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Re: Arthropoda

From:dirk elzinga <dirk.elzinga@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 31, 2000, 17:26
On Wed, 31 May 2000, James Campbell wrote:

> In my relentless pursuit of realism (!) for Jameld, and real-life concepts > to translate into it, I realized this morning as I was binning a dead > bluebottle that I have no term for creepy-crawly. > > So, a Request For Information: > What terms exist in your nat- or conlangs as a generic for arthropod > creatures? Please specify whether the word is considered childish, or > colloquial or whatever, and please provide a literal translation in English > if possible. > > So far I have: > "Standard" (i.e. Dictionary) German: Krabbeltier [crawling-animal] > Dutch: (eng) beestje [animal-DIM; _eng_ = narrow, "creepy"] > ...but for these too, I'd like to know how they "feel" to a native speaker. > > I feel this is exactly the sort of concept we should be able to express > conlinguistically if our languages are to be fully prepared for real-world > use :)
Tepa has a recurring combining form _-ppi_ which seems to mean something like 'small buzzing creature (usually a pest)'. Some examples are: huppi 'gnat' lauppi 'yellowjacket' pippi 'fly' qeppi 'mosquito' sappi 'cicada' tippi 'hummingbird' (also tiwippi, from tiwi 'bird') (<q> is the velar nasal; <e> is high, central, and unrounded) With one exception, the forms to which _-ppi_ are attached are not independent stems and don't seem to exist elsewhere in the language. The exception is _tippi_ 'hummingbird'. The stem _ti-_ is the combining form for 'bird' used in compounds; the full stem is _tiwi_. _tiwippi_ 'hummingbird' is also attested. Dirk -- Dirk Elzinga dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu