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Interesting Words

From:Elliott Lash <al260@...>
Date:Sunday, November 4, 2001, 22:00
(that was a stupid subject line I know)

Anyway, I'm wondering about that age old 'language myth' about the many words for snow
in Eskimo. Now of course I know this is untrue, but, does anyone have a
language with a similar group of words with related meanings? Let me try to
demonstrate using Silindion.

The culture of the Silinesti (Silindion speakers) revolves heavily around the
moon. Thus, there are huge amounts of words meaning something to do with the
moon, or various words meaning the 'moon' itself:


Words Meaning Moon:

Alarie 'Moon-Goddess'   /a`la:rie/
lare 'moon'   /`la:re/
ima 'moon' (poetic) /`i:ma/
nolima 'white-moon'  (poetic) /no`li:ma/
silma 'moon' (poetic) /`si:lma/
Silma-Vaurie 'Moon-Goddess'  /silma`vawrie/
Meulohyari 'mother of stars' /meuloh`ja:ri/
niva 'full moon' (religious) /`ni:va/
nona 'waxing moon' (religious) /`no:na/
samma 'waning moon' (religious) /`sa:mma/
parna 'full moon' (scientific) /'pa:rna/

Words Relating To The Moon:
sil 'moon-sheen' /`si:l/
silmaroska 'moon-sheen' (poetic)/silma`ro:ska/
lareisil 'moon-sheen' /`la:res.il/
lareisilni 'moon-star, evening star' /lare`s.i:lni/
elkanu 'group of stars, angels of the moon' /El`ka:nu/
parkoyello 'to make a moon-cycle' (parko`jE:Lo)
larphara 'month' /lar`fa:ra/

I guess that's it, or at least I can't remember more.

Elliott

Replies

Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>Many Words for One Concept (was: Interesting Words)
Patrick Jarrett <seraph@...>
Herman Miller <hmiller@...>
Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>