Re: USAGE: names for pillbug/wood louse/woodbug

Adam W:
> --- And Rosta <a.rosta@...> wrote:
> > Tim May:
> > > So, does no-one have a word for these things in
> > their conlang?
> >
> > I don't have a word for "eye" or "head", and my
> > dictionary file
> > only has a little over 2000 entries, but, I find, I
> > do have a
> > word for "woodlouse": ighghi.
> >
> > ifba    feint, dry run, mime; make as to do X,
> > without actually
> >         doing X
> > iffila  dragonfly
> > ighghi  woodlouse
> > ighmeje lamb [young sheep]
> > igkhwob "a specific but randomly-chosen illustrative
> > example,
> >         serving the communicative function of a
> > bound variable
> >         in some hypothetical proposition" [WHAT?!]
> >
> > --And.
>
> And yet, you have no word for eye. *shakes head*  We
> are a strange lot aren't we.  I have most of the body
> parts, including things like trachea, and tons of
> words for spices and herbs, and gemstones, but I had
> to invent a words for "to grow" and "to play" to do
> the new translation relay.
Exactly. Stuff like flora and fauna is quite easy to
do -- so easy to do that I end up with multiple synonyms
for hedgehogs and daffodils and suchlike -- but everyday
verby stuff is easy to overlook. In the case of "eye",
though, the reason I don't have a word for it is that core
vocab is so important; it has to be got right. And I can't
decide what's right until I know what phonological wordspace
is available for core vocab, and I won't know that until all
the function words are done with. The rightness criteria
are less stringent for woodlice and equobs, so I am
free to press ahead and create words for them.

--And.

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