Re: Phenomena

Jesse Bangs 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)"
>
>An interesting, solution, but should you really say that mist and fog are
>"coming down"?  Wouldn't it be more descriptive to say "Fog is
>surrounding" or something like that?
The expressions are idiomatic.  As I said in another post, the
verb "kahpa" seems to have undergone some semantic shift,
since (in weather contexts, at least) it no longer strictly means
"come down".  Not only rain and snow, but also fog, frost,
mist, dew, and even humidity are said to "come down".

(The source of this usage may be Tokana ethno-physics:
The Tokana believe that all matter is made of two
essences/energies, Fire and Water.  The natural tendency
of Fire is to rise, and the natural tendency of Water is to
fall (echoes of Aristotle here).  Since weather phenomena
are mostly cool and wet, they are taken to consist mainly
of the Water essence:  Rain, fog, mist, dew, etc., are
viewed as different manifestations of the tendency for
Water to fall.)

Matt.