Re: CHAT: I'm back

On Aug 27, 2005, at 12:34 AM, Nik Taylor wrote:
> Julia "Schnecki" Simon wrote:
>> Is there a (con)cultural reason behind this? IIRC, in Sumerian stars
>> and mountains are classified as animate because they're associated
>> with deities, and deities are obviously animate. So, is there perhaps
>> a spirit/deity/whatever associated with gold but none associated with
>> copper; or are noble metals considered to be higher in the animacy
>> hierarchy than common metals; or is gold traditionally used in certain
>> artifacts with moving parts but copper isn't; or...?
> I noticed that I made bow-and-arrow (a single term for the collective
> unit) animate, while knife was inanimate, so I decided the rule was
> that projectile weapons are animate, non-projectile weapons are
> inanimate.  Thus, spear would also be inanimate, and if the gender
> system is still active when gunpowder is developed (I know descendant
> languages lost the genders, but I'm not sure of the timing of that
> development), then the gun would likely be animate.
Stabbing-spear inanimate, throwing-spear/javelin animate?


-Stephen (Steg)
  "brooklyn don't run / we run s---"
      ~ 'lighters up' by lil kim

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