Re: most looked-up words

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 00:22:36 -0000, And Rosta <a.rosta@...> wrote:

>http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/04words.htm
>
>lists the top 10 words most looked up in the online dictionary
>(excluding hard-to-spell words like _accommodate_ and words
>whose tabooness imparts a frisson to their looking up).
>
>1. blog
>2. incumbent
>3. electoral
>4. insurgent
>5. hurricane
>6. cicada
>7. peloton : noun (1951) : the main body of riders in a bicycle race
>8. partisan
>9. sovereignty
>10. defenestration
>
[snip]
>
>At any rate, I will wager that no conlang has words for all 10.
>My conlang has no word for any of the 10. But one supersized
>all-American kudo to the conlang with the words for the most
>of the 10...
>
>--And.
Without cheating, Xinkutlan has _dabulqudz_ /dabulqud'z/ (hurricane)
from /dabu'l/ "storm" and /qud'zul/ "demon", and "tsizec" /tsIzeS/ (cicada).

I've since worked on "sovereignty", and come up with
_suepetetlui_ /swepetet'Kuj/ from _petetl_ "king" via _suepetetl_ "kingly,
majestic".

All the words for the mechanics of democracy (incumbent, electoral et al)
do not exist in Bronze Age Xinkutlan.  And the closest I can come
to "peloton" (new word to me) is _aguir_ /a'gwir/ from _moiaguir_ (_moia_
means "wheel"): a word for a pack (?word) of chariots.

The vocabulary I've got masses of words for is animals.  It's fitting, I
suppose, as their tech level isn't too high, but it's getting to be
overkill.  There are too many animals and birds (*especially* birds) to
name!
Mind you, I have some interesting domestic animal vocab (the idea stolen
wholesale from Kazakh and then taken a step further)- numbers of words for
livestock depending on gender, age, and whether it has all its parts or has
been castrated.

I need more verbs...

Geoff

Reply