(urth) Short Sun Notes: Chems

[David Stockhoff]

On 12/14/2012 9:21 PM, António Pedro Marques wrote:
> No dia 14/12/2012, às 22:49, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> escreveu:
>
>>
>> On 12/14/2012 5:45 PM, Andrew Mason wrote:
>>> David Stockhoff wrote:
>>>> On 12/3/2012 5:10 PM, Andrew Mason wrote:
>>>>>>> If Cijfer is a chem her husband, Wijzer, must be as well. In the light
>>>>>>> of this it may be significant that in the final battle he killed five
>>>>>>> inhumi, ?twice strangling one with each hand?.
>>>> How are those names pronounced: Cypher? Wiser? That might be suggestive too.
>>> That's about it, I think, though the 'i' sound isn't precisely the
>>> same as an English one. 'Cijfer', it seems,  means 'digit' (as in 1,
>>> 2, 3...) and 'Wijzer' means 'pointing device', and can include a clock
>>> hand or a compass needle. While this is not an improbable name for a
>>> sea-captain, both names would fit mechanical people. (Though it is
>>> hard to tell with Dorpian names: 'Vadsig' apparently means 'lazy'.)
>> aha. Thanks.
> Oh, sorry, I'd missed this. Not that I have much of a sprachgefühl for Dutch, but Andrew is right - I'd have said cijfer = number and wijzer = one/that which indicates [something], but his definitions are better. The pronunciation of ij varies a lot and (independently) may or may not be the same as that of ei. English aye is one of the alternatives, though the 'correct' one starts with the first vowel of 'ever', rather than the vowel of 'car' which we find in 'aye'.

A little joke there, isn't it: the male is named after the stiff 
pointer, while the female is pointed at.