Word: petelka
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Dates: during 1948-1948
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...TIME, Aug. 2, I read: "democratic, the adjective, 873000" (in Ivan Petelka's code language); I also read "27-873000-27-12300.0-01-02-03" meaning "As simple as counting one, two, three...
...Does Petelka actually mean "democratic" and "simple" are identical...
...right, but his researcher was 96500 at the switch. In later copies, Petelka's number for "simple" was correctly given...
...Petelka's vocabulary starts with personal pronouns: I is 1; you, 2; he, 3; she, 4. Adding X to the word-number makes a plural (man is 330, men is 330X). There are no articles, conjugations of verbs or declensions of nouns (except for the possessive case). Parts of speech are indicated by zeroes (democracy, the noun, is 8730; democratize, the verb, 87300; democratic, the adjective, 873000; democratically, the adverb, 8730000). Says Petelka...
...Before Petelka can sell linguists on his system, he will have to clear up several points. Among them: 1) What would his system do about homonyms-words with several different meanings (run has 41 separate meanings as a noun, 49 as a verb, five as an adjective)? 2) What number would make democracy mean the same thing to an American and a Russian...