Re: Phenomena

John Cowan:
> Matt Pearson wrote:
>
> > In Tokana I use the verb "kahpa" = "to descend":
> >
> >    Kahpa suh    "It's raining (lit. rain is coming down)"
> >    Kahpa ise    "It's snowing (lit. snow is coming down)"
> >    Kahpa mohi   "It's foggy (lit. cloud is coming down)"
> >    Kahpa esie   "It's misty (lit. mist is coming down)"
>
> Lojban does that too, although rain is the default.  "carvi" = "[It] rains"
> most probably refers to water; for snow we say "snow rains".  The full
> place structure is "x1 rains on x2 from x3", where "the ground"
> and "the sky" are probably the typical (and unexpressed) values
> of x2 and x3.
Lojban's not quite the same, because "carvi" = "precipitate", not "descend".

Livagian has
  X is RAIN falling on Y
  X is SNOW falling on Y
  X is HAIL falling on Y

  X is FOG at locus Y

--where the capitalized thing is the predicate and X and Y are the arguments,
as with Lojban.

Matt:
> "It's windy" would be expressed as "Lialhopa suhu", literally
> "Wind is flowing-along-fast".
I can't remember how Lojban does this. IIRC, Livagian has "X is air
flowing/blowing along path Y". I wonder why Tokana "suhu", "wind" is not a verb.
After all, there's a difference between falling snow and fallen snow,
but wind is wind only when it is flowing along fast.

--And.