Re: Request for information: Semantics of body parts

Tim May <butsuri@...> wrote:
> I'd be interested in hearing about similar differences from English
> semantics in both conlangs and natlangs.
    Gladilatian has three terms for limbs:

_hlemet_    arm of a gladifer or front leg of hexaped
_malet_     front leg of a gladifer or middle leg of hexaped
_mnolot_    hind leg

The prefix _fsu_ is used for a pair of these, e.g. _fsumnolot_, "pair of
hind legs".
    All megafauna on Gladilatia have six limbs, so this applies both to
gladifers, whose front feet have become hands, and to those Gladilatian
creatures which still walk on six legs.  When gladifers first discovered
planets with quadrapeds, they called a quadraped's front leg a _malet_ and
its back leg a _mnolot_, considering the _fsuhlemet_ to be the missing
limbs.  When they discovered humans, therefore, the humans' arms came to be
called _fsumalet_, even though a human arm resembles a gladifer _hlemet_
much more that it does a gladifer _malet_.

 ===========================================================================

                 Dennis Paul Himes    <>    himes@cshore.com
                   http://home.cshore.com/himes/dennis.htm
        Gladilatian page: http://home.cshore.com/himes/glad/lang.htm

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