Re: CHAT: Rumpelstiltskin (was Re: milimpulaktasin)

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").

> 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).

--
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein

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