Re: Weirdly Derived Compounds & Bible

</lurk>

Markus Miekk-oja wrote (and the message never reached my mailbox, this was
copied from the archive. Hotmail's eating my mail. No me gusta nada.):
>The explanation:
>"Jalopeuras". I even checked with a few unilingual finns if they had the
>slightes idea what it could be... no one got it right.
>Everyone guessed something in the line of "some kind of deer". My first
>guess was: "some kind of domesticated deer".
This is _weird_. I do know the word and I'd expect everyone recognize it as
an awldish synonyme for "lion". Wonder how old your unilingual Finns were...
*shakes head, confused* ...or if I'm the weird one here.


>So, let's break it down:
>jalo- "noble"
>Can also be used with stones: "jalokivi" - gem, jewel; metals:
>"jalometalli" - gold, silver, etc. Metals that don't generally rust; trees
>:
>"jalopuu" - certain trees like oak, gases : . that aren't very common in
>the
>northernmore parts of Finland. Swedes will realise this's the same as the
>Swedish "ädel-", Germans will similarly notice "edel-". I don't think
>English has anything like it.
That's what it means now, yes, but long ago it just meant "big, great".

Btw. my Big Book ("Suomen kielen rakenne ja kehitys" by Lauri Hakulinen)
supposes that the word <jalopeura> was already wide-spread at Agricola's
time. Probably it was coined by catholic priests...


>(I suspect the Sapmi are very good at breeding different animals and have
>now suggested a new theory of the origin of species: the  Sapmi have by
>carefully selecting different qualities among the reindeer managed to
>generate them into every kind of animal on earth.)
Quite likely. :)

I've heard this little story about how in the dawn of time <jalopeura> was
the name of moose, for obvious reasons, and lion was called <hirvi>
("moose") because it was such a <hirveä> ("horrible") animal, but they
changed their names... can't remember why, but if I know anything of Finnish
folk tales, it must've been some strange wager or something.


ObConlang, I calqued the word to mine long ago:
<mulu-ycmi> - <mulu>; deer, <ycmi>; queen, thus "kingly deer", aka
Megaloceros or Irish Elk, which is a big deer-related animal, here extinct
and in no way particularly connected to Ireland.
(Why queen and not king, <ycmo>? Mamqians are slightly matriarchal, plus
they don't have either kings or queens, so the words are loans, which is why
there aren't any genderless form. Most original Mamqian words are basically
genderless, and if not, the simple form is almost always female and male is
derived from that; <arun> "a woman of high class", <arunte> "a man of...".)
I've sometimes had fun thinking what would I call some of the beings of my
world, if I ever wrote a novel set there (not likely). This one would get
the name <jalopeura>.




---
-M. O.

Ranunculae, ranunculae, quam sunt ridicuale!
Non aures, non aures, non caudam habent hae!

Ysimissmue, ysimissmue, aj qo:qo:baey mid!
Mid pelloesjed, mid pelloesjed, uu kojjdehesjed qeed!


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