flong Pu and Hu Flong Dung, occasionally abbreviated to simply, Pu and Dung.<br />Thus it appears that as the islanders have come into contact with English-speaking off-islanders, they are maintaining their age-old custom of politely requesting that their conversational partners clarify which of the two dialects is being spoken at any given time. However the English contact has from time to time led to misunderstandings as to whether the clarification previously referred to is being expressed in English, or is pure Pu or pure Dung.<br /><br />Naturally, due to the inescapable effects of being exposed to another culture, even written English statements are affected by the well-established habits of the islanders in their social custom of attempting to establish whether the statements are pure Pu or Dung or merely full of Pu or Dung.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com