Re: Fluency Wish-List
From: | Sally Caves <scaves@...> |
Date: | Thursday, April 13, 2000, 21:37 |
Matt Pearson wrote:
> I've never thought about what to do with animals. I think what I'll
> do is adapt the words for human limbs to four-legged animals: So
> "nalhie" means "pair of arms" when used of a person, and "pair
> of forelegs" when used of an animal, while "kalie" means "pair of
> legs" when used of a person, and "pair of hind legs" when used of
> an animal.
>
> The proverb "Eyes for the owl, legs for the rabbit" uses the
> word "kalie" for "legs". I suppose this is reasonable, since
> it's a rabbit's hind legs which make the difference.
>
> Matt.
In Teonaht, so I've decided, all mammals have arms and legs
(except bats, who have hands and wings). Centipedes, however,
have mimllarod, "many legs," mim- meaning either "some" or "many,"
depending on context. Spiders, I suppose, and ants, and silver
fish, have mimllarod as well. And mimmepan. More than two eyes.
:-)
Sal
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SALLY CAVES
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves (bragpage)
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http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/contents.html (all else)
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Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an.
"The gods have retractible claws."
from _The Gospel of Bastet_
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