From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Thu Mar 26 00:57:37 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Thu, 26 Mar 92 00:57 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA16816; Thu, 26 Mar 92 00:45:46 EST Received: from pucc.Princeton.EDU by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA25005; Thu, 26 Mar 92 00:39:38 -0500 Message-Id: <9203260539.AA25005@relay2.UU.NET> Received: from PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU by pucc.Princeton.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 3068; Thu, 26 Mar 92 00:38:34 EST Received: by PUCC (Mailer R2.08 ptf015) id 9025; Thu, 26 Mar 92 00:38:22 EST Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1992 15:33:05 EST Reply-To: Jacques Guy Sender: Lojban list From: Jacques Guy Subject: body parts --> river parts X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO "River-anus" can also be interpreted as "source, spring". Ditto for "river penis" and "river vulva". However hard I try, I can't think of a body part that does not lead to misinterpretation. Plant parts seem better: root = source stem = the river itself branches = why, obvious! The estuary is harder. Flower? Fruit? Leaf? A few examples of, to us, strange uses of body parts in some exotic languages: Fijian "head of land" is a mountain In the languages of Vanuatu: "twigs of hand" are fingers "tooth of crab" is the claw of a crab (it "bites" you with it) "fingers of crab" are its legs (it walks on its finger, like a hand) "eye of water" is a spring "eye of road" is a door, a gate, thought as a passage, but if you think of a closed/locked door it is "road-stopper" "eye of knife" is its cutting edge "eye of needle" is, logically then... its sharp point! And in Chinese "anus" is "arse-eye", "arse" itself being "fart-thigh". Better lay off body parts, perhaps?