Re: CHAT: Rumpelstiltskin (was Re: milimpulaktasin)

John Cowan wrote:

> daniel andreasson wrote:
>
> > milim   "beautiful"  and  "ugly"
> > pulak   "red"        and  "mad"
> > tasin   "bird"       and  "gnome"
> >
> > _Milim_ might be a problem :-P
>
> Not at all.  "Beautiful" and "ugly" both mean "substantially
> deviant from the norm in aesthetic appearance".  It would
> be just like Latin "altus", which translates into English
> as either "high" or "deep" (mons altus 'high mountain',
> mare altum 'deep sea').  So "altus" means "large in vertical
> dimension" without regard to whether one is standing at
> the bottom (as for "high") or at the top (as for "deep").
Of course, "beautiful" and "ugly" connote very different value
judgements--at least in our culture.  Perhaps in Milimpulaktasin culture,
any sort of deviation from ordinary plain looks (whether towards the
beautiful end or the ugly end of the spectrum) is equally praised or
ridiculed.  An amusing idea, if implausible.


> > but _pulak_ for "red"
> > and "mad" might be alright. [ Unless of course "mad"
> > is "purple" and "embarrassed" is "red"... :) ]
>
> And of course this leads to the conclusion that in
> this culture, gnomes are really a sort of mythical
> intelligent flightless bird (an emu or cassowary,
> perhaps).
Or maybe gnomes are the spiritual manifestations of birds--birds in fairy
shape, or fairies which take the shape of birds.  Endless possibilities...

Matt.