Lao Kou wrote:This one throws me for a bit of a loop. What's happening here? How does a foodstuff going off and smelling like your gran's unwashed armpit work out to "goodsmell" and a verb, stative or resultative, tagged "GOOD"? Sarcastic understatement?
Yeah, what we have here is a slightly idiomatic phrase that doesn't convey itself all that well with just a straight gloss. What we've got here are the words:
lakothi - the smell of meat being cooked; other similarly pleasing aromas.
sørakain - lit. "put under", this word can cover quite a wide semantic space, but in this case it's used in the sense of "substitute, forge, counterfeit".
nefizuarın - icebox, refridgerator.
-thʉli - surrounding, encircling.
thik - something.
So the phrase "Lakøthi sørakaingaph tuak" [ goodsmell forge-3-GOOD meat ] would literally mean "The meat is making a counterfeit aroma" - as in "that cooking seems like it smells good, but there's a slight wrongness to the smell (that only an expert charcutier like me would recognise) that reveals to me that the meat itself is actually going to give you food poisoning". And given sufficient time and sufficient semantic drift as more people try to emulate the historic charcutiers, the phrase has shifted into "I don't like the smell of that food" and eventually just generally "that smells bad".
And yes, the -GOOD suffix on the verb there was a typo, well spotted. But since I've already written it down, I think I'll leave it as an idiomatic thing. Possibly it comes from some larger original context - "There's something wrong here, my apprentice - my intuition tells me so. But I'm not sure what... your fire seems fine, your vegetables have been adequately prepared, your... Ah, I've found it. Your meat is making a counterfeit aroma." As in, it's not good that you'll have to find a new steak and start again, but it is good that the master has found the cause of his suspicion (and had an opportunity to demonstrate his vast expertise).
And for completeness - to say that a smell is "in" something would seem an odd turn of phrase in Necthiøth. The smell of the rotten meat isn't *inside* the meat, or else your nose would also need to be inside the meat to smell anything. No, the smell of the meat is *around* the meat. And so this turn of phrase has spread to any kind of description of where a smell is, even if you can't really smell anything unless you've opened the fridge door. And so, the smell is "nefizuarınthʉli" [ ice-container-around ] instead of "nefizuarınrá" [ ice-container-LOC ].
212.
Areitzel, fe tai laingínol, pinguá kiazmakhi esnøukhenglø emúphai, søp karʉplorıph no tanol .
[ ʔáʁejtʃel, fe taj lájŋinol, piŋwá kjáʃmɛkʰi ʔésnøwkʰeŋlø ʔemúpʰaj, søp káʁyploʁɨpʰ no tánol . ]
a-Reitzel, fe tai laingín-no-l, pinnguá kiaz-nga-khi e-snønukh-e-nglø e-múphai, søp krʉphlo-aph no pta-no-l .
TOPIC-Rachel, neighbour despite dissuade-3SG-TOPICGOOD, breast squeeze-3-RELBAD ADJ-tomato-GEN-like ADJ-young, so window-through 3SG throw-3SG-TOPICGOOD.
Despite being told not to, Rachel's neighbor squeezed her breast anyway, as you might a fresh tomato, so she threw him out the window.
213.
Ainaunte ui nangápuǿøfø khunoiuph, clúuna cuam enga tlʉclúunalıløn tøs, ngu siang nølıngak.
[ ʔájnawnte wí naŋapwø:fø kʰúnojupʰ, xlú:na xwam ʔéŋa tlyxlú:nalɨløn tøs, ŋu sjaŋ nølɨŋák . ]
a-inaumte ui nangáp-uøffø khu-no-iu-ph, clúphna cuam e-nga thlʉl-clúphna-no-lø-n tøs, ngú siang nø-no-ngak.
TOPIC-someone INDEF bridge-death over-3SG-OPT-GOOD, question three ADJ-this reply-question-3SG-TOPICOPT-BAD 1SG, until otherside see-3SG-TOPICAMBIV.
He who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see.