Re: Different words for one thing

Pablo Flores wrote:

>u    [u]      'drinkable or flowing water'
>huti ['PutSi] 'undrinkable water, unmoving dirty water'
>
>joki ['joki]  'a fish (alive and/or swimming)'
>fury ['furi-] 'a fish (dead and/or served as food)'
>
>The issue is: different names for the same thing when
>it's not quite the same. Do any of your conlangs or natlangs
>do this?
>As for Drasel=E9q, I have _fang_ 'right hand' and _dhung_ 'left hand',
>but the same word for both feet, eyes, etc., more or less the way
>that Spanish uses _dedo_ for both 'finger' and 'toe'.
>So, do you have any examples?
Tokana has, I think, some interesting cases of lexical mismatch
with English:  That is, cases where Tokana has two or more words
equivalent to a single word in English, or a single word equivalent
to two or more words in English.  Some examples:

The Tokana have a short ritual called the "sikespot", or "bringing
in" ceremony, which must be performed every time any natural
resource is exploited for human use:  Every time a wild animal is
killed for food, or a fish is caught, or a wild plant is gathered, or
land is cleared for a new garden plot, or a stream is set aside for
drinking water, or a tree is cut down for timber, etc., the
"sikespot" ritual must be performed.  This ritual is so central to
Tokana life that there are some cases where the vocabulary of
the language distinguishes between those resources for which
the ceremony has been performed (and which are thus fit for
human use) and those for which the ceremony has not been
performed.  For example:

   nah  "water set aside for human use"
   kunu "water not set aside for human use"

   ohte "land set aside for human use"
   thanam       "land not set aside for human use"

Tokana also has two words for "kill", based on this same distinction:
"otaha" means to kill in accordance with the rules governing the
sikespot ritual, while "kaiha" means to kill without observing these
rules (the former term describes the slaughter of animals for food,
for example, while the latter term describes murder).

There are also various cases where Tokana uses one word but
English uses more than one.  For example:

The word "eket" means either the nail of one's finger or toe, the
shell of an egg, or the shell of a crustacean (the shell of a turtle
or mollusc is called "saha").

The word "naua" means either the palm of one's hand or the sole
of one's foot.

The word "ioku" means either "cheek", "jawline" or "chin" (actually,
"ioku" refers to the entire side of the face, from the ridge of the
cheekbone to the jawline, and from the ear to the chin, not including
the nose or mouth).

The word "liet" means anything used to keep rain off of one's
head, whether it's a hat, a hood, or an umbrella.

The word "lias" means either "throat" or "neck".

The verb "teuna" means either "put" or "take", depending on
whether it occurs with a dative or ablative phrase:

   teuna iteh totsate     "put (sth) on the table (dative)"
   teuna itaul totsatu    "take (sth) off the table (ablative)"

The verb "kespa" is equivalent to a variety of verbs in English,
including "hold", "carry", "bring", "take", and "wear (clothing)".
It is also used in various idioms, such as "kespa mehu" (lit. "to
hold/carry/bring shame"), meaning "be penitent".

Those are just a few examples.  If I had my dictionary in front of
me I could list more...

Matt.