Re: Knowledge-related roots in sabyuk

On Wed, Aug 07, 2002 at 03:53:47PM +0200, julien eychenne wrote:
[snip]
> This is a fine system.  Is |kuta| related to french /ekute/ and/or
> spanish /escut^Sar/ or is just a coincidence (of course you can keep
> your receipe secret!)? I must confess that my favourite game around here
> is to try to guess from which languages roots are borrowed, if they are.
Heh, I never realized this coincidence :-)  (I don't know French or
Spanish, so this *is* pure coincidence.)

_kuta'me_ is, in fact, derived from another Ebisedian word, _kuta'mi_,
"ear", which itself is derived from _ku_ and _ta'mi_. The t-m- root is
related to _ta'ma_, "to speak", and the _ku_ prefix implies a receptive
meaning. Hence, _kuta'mi_, the ear, is the organ which is caused to hear
speech. The derivative, _kuta'me_, is simply the verb form of "ear".

Another verb related to hearing is _toka'_, which is "to listen for", "to
pay attention to". Although it looks completely unrelated to _kuta'me_, it
does carry the _ka_ root, related to the _ku_ root in _kuta'me_, which
implies reception. The _to_ is derived from another root which means to
direct, to point at. (This also occurs in _zota'_, "to look at", in
contrast with _fa't3_, which is a more passive "to see".) Hence, _toka'_
is to listen attentively for a sound not yet heard; whereas _kuta'me_ is
to hear something.

Oh, and BTW, _kuta'mi_, "ear", is a noun inflected for gender. _kuta'mi_
is epicene; _ku'tami_ is a man's ear, and _kutami'_ is a woman's ear.
(Just thought you'd like to know. :-P)


T

--
Knowledge is that area of ignorance that we arrange and classify. -- Ambrose
Bierce

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