Re: fingers

The Hebrew words, from thumb through to the smallest finger, are:
 agud'al --- Etsb'a?\ --- amm'ah --- qim'tsah --- 'zEREt

(Pedantic transliteration. For everyday purposes we're talking about
agudal, etsba, amma, kimtsa, zeret).

The name for the first finger after the thumb (the "pointer") is also
the general word for finger, and is often used to refer indiscriminately
to any fingers that isn't a thumb; this finger is also sometimes
referred to as Etsb'a?\ moRah = pointing, showing finger, possibly a
calque from the English.

As has been discussed re. English, there are also nursery songs in
Hebrew about the different fingers.  I was checking these names now with
my 9 year-old son and 5 year-old daughter and they noticed that she
knows the names better than he does because she's still singing these
songs in her pre-school.




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List
> [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU] On Behalf Of Adam Walker
> Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 10:25 PM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: fingers
>
>
> --- Shaul Vardi <vardi@...> wrote:
>
> > Hebrew has five distinct words for the thumb and
> > each of the four
> > fingers.
> >
>
> What are those?  It could be important for my
> language.
>
> Adam
>
> Jin nifalud fistus todus idavi eseud adimpuudu ul isu fi aved
> niminchunadu pera ul Dju peu'l medju djul provedu cumvi
> dichid: «Iñi! Cunchepijid ed nadajid il virdjini ad junu
> huiju, ed cuamajuns ad si il Emanueli fi sñivigad ul Dju simu
> noviscu.»
>
> Machu 1:22-23
>