tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 16 23:48:11 2003
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Re: Names of digits
At 10:13 AM 2/16/2003 -0500, ngabwI' wrote:
>I just got the joke (origin, nmemonic, etc.) with the names of the toes.
>(marwI', HomwI', etc).
Se'noj wrote:
>What is it?
This little piggy went to {mar}ket
This little piggy stayed {Hom}
This little piggy had {roS} beef
This little piggy had {nan}
and this little piggy {Qay'}ed "wee wee wee" all the way home
ngabwI' wrote:
>I was wondering if there is a similar connenction with the names of the
>fingers, or at the very least, can anyone suggest a nmemonic for them?
I believe DloraH was the one who noticed that the words for fingers are
basically the first syllable of the 5 largest Finger Lakes (in New York state):
Sen - Seneca Lake
SIq - Skaneateles Lake
qay - Cayuga Lake
qew - Keuka Lake
qan - Canandaigua Lake
I don't think that we've discovered the origin of the alternate thumb word
{rIl} yet. I believe at the Farpoint convention last year, Marc Okrand
mentioned that there was still something hidden in {Sen/rIl} that hadn't
been found yet, suggesting that {rIl} has a specific origin also.
Unfortunately, unless you know your New York geography, the names of the
Finger Lakes isn't a very useful mnemonic to remember the fingers. To
remember them, usually I use the following mnemonics (some of which may
have been mentioned on the mailing list before):
When you tell a dog to "Sic 'em!", you point using your {SIqwI'}.
In American culture, sticking your middle finger up at someone is an
insult. So if you were to {qay} someone, it could be a problem {qay'}.
You wear a diamond wedding ring on your {qewwI'}, which sounds vaguely like
"carat".
For the pinky, I just remember that it's the finger used to point at
someone who you think is old. If you already know the word {qan} "be old",
then you should be able to remember that the pinky is the {qanwI'}.
I don't have a good mnemonic for the thumb {Sen}/{rIl}. Maybe think of
Arthur Fon{Sen}{rIl}li from the tv show "Happy Days" giving a 2-thumbs up
sign and saying {'ey!}.
- taD