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OT: Nutrition and pleasurable sense data

From:Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...>
Date:Friday, August 8, 2008, 13:45
Does anyone have nutritional terminology in their conlang?  If so,
what concepts are the roots and how do you derive others from them?

gzb has root words for "calorie" and for "glucose", from the latter of which
terms for "sugar" and "fructose" are derived.  I don't have a word yet
for "sucrose"; it seems like it ought to be derived rather than root,
but I'm not sure how yet.  Maybe from the word for sugar and a word
for some foodstuff that's typically made with sucrose?

I lack as yet words for vitamins, proteins, fats, carbohydrates
(I reckon I could derive a general term for the latter from words
for carbon and hydrogen), or minerals other than iron, zinc, and calcium.
I don't think my chemistry knowledge is up to snuff for deriving
all those systematically, yet.  I might could derive "fat" from
a word for butter or ice cream plus the "primary/active ingredient"
suffix.  (The word for milk + that suffix already is in use for
"calcium".)  Protein, maybe the same kind of derivation from
the word for meat/muscle, and maybe "carbohydrate" from
the word for rice or potato or something.  What about vitamins?

This musing grew out of a small translation project, rendering the
Sirius Cybernetics Corporation slogans into gzb.  Share and enjoy:

     ť  	 lĭw-i  	 kuln  	 pě'ljy-na  	 gǒ,  	 gâ  	 lǒ  	 ĥun-i  	 pwĭ-ť-van.
    2 	relationship-at 	casual.friend 	plastic-made.of 	behold, 	thing
	REL 	together-at 	delight-2-V.STATE
    Your plastic pal who's fun to be with!

    syj-ĥun-ť-zô 	mwe 	kiň 	pwĭ-van.
    use-together-2-V.ACT 	IMP 	and 	delight-V.STATE
    Share and enjoy!

    vâ-ja-tǒj 	pe 	sĭŋ-žâw 	jyn-fwa
    digestion-fitting-NOMZ 	and 	information-sensation 	pleasure-CAUS
    Nutrition and pleasurable sense data!

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/conlang/

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Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>