Re: Idioms (was Website update)

Sally, in discussing Teonaht (incidently, I love that conlang!  I actually
read bits of it to someone at work once and said, "isn't that beautiful?"
He nodded slowly and backed away) mentioned some idioms, particularly the
quirky use of prepositions.

Hatasoe is similar.  For instance, the preposition pazo, meaning "for", is
used to mark indirect objects.  "Duo", "upon", is used with the verbs "to
walk," "to go" and "to drive" even if it's inside a structure.  And felan,
"with", is often sued to indicate possession, particularly when an animate
noun owns another animate noun.  "The man's brother" therefore could be
"Pato sha" but is usually "Pato felan sho."

Other idioms include to do something "like a god", which means
impartially.  "To drink the dew" is an old idiom meaning "to work hard."
(it comes from the practice of field workers wringing the dew out of
bundles of straw in order to get a drink of water after wworking all
day, although most Hataso think it comes from the difficulty of getting
enough to drink by going from dewdrop to dewdrop).

Almost all numbers are idiomatic, hence we have "ute," meaning "finger,"
also meaning "one".  Fave, "hand," meaning "five."  Also, one of the more
interesting examples of an idiom becoming omnipresent is the word
"kalake/kalaka"  Kalake means "salt," or "salt water," while "kalaka"
means both "to be salty," and "to be evil, bad."  To see how this word for
"bad" eclisped the archaic word for "evil," which is never used now,
imagine this common enough exchange among the island dwelling Hataso:

Pazhue ranehasa, ala?                   Is the water good?

Male.  Rakalaka.                        No, it's salty.