tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Oct 01 07:38:27 2000
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Re: Navajo code-talkers
ja' K'Pach, Lee Lewis <[email protected]>:
>...For the typical English speaking person, one would say, "I am hungry."
>Meaning you are experiencing hunger, and hunger would be commonly
>described as feeling of emptiness, possibly pain, in the area of your
>stomach. My understanding of Navajo is that one would say something
>similar to "the spirit of hunger approaches me." Hunger, from this
>perspective, is 'outside' of the body and as it gets nearer to you, you
>are able to perceive it by means of that sensory organ known as the
>stomach. But the stomach is not just a sensory organ... it can also emit
>an energy that will repel the spirit of hunger. And of course it requires
>food to create this energy.
Interesting. Klingon food descriptions, at least, tend to be exactly the
opposite: sensations are typically defined by the effect things have on a
person, and not by any essential quality they contain in isolation. A
prime example of this is the verb {na'} "be salty, brackish". KGT's
explanation indicates that it would be more accurate to think of it as
describing something that induces a salty taste in one's mouth.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh