Re: Arthropoda

On 31 May, 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.
    With regard to Israeli Hebrew, I just asked my daughter (who's a
native speaker) and she said that there isn't any commonly used
general word. People here tend to call each creepy crawly by its
name. There _is_  a word /xarakim/ meaning "insects", but, she says,
that has more of a biological-scientific flavor to it.  There is another
word used in the Bible in this context: /Serets/, but nobody uses it
in common speech.
    rtemmu does not yet have such a word either. (I'll have to get to work
on
it!  :-)   )


Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.