Re: Onomastics and taxonomies; Was,LeGuin; Was: 12th-century conlang

FFlores wrote:

> Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:
> > Avi'aths        God
> What's the origin of the name of God?
Not sure. The "-ths" ending used to mark the "omniform" gender, a
distinction which has long been lost, though many words ending in "-ths"
still refer to celestial, temporal, or divine concepts. I don't know
about "avi'a-".

> > i'uzgati'rs     werewolf
> > zhangati'rs     vampire
> > asho"ths        fairy
> Do the Ge'arthnuns speakers have legends about mythical
> beings like werewolves, vampires and fairies, or did you
> have to coin the words? And finally, what is -gati'rs?
Ge'arthnuns speakers tromped eastward across Eurasia before settling on
the island where they currently reside (in the Sea of Japan). I imagine
they picked up and internalized these concepts in their travels (more to
the point -- *I* find werewolves and vampires interesting). These are
*old* words, so I'm not sure about etymology. "-gati'rs" is not a root,
though. "i'uzgats" means "wolf" and "zhangats" means "blood" (see anemia
below). "i'rs" means "white tiger", the national symbol, but I'm not at
all sure there's an etymological connection here. Perhaps "ti'rs" is an
old word meaning "demon" or something, but it's unverified.

> Interesting, those words for homosexual spouses. Where
> do they come from?
Thin air.

> > pso"ks chu" zhangato"ikfauksu"s         anemia
> Is there a literal translation for this?
pso"ks - lack; chu" - the; zhangato"ikfaufs - hemoglobin (in genitive)

> Very thorough list indeed -- just another question :)
> Why do all words end in -s? Is it a default case
> ending or something of the sort?
All nouns end in one of seven consonants plus an "s"; these mark the
declensions (special letters called "fo"ths" represent these consonant
combination/noun markers). Save "hemoglobin" in the genitive and
"buttocks" in the dual, you're looking at nominative singular forms.

Kou