Re: ghosts, flames, and fox fire; was: a bit of...

Sally Caves wrote:

>how many of you in your conlangs and
> concultures have a word for electricity?  Is it related to fire in any
> way?
> or lightning?
Since Cindu is a thoroughly modern planet, of course they have electricity
(and electronics too). The Gwr, of course, discovered it way back when; the
Kash borrowed most of their terms. (The Gwr word is related to or identical
with "lightning"; I suppose Pyang Ling Beng flew a kite in a thunderstorm
(except he got electrocuted))

Gwr: dli@ (lr tone) lightning, dzay-m dli@-lr electricity (alive+lightning)

Kash: celiya ~ciliya (colloq. celi ~cili) electricity
celici ~cilici (...+dim.) electonic(s)
A ton of compounds celi+...:
..+narrate 'radio'; ...+speak 'telephone'; ...+picture 'TV';
..+think'computer'(ha!). These are calques of Gwr terms; if they were
natively developed, the adj. _celi_ would come last.

The K. word for lightning, however, is native-- cek, cecek ['tSEtSek];
cakacék 'struck by....'

>What about fox fire? methane gas?
Methane is Kash coyuk (older coyungeyu, < Gwr dzo yuq n&w 'dead rot gas/air'
IIRC). No specific word for foxfire, but it's to think about-- maybe
"spirit-fire"?
While I'm at it, since the Kash are intrepid sailors, we'll need "St. Elmo's
fire" ~ball lightning (which I've never seen), too.

> are ghosts a kind of cold fire?
Beautiful image!!

What about dynamite?  Anybody have language for firecrackers?
> fireworks?
These surely exist, but no words yet. Ah me.........'fireworks' maybe 'play
+ fire'?
>
> In Teonaht legend, a ghost is the reverse of a flame, a cold flame--fleht
> froho--a column of cold fire, no heat to animate it, sucking warmth out of
> a
> house in its self-consumption, it's refusal to move into the light.
Another beautiful image; I may stea...adapt it. Kash 'ghost' (one type at
least) is kowana < *kawa ...? + ana 'child', or maybe that's a folk
etymology.

> Let's put flames to good use here:
Thanks for turning garbage into beauty.