Look what Google offers on "zhiletka" (its Zemblan, not Russian?)

 

Message-Id: <9107261442.AA06471@BU.EDU>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 91 10:40 EDT
From: Ronald Hale-Evans <EVANS@binah.cc.brandeis.edu>
Subject: Zemblan: a vocab and references
To: conlang@buphy.bu.edu


Greetings, all--

I have two goodies for you. One is a set of two pointers to more information on
Zemblan, the constructed language from Vladimir Nabokov's *Pale Fire* (a
hilarious, moving, and provocative book--read it or be exiled) and the other is
a rough, incomplete  vocabulary of Zemblan that I put together. I've decided
not to reinvent the wheel (hate to use a cliche', but I've decided not to
reinvent the wheel (... so I'm not going to work any more on reconstructing
Zemblan till I chase down these references and discover what's been done.
Enjoy!

*******************

Here are the pointers:

author = "John R. Krueger",
title = "Nabokov's Zemblan: A Constructed Language of Fiction",
journal = "Linguistics: An International Review", #31, May '67, pp.44-49

author = "Ronald E. Peterson",
title = "Zemblan: Nabokov's Phony Scandinavian Language",
journal = "Vladimir Nabokov Research Newsletter", #12, Spring '84, pp.29-37

*******************

And here's the vocab (page numbers refer to the Berkley paperback):

-ka: (diminutive?)
-ula: little?
alf: elf
alfear: uncontrollable fear caused by elves, p.94
Alfin : Elfin?
alkan: hungry, p.202
belwif: beautiful woman
berg: mountain?
bin: been
Blenda: ?
bogtur: ancient warrior, p.72
bore: farmhouse, p.92
bote: destroyer (bane?), p.179
Bregberg:
bret: chess
buch: book
buchmann: a little pillar of library books, p.107
Cap Turc: Cape Turk?, p.137
cap: cape?
Catkin: "in Catkin week" -- ?-king
Conmal: p.162
coramen: crude strap used by two peasants, p. 90
crapula: hangover, p.106
dett: child
dett: child
dirst: thirst
dirstan: thirsty, p.202
drungen: bramble-choked footpaths, p.164
ebanumf: ebony parts
est: is
eto: that
Falkberg:
fear: fear
fufa: sweater, p.95
garl: girl
gev: give
goliart: court jester, p.165
grados: tree, p.60
grum: groom
grunter: mountain farmer, p.93
Gut: God, p.202
harvalda: "the heraldic one", type of butterfly (monarch?), p.114
hotinguens: tight, short shorts, p.80
id: it
if: weeping willow
ik: his? also ?
indran: without (outside)
ivur: ivory
izba: hut?
kamer: chamber
kamergrum: chamber groom, p.71
kin: king
Kinbote: King-?
kinbote: king-destroyer, p.179
komizars: commissars, p.78
Kongs-skugg-sio ("The Royal Mirror"): a 12th-c. Zemblan literary work, p.47
kot or: what is the time? ("what hour?"), p.92
kot: what
kumpf: compass
lan: long
lev: live(d)?
lil: lily? lilies?
lumbar: lumber
lumbarkamer: lumber room, p. 88
mag: make, p.202
Mandevil, Mt.: Mt. Devil's Heap?
mann: pile, heap
mid: with
min: mine
minna: darling
minnamin, darling-mine, p.202
mira: mirage
miragarl: mirage girl, p.70
moskovett: "bitter blast"? a wind, p.110
mowntrop: dirt road? field? p.165
Mt. Glitterntin:
muder: mother
muderperlwelk: iridescent cloudlet (mother-of-pearl-cloud), p. 76
mujik: peasant? p.120
Mutraberg:
muwan: mow (the field next to a barn)
narstran: a place in Hell? a hall?, p.143
natt: night
nattdett: child of night, p.68
Nattochdag: Night --- ?
nippern: domed hills, p.95
nitran: within
onhava-onhava: far, far away, p.171
onhava: far away
or: hour, time
Oswin Bretwit: Oswin? Chess-mind
pa: peacock
Paberg: Mt. Peacock, p.95
pel: tail
perl: pearl
Pern: Satan, the Devil, p.202
phantana: fountains
promnad vespert mid J.S.: evening walk with J.S.
promnad: walk, p.57
putti: boys? p.73
ragh: revenge
raghdirst: thirst for revenge, p. 54
Rodnaya: (in "Rodnaya Zembla", p.62) = ?
romaunt: romance, p.199
roz: roses? rose?
rusker sirsusker: Russian seersucker suit, p.183
rusker: Russian
sam: silk
sampel ("silktail"): a Zemblan crested bird, p.45
shalk: knave
shalksbore: knave's farm, p.139
shargar: puny ghost, p.155
shoot: chute
shootka: little chute, p.148
sirsusker: seersucker suit
situla: toy pail, p.82
snew: four
stana: hundred
stein: stone
steinmann: a heap of stones erected as memory of ascent, p.94
tas: yew
teste: ?, p.184
Thurgus: ?
Timon Afinsken: Timon of Athens (Shakespearean play), p.84
trem: dream
tremkin: dream-king, p.70
tri stana: three hundred
tri: three
turc: Turk?
uf: to?
ufgut: adieu, p.185 (lit. "to God")
ut: and
vebodar: upland pastures, p. 90
verbalala: camels
vespert: evening, p.57
votchez: father
war: were?
welk: cloud
wid: with
wit: intelligence, mind
wod: would
wodnaggen: a wood and brick (?), half-timbered Zemblan house, p. 52
wodo: would have? would?
yeg ved ik: i know not, p.87
zhiletka : (in "zhiletka blades") = razor (lit. "little Gillette")