WW #17: Roots and Arms

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Word 9 on the Liepzig-Jakarta list is “root”. I’ve already shared the Kharulian word for “root” in a Lexember post, so Kharulian will get a word for “arm” instead.

The Muipidan word for “root” is the tongue-twistery tedendede [ˈte.dɛˌⁿde.də]. Like in Kharulian, it has metaphorical meanings like “mouth of a river” and “destination”; these tree-river metaphors are found in languages throughout the Three Rivers region.

The Nitherian word is vano [ˈva.no], though this only refers to inedible roots. Edible root vegetables are called chori [ˈtɕo.ri] instead, a word that originally just referred to the cassava root before being extended to all edible roots and tubers.

The Kharulian word for “arm” is pélyekh [ˈpe.lʲɛç], which also means “elbow”. It’s one of a family of Kharulian nouns with consonant-switching oblique stems, which I also talked about in a Lexember post. For example, the accusative form is pekhlyo [ˈpɛç.lʲo], while the nominative plural is pikhlya [ˈpiç.lʲə].

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