Date: Mon, 3 Dec 90 11:51:36 EST
From: Stephen Humble <marob!splinter.coe.northeastern.edu!deeb>
Message-Id: <9012031651.AA28481@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu>
To: marob.masa.com!cowan
Cc: vax5.cit.cornell.edu!j8ij, snark.thyrsus.com!lojban-list
In-Reply-To: John Cowan's message of Wed, 28 Nov 90 15:46 EST <m0ieYfI-0000bkC@marob.masa.com>
Subject: Weather verbs
Reply-To: nueng.coe.northeastern.edu!deeb
Status: RO

cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) sez:
> In article <1990Nov27.125756.1178@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> you write:
> >Does anyone know of a language or languages in which weather verbs
> >(rain,snow...) take "real" subjects.
> >
> >If there are such languages is there any correlation with a belief in weather
> >Gods?

In Turkish, "It's raining." is "G\"ok ya\ug\iyor.", which means "The
sky is raining.". "It's snowing." is "Kar ya\ug\iyor.", which means
"Snow is raining." A better translation for "ya\ug\iyor" is "is
precipitating", since the sentence "Ya\ugmur ya\ug\iyor." (literally
"Rain is raining.") also means "It's raining." I think hail and sleet
are also possible subjects.

Before the Turks converted to Islam (around 1500 I think), the main
deity was Te\ngri ("tanr\i" in modern Turkish, meaning "deity"), a sky
god.

Funny letters:

\"o	o-umlaut	pronounced as in German

\ug	"soft g"	almost silent, voiced velar fricative
			sometimes just lengthens the preceding vowel.

\i	dotless i	high back unrounded vowel, occurs in some
			varieties of Amer. "Yeucch!"

\ng	ng		as in "sing"

Stephen