Re: Weather verbs

[marob!uunet!marob.masa.com!cowan (John Cowan)]

In article <1990Nov27.125756.1178@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> you write:
>Does anyone know of a language or languages in which weather verbs
>(rain,snow...) take "real" subjects.
>
>If there are such languages is there any correlation with a belief in weather
>Gods?


In Lojban, a constructed human language (see previous postings, or write
me for more details), the main weather term is >carvi<, which means:
	A rains from B to C

So the "subject" here is what is raining: i.e, water, ice, snow, methane,
etc.  B would typically be "the sky" or "a cloud" but might even be
"my watering can".  C would typically be "the ground".

Of course, any of the three arguments can be left off, so "carvi" by
itself means "It's raining".

As far as I know, none of the inhabitants of Lojbanistan (an imaginary
country) believe in weather gods.  However, I wouldn't put it past
some of them.  :-)
-- 
cowan@marob.masa.com			(aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)
			e'osai ko sarji la lojban