Re: Marked and Unmarked

Yoon Ha Lee scripsit:

> Ah!  Thanks.  I confess that "-bund" makes me think of tribes of
> languages ready to go to war with each other...
"Bund" is the stative noun from a verb cognate to English "bind";
its meanings include "league" (those who are bound together by agreement),
"collar" (neck-binding), "waistband", and "bunch" (group of things
bound together).

> OTOH when I first saw the
> German term "Ratshaus" I thought it might mean "mousehole" until my
> boyfriend corrected me...<slinking away now>
VBEG :-)

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter