Re: TRANS: Fw: names of ants

On First Carbon of Tenderness of first Red Cat, Matt Pearson wrote:

> I can think of two ways to translate this into Tokana:
>
>   Tuntei suehonotits esiantsa mifo
>   nobody-DAT remember-NEG-the.PL name-their ant
>   "Nobody remembers the names of ants"
>
>   Tuntei ispukotits esiantsa mifo
>   nobody-DAT learn-PERF-NEG-the.PL name-their ant
>   "Nobody has-learned the names of ants"
>
> Of these, I think the second one gets closest to the meaning.
> The first one means something like "Nobody can ever manage
> to recall the names of ants", implying that they did know
> their names once.  The second one means "Nobody ever
> masters (learns completely) the names of ants".
>
I guess the idea comes in the lines that even if you learn them, you will
forget them.

> This is not a very Tokana-like sentiment, I think, although
> I'm not sure exactly why...
>
Probably because the Tokana believe people should be a part of a community
instead of marking everyones individualities?  I believe the proverb would
fit Hangkerimians, because even if individuals are encourage to be a part of
the community, they are also encourage to kû: to make great things favouring
other people.

-- Carlos Th