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<SPAN class="Apple-style-span">hi - so I looked up the Tibetan word for bat. I found <I>pha wang</I>, which didn't really help very much until it dawned on me that it might be an alternative or dialectical pronunciation of <I>'phur wa</I>, ie a flying fox. I haven't come across any mythology which could help in this etymological search, maybe someone out there can help. I would definitely connect <I>pha</I> with <I>'phur</I>, which would emphasise the flying thing.</SPAN><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"></SPAN>In Mongolian it's <I>sarisan bagvaaxai</I>, in which <I>saris</I> means a membrane or else leather (here in the appositive genitive) and <I>bagvaaxai</I> is another word for a simple commonorgarden bat. I can't work out the etymology of <I>bagvaaxai</I> (any takers?) but interestingly the word for a dandelion is <I>bagvaaxai tsetseg</I>, a bat-flower. (Note that these terms are grammatically different: the leathery bat is noun+gen+noun, but the dandelion is noun+noun.)</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">I also found a Uyghur dictionary and scanned that. There are three words (or more likely three spelling variants) - <I>şäpäräk</I>, <I>şäpiräñ </I>and<I> şipäräk. Şäpä </I>means a sound, signal or indication, which clearly has something to do with the bat's tweepytweep signalling. On the other hand, <I>şäpiräk</I> means emaciated or lean...don't quite get that. I have no idea whether this is of any use, but the ending <I>-räk</I> (or <I>-raq </I>in fronted vowel words) is a comparative marker for adjectives. </SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>What's the Turkish word?</DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Interesting that the Hungarian bat is a leather(y) mouse. A bit like an effless Fledermaus, perhaps?</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">What about the adjective <I>batty</I>? I suspect that there is no connection between the Jamaican argot use for<I> queer</I> (which reminds me of the quasi-euphemistic phrase "batting for the other side", clearly pejorative and clearly from the playing fields of English public schools, where I tell you from experience that battiness is not uncommon; but also there's a left-hander I think too, another historically pejorative phrase, meaning a queer man) and the British meaning of <I>crazy</I> (a Fledermaus short of an f perhaps?). Maybe it's because they do things the "wrong" way round - hanging upside down and sleeping during the day...?</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Si<BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>---</DIV><DIV>Körnerstraße 1, 01407 Leipzig, Germany</DIV><DIV>cell: 0049 (0)1627 325868</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.qamutiik.net">http://www.qamutiik.net</A></DIV><DIV>skype: wickhamsmith</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></SPAN></DIV></SPAN><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>
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