Re: Depressing vocabulary for mid-June

Elyse Grasso wrote:

> I am "catching" or possibly "coming down with" a "cold". (Actually it may
> not
> be rhinovirus: mostly some sneezing and a sore throat so far, but it
> doesn't
> feel like allergies...)
No fun.

>
> If the speakers of your languages suffer from minor ailments and
> illnesses:
>
> Do they possess the ailment or does the ailment possess them (possibly in
> demonic mode) or does the ailment just happen?
Amongst the Kash. Neither. Some ailments can occur with a semi-possessive
structure-- I'm not sure where to draw the line but it includes broken limbs
and other members, cuts-- injuries I guess.  It does not include diseases,
which one _suffers_. Thus:

yale ace[mi/ti/ni] matra 'I/you/s-he has a broken leg'
there.is leg[my/yr/3] broken

which is pretty much parallel to
yale toye[mi/ti/ni] 'I/you etc. have money' (preferred reading= I have money
with me; it can mean 'I am rich' but only in context-- and discussions of
one's own, or asking about another's, personal wealth is frowned upon.

Contrast:  me yale toye lit., to-me is money, which _does_ mean "I possess
money, I'm rich"; you cannot say *me yale ace matra unless you had, perhaps,
a collection of cadaver parts..............

In many cases, {dative yale X} and {yale X-poss.} are essentially
equivalent.

[ma/ha/ya]kena avos 'I/you/s-he suffers avos {~mange)' but
yale avos+possessive would sound really strange.

You could also _kena ace matra_ but I suspect it would be viewed as somehow
quite serious, long-term-- perhaps a broken leg that didn't heal properly or
developed complications of some sort.
>
> If the speakers are human, what is a "cold" called? How strict is the
> definition of the set of symptoms that count as a cold?
I see there is karimak 'to have a head-cold' as well as uçakik 'head-cold
{runny nose, congestion, blahs), your basic URI

>
> How do they deal with minor vs severe illnesses?
Don't know..........

Is there a recognized
> difference between illness (fevers and respiratory problems) and injury
> (mechanical damage like bruises, bone fractures and bleeding) or is it all
> one category?
Interesting, I hadn't really thought about this but apparently, judging from
the differing verbal treatments, they see a difference.