Re: Arthropoda

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.
Hehehe! I already have some words like this in Carashan (I've been having a
veritable orgy of vocab-building, 748 new words since the last post!).

zottator is a generic term for arthropods (although not flying insects).
Literally it means "crawler", from the verb zottar.

zottea is a slightly older term, which sort of has a colloquial feel, a bit
like "creepy-crawly). It's from the root of zottar with the
now non-productive diminutive ending added. This also is feminine, while
zottator is masculine.

zottenya is a childish word meaning the same thing. It is derived from
zottea, adding the diminutive infix -(e)ny- between the last two vowels.

zottatoren is also possible, a diminutive of zottator, but I don't think
they use it with realtion to insects. This is their equivalent of "rugrat"
or baby.

ObNatlang: This might be old Warwickshire dialect, as I heard my grandfather
use it quite a lot: crallen, probably from "crawling". I've never actually
heard it said by anyone else, so I don't know if it was just a peculiarity
of his.

Dan

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Lo deu nu preca êl'aisún necoui.  God prays at noone's altar.

Dan Jones: www.geocities.com/yl_ruil/
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