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Re: [lojban] Baby words: soft to the touch.



Robin Lee Powell wrote:
You know, it may be that what I actually want is {pluka tengu}?

Because English calls both silk and velvet "soft", and thinking
about what that actually *means*, I think it may just mean "pleasent
to touch".

Using my Google Translate trick mentioned earlier, other than the fabric words, the common adjectival concept seems to be "gentle" or "mild" (milxe). Alternatively, "silky" (silka), and "delicate" (ralci) show up:

Russian:
> мягкость	softness, gentleness, mildness, leniency, lenience, velvet
бархатистый	velvety, velvet, silky, round

French:
> velouté	velvety, velvet, mellow, downy, on velvet

Hindi:
मख़मली	velvety, velvet, soft, delicate


Chinese is an interesting one, equating velvet with "wool of sheep", suggesting that they think of the concept in terms of being pelt-like. I don't think of wool as "velvety" or "silky", but rather as scratchy, almost the opposite, thus suggesting "nalsraku".

So I guess it all depends on what one means by "velvety" %^)

lojbab

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