Wednesday, 6 December 2017

6th Lexember Word

netá [ɲe̞ˈdäˑ], alienably possessed noun: “cold, cold weather; cold wave, frost“

As mentioned yesterday, netá is basically a synonym of ankyoytákpi that just happens to be used much more commonly than the nominalisation, probably due to it being so much shorter.

In terms of etymology, netá is actually a borrowing from neighbouring (and unrelated) language Mengazu. The original word in Mengazu is NGēdā, and is actually the name of the Mengazagh god of the Northern wind and the winter season. This is not an isolated phenomenon: the Haotyétpi word for “sun” (as a weather phenomenon, not as a celestial body), kyarrú, is based on the name of the Mengazagh Sun goddess Carrū. In both cases, the names lost their proper name status when borrowed into Haotyétpi, and are simple nouns referring to weather phenomena in that language.

Like any other noun referring to a weather phenomenon, netá can be used with the verb nák: “to stand (up)“ to indicate that the weather phenomenon is happening. In fact, because noun incorporation is so productive in Haotyétpi, it is possible to form the closed verb netanák. Interestingly, netanák is not exactly a synonym of ankyoyták, despite netá being a synonym of ankyoytákpi. Rather, while ankyoyták is simply used to indicate that it’s cold outside, netanák is stronger, indicating that the temperature has dropped below freezing point, or at least feels that way.

from Tumblr

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