[Lexicog] What is a bat?

[Chaz Mortensen]

In N. Embera there are three basic classes of bat: the vampire bat (inca), small fruit bats (bizozo or bidjodjo), and others (curungu).

If 'inca' can be parsed, it might be divided into in-(winged, similar to the beginning of the word for 'bird') and -ca, the stem of the verb 'to bite'.

I can only guess that 'bizozo' is onomatapoetic.

'Curungu' is similar to the verb 'to deceive' (curunga). There are 'do curungu' (fishing bats), 'arra curungu' (bats that make their nests in the leaves of the beer-bellied palm known as 'arra'), and other 'curungu' as well.

If Emberas don't know which kind of bat they have seen, they often say it was a vampire bat. Perhaps that is becoming the generic term.

-Chaz




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