Sky and clouds

[Catherine Rudin]

>I wonder what the proper articles are for 'clouds' and 'sky'?

Well, I have a couple of examples of maNxpi khe.  We were talking about colors,
in particular, 'green' (the usual 'grue' translation problem) and a speaker
said:  "CHchu.  Real green grass coming up.  Then we say sky.  Ttu.  Blue.  The
sky is blue.  MaNxpi khe ttu.  Manghe ttu."  I asked about the two words he'd
used; he clarified maNxpi ='cloud' and maNghe = 'sky' and provided a couple of
other colors that clouds could be:

The cloud is grey =  maNxpi khe xude
The cloud is black = maNxpi khe sabe

Notice that the speaker first translated "the sky is blue" with maNxpi --  maybe
this was just a slip of the tongue, but maybe sky and clouds aren't as clearly
distinct from each other as in English.