Re: Different words for one thing

FFlores wrote:
> u    [u]      'drinkable or flowing water'
> huti ['PutSi] 'undrinkable water, unmoving dirty water'
Groovy, I like that distinction.  Is the phonology based on Japanese?

> 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?
Certainly.  Consider some examples from English:

Ice: "solid H2O"
Water: "liquid H2O"
Steam: "gaseous H2O"
Rain: liquid H2O which condensed in the sky and fell to the ground
Snow, hail, sleet, are other examples.

Pebble: small stone
Stone: large pebble
Boulder: large stone

> As for Spanish, we have _pez_ and _pescado_ for
> the types of 'fish' above, but there's a common root there;
> _pescado_, being a noun, is the same as the passive participle
> of _pescar_ 'to fish'.
Which in turn is a derivative of _pez_

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