- ([info]entangledbank) wrote,
@ 2004-05-21 10:06:00
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Current mood: amused
Current music:Chopin waltz op. 64 no. 2: Yevgeny Kissin

Rat-English Dictionary
Harrap's Giant Paperback Rat Dictionary, Rat-English and English-Rat, with CD-ROM pronunciation guide.


ee eee ['i:ii] v. tr. to stop grooming; ee eee, stop nibbling my head now.
eee [iii] v. to stop; eee! stop that!
eee e [iii:'i] v. to quit; eee e! quit it!
eee ee ['ii:i] v. tr. to want; eee ee awp, I want that pea.
eee ee ee [iii:'ii:i] v. to go away; eee ee ee eep! get out of the hammock now, it's my turn.
eee eeee [ii:'iii] v. to leave; eek eee eeee, let's leave the vet's and never come back, okay?

(via [info]linguists -- not linguaphiles as I'd originally written)
Also home of tips for laundering and ironing your rat, and other amusements.

And while on small furry animals, I must promote The Exorcist re-enacted by bunnies in 30 seconds. (via [info]frightened)

And also! Marshmallow Bunny survival tests (via heppigirl in E2 chatterbox)

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[info]jacinthsong
2004-05-21 03:17 am UTC (link)
AHAHAHA, eeeerats! I always wanted some as pets but my mum would have made me live in the garden. *g*

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[info]libellum
2004-05-21 03:25 am UTC (link)
the etymology from old Rattus is what tickled me. and the laundry instructions are genius! I love rats; I don't understand why anyone would favour gerbils or hamsters over them. I mean if you're going to keep rodents, at least go for slinky intelligent ones. I've heard ferrets are also good, but they don't have just complex linguistic systems.

(Have you worked out if there's actually any syntax going on in the above examples, or is it just random?)

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[info]entangledbank
2004-05-21 03:51 am UTC (link)
Um, yes, I loved the etymology but it would have made me sound like a geek to enthuse over it as the main point. :)

Either there are suspiciously coincidental typos, or there's some kind of vowel-reduction rule going on in the examples for the verbs eeee ee 'to take' to eeee eee 'to abscond'; and the same process happens for eeeee eeeee 'to let go'.

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[info]libellum
2004-05-21 04:17 am UTC (link)
operating on a sort of active (I take) - middle (I take for myself) - passive (I have taken [from me]) thing, you mean?

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[info]entangledbank
2004-05-21 04:36 am UTC (link)
There's definitely something of that going on too, but I was noticing this sort of thing:

eeee ee [iiii:'ii] v. tr. to take; eee ee ewep; I'll take that corn, thanks.

I should try and work it out properly.

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[info]foxfour
2004-05-21 07:47 am UTC (link)
ferrets, unfortunately, smell bad. very bad. but otherwise are the equals of rats. albino rats are best.

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[info]firynze
2004-05-21 10:32 am UTC (link)
They're not so bad if you keep the cage nice and clean and you have a ferret who loves his weekly baths. I used to keep a ferret (Rasputin...cunning little fellow, always managed to survive the wildest accidents) in a rather small apartment bedroom; we were just fine.

Remarkably, the ferret and my roommate's rat got along quite well. We never figured that one out.

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[info]foxfour
2004-05-21 08:40 pm UTC (link)
how curious. those're heartwarming stories, of rat-ferret love.

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[info]cantstopthedawn
2004-05-23 02:25 pm UTC (link)
Hamsters pee less than rats.

I like guinea pigs because of their complex linguistic systems. They even have lexical tone differences on their rumbling. Low tone means "I'm the boss of you" and rising-falling-rising means "Let's have sex!"

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