[lojban-beginners] Re: feathered serpent

["Adam D. Lopresto" <adam@pubcrawler.org>]

> I was wondering about this.  Instead of feathered serprent, does pimlu since
> mean "a snake that *is* a feather" or a "feather-like snake" or what?

The beauty of tanru is that they're pretty ambiguous.  So {pimlu since} would
probably be best translated as "feathersnake" (or more awkwardly, "feather
type-of snake").  Definitely a snake, something to do with feathers.


> if I say selpimlu since, is that "a creature that has feathers kind of snake"
> or how should I think about it?

Yeah, that's pretty much the way to think about it.  {pimlu since} is correct,
there is a relationship between the feathers and the snake, but it's a bit less
direct than {selpimlu since}.  Or you could be more explicit with {selpimlu je
since} or even eliminate the tanru entirely and say what you mean,

la ketsylkoatl se pimlu gi'e since

but I'd probably use "selpimlu since" myself.
-- 
Adam Lopresto
http://cec.wustl.edu/~adam/

"Do you have a lighter?"
"Why?"
"I need to see if this is gasoline."
	--Charlie Hinderliter