[RNLD List] Words

[Ivan Kapitonov]

Hi Harley,

I suppose the green/plant overlap shouldn't be too bad -- as long as *malak*
can be used at all for something non-plant. If you decide that you need the
equivalent for 'blue' in the end, one possibility is to use things that
have the colour: e.g. 'sky', or 'river'/'sea', or 'cloud', whatever is most
appropriate. I learned this from Kunbarlang, spoken in Arnhem Land. There
aren't many words specific to colours at all, but they might say *yimarne
kuyunu* 'like cloud' for 'blue', or *yimarne mulubin* 'like blood' for
'red'.

As for mid-size, that's very tricky, isn't it. The "small-small" as John
pointed out is an option, but watch out -- in some languages that might
mean 'very small' rather than 'mid-size', so you might want to look for
other such reduplicated words in Dja Dja Wurrung to see which way they tend
to be used. I can think of two further alternatives: either to add a word
like 'a bit' or 'half-way', or to add a word like 'very' or 'really'. Thus,
you'd have 'small' -- 'half-big' -- 'big', or 'not hard' -- 'hard' -- 'very
hard', or similar. I think at least in Woiwurrung there is a word for
'half' (*marru*?).

The 'flood' idea is very cool I think, but I don't know what your target is
about (the pass--middle--intensive).

Best,
Vanya


On Thu, Apr 8, 2021 at 2:12 AM Harley Dunolly-Lee <
harley.dunollylee123 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello RNLDs
>
> I am emailing to ask the following questions. At Dja Dja Wurrung, we are
> beggining to name things in our data bases such as mapping, tools,
> administration etc. One of things we wanting to name are the management
> zones within the Parks areas on Country.
>
> The following words are to be translated into Dja Dja Wurrung.
>
> Easy, moderate, hard
> Small, medium, big
> Red, blue, green
> Pass, middile (in-between), intensive
> Good, bad
>
>
> I did some research and some of these words I have found words. I had to
> search into the English synonyms to get a better idea. However, some of
> these words overlap each other. Also, blue and green are the same colour in
> Dja Dja Wurrung and related languages. I do not want to colonized this way
> of seeing colours either.
>
> There is word for green, malak but its also the word for green plants like
> milk thistles or greens. Lol so maybe not the 'green' that was meant to be.
>
> I had a look at the list, and related languages, but I am finding
> difficulties to express these words. The data is limited and we gave no
> fluent speakers.
>
> Word for intensive, I have chosen wola-wola 'flood', wherw wola 'rain',
> because floods can be intensive.
>
> What do the languages you know, speak or work with get around these sorts
> of things ?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Resource-network-linguistic-diversity mailing list
> Resource-network-linguistic-diversity at listserv.linguistlist.org
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/resource-network-linguistic-diversity
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/resource-network-linguistic-diversity/attachments/20210408/22adfb08/attachment.htm>