Re: Different words for one thing

On Mon, 18 Oct 1999, Steg Belsky wrote:

> On Mon, 18 Oct 1999 11:56:06 -0500 Matt Pearson
> <jmpearson@...> writes:
> > Irina Rempt wrote:
> > >gul    - bottom, lowest part of the inside of something
> > >gulsen - the actual physical bottom
> In Rokbeigalmki, the preposition/case-prefix generally translated
> "under", _na'_, is actually the opposite of "on" - like a bat would hang
> _na'_ a cave ceiling, but a person walking along under the ceiling
> without touching it can't be described as _na'_ the ceiling.  So the
> noun/long form _naur_ means "underside", while to say "the bottom of the
> inside" (i generally concieve of the Rokbeigalmki situational
> prepositions as in relation to a cube, you'd say something like
> _la'naur_, "on the underside", since _la'_ "on" always has the
> connotation of *up*, and can't be understood as standing upside-down with
> your feet on the underside - that'd just be _na'_.
This made me think - both sides of the bottom of a bucket (when
viewed as a circular bit of material) are _gulsen_, but only the
inside bottom (when viewed as a location inside the bucket) is _gul_.

The Valdyan postposition _doy_ "under" would apply to a person
walking under the ceiling, while the bat would just hang "on" it
(with the locative, no pre/postposition). Or perhaps even "from" it,
with the ablative, but I don't think so unless it falls off, because
the ablative implies motion and the locative implies static position.

From the bat's perspective, the person would be _gulie_ "below, at
the bottom", and to reach the person the bat would have to go _gule_
"down" (with the connotation of "all the way down").

   Irina


            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
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