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<DIV>Never thought seriously about a bat name in Setswana until now - we call it mmamathwane [a feminine name, because of the mma- prefix meaning 'mother of' or just 'mother']. Why the feminine name I cannot say. It would appear 'mathwane' is onomatopoeic to the sound the bats produce and it is possibly derived from the verb 'go thwanya' - describing a cracking kind of sound. I imagine many people in Botswana would see a bat as a bird mainly because it flies - it would be a bird that suckles its young [for those who know it does!]. We do not have a word for 'mammals' in the language & therefore such a classification may only be an academic one not salient to the mother tongue speakers. </DIV>
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<DIV><BR><B><I>Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling@sil.org></I></B> wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">In Noah J. Jabobs' amusing "Naming Day in Eden" (The MacMillan Company<BR>Collier-MacMillan Ltd., London 1958), p. 16, I found the following<BR>interesting quote on how the bat is named in different languages:<BR><BR>"...how did Adam name the bat? Which characteristic impressed him at<BR>the moment of naming? Did its blindness move him to call it<BR>'murciélago'(Spanish), its baldness 'chauve-souris'(French), its<BR>shyness 'pipistrello'(Italian), its leathery skin 'Läderlapp'(Swedish)<BR>or 'böregér'(Hungarian from 'bör,' leather; 'egér,' mouse), its<BR>preference for the night 'nukteris'(Greek), its resemblance to the<BR>mouse 'Fledermaus'(German) or 'letutsaya mysh'(Russian), the sound of<BR>its flapping wings 'watwat'(Arabic), its winglike hands 'chiroptera'<BR>(Greek 'chir,' hand, plus 'pteron,' wing), its resemblance to a lily(!)<BR>'liliac'(Rumanian), its reputed love of bacon
'bat' (Old English<BR>'backe,' bacon)? The Chinese have conferred a number of laudatory<BR>names on this mouse-like mammal, such as 'embracing wings, heavenly<BR>rat, fairy rat, night swallow,' and use it as a symbol of happiness<BR>and long life because its name 'fu' in Chinese happens to be a<BR>homonym which means both 'bat'and 'prosperity.'"<BR><BR>I have found African stories about the bat being sad because it does<BR>not know where it belongs.<BR>How do you name the bat in your language? And where would you put it<BR>in a domain dictionary?<BR><BR>Fritz Goerling<BR>---<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#00007f><STRONG>Thapelo Otlogetswe <BR></STRONG></FONT><FONT color=#00007f>Information Technology Research Institute</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f>University of Brighton </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f>Lewes Road, Brighton <BR>BN2 4GJ, <STRONG>England</STRONG> <BR></FONT><FONT color=#444f75>Tel: (+44) 1273 642912 (office) <BR><FONT color=#00007f> </FONT>(+44) 1273 642908 (fax) <BR></FONT><FONT color=#ff0000>http://www.itri.brighton.ac.uk/~Thapelo.Otlogetswe/</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV><p>
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