Rules and grid for the selection of words in Platter rooster tasting - (:unkn) unknown (My University, 2016)
The art work ROOSTER PLATTER TASTING is a small dictionary made up of words of the same spelling in English and Afrikaans but with different meanings. Some entries were omitted if they did not succeed as excellent examples of this kind of difference. Words that might normally be accepted in the game of Scrabble are suitable, but note the following: No synonyms – elf, for example, is good in the sense of number eleven (Afrikaans), but as Santa’s helper (the same meaning in English/Afrikaans) it is disqualified. The work will be far too large if one had to simply used words of the same spelling and meaning. My friend, Johan van der Wat actually came up with a small sentence that reads true for both languages: “My hand is in warm water.” Unfortunately it is totally synonymous for Afrikaans/English and none such totally similar words are admitted. Other similarly spelled, but unsuitable words, are: hang, arm, hand, bale, was, drank, note, verse, rose, grief, pan, mark (market), vat, ring, stand, sending, spanning, slinger, sing etc. Mars (English – to disfigure, Afrikaans – to march) is disqualified because in both languages Mars is the name of a planet. The artwork ROOSTER PLATTER works with words spelled exactly the same, but that carry no similarities of meaning at all. No informal, colloquial or seldom used words like dink – ‘to think’ (Afrikaans) and a partner in a well-off working couple with no children (informal English); dwang (coercion in Afrikaans and ‘serious trouble’ in colloquial English); vader (‘father’ in Afrikaans and a character from the Star Wars films in English). Also swat, mag, gal, loon, toon. The work is not meant to be the difinitive dictionary of its kind. Exclusion rather than inclusion is preferred. All the words were checked and if they were informal or colloquial, they were dismissed. Some words, like lam, might not seem to carry a meaning in English, but there its is actually a proper verb from the nineteenth century and apparently still in use. It means ‘to hit’: “I'll come over and lam you in the mouth.” Lam is dismissed because hardly anyone still uses it and most English speakers have never heard of it. No scientific words like bots – ‘to crash’ (Afrikaans) and in English the plural of bot, the larva of the botfly. No foreign or archaic words like tome (‘reins of a horse’ – Afrikaans and ‘book’ – English). Others are: drake, dower, nog, brag, rust. The grid format of the artwork does not allow for words longer than six letters. So far, no eight- or more letter words have been found, but the following seven-letter words are registered: rooster, slimmer, gladder and platter. Slimmer and gladder are recognised in the slim and glad entries. That leaves platter, rooster and tasting as the ‘champion’ words of the project and to acknowledge their status they were chosen to constitute the name of the artwork: PLATTER ROOSTER TASTING. No one- or two-letter words are allowed. No proper names are allowed. No abbreviations like vet, ‘obese’ in Afrikaans and short for ‘veterinarian’ in English, are allowed. Also: bros (‘brothers’ in English); gat (informal and an abbreviation for ‘gatling’ gun in English), The word re-use or reuse is sometimes spelled with a hyphen in British English and without one in American English and because of its rarity in the list (the eu-) it is included. Diacritial marks: reel, to stagger or a film spool (English) is acceptable, but reël, rule in Afrikaans is spelled differently (with a dieresis) and cannot be included Where meanings are close for some entries, especially of the same word in its plural or in a certain grammatical sense, only the entry with the most letters will be chosen, for example: gun/guns – take only guns; die/dies – take only dies; kale/kales – take only kales; fee/fees – take only fees. The word room is accepted for both languages and is entered. Rooms, a longer word, is acceptable in English, but the Afrikaans Rooms is rejected (a proper name pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church).