Dewrad wrote:Also, cross-linguistic question: what names do the individual fingers of the hand have in various nat/conlangs?
clawgrip wrote:Japanese:
thumb: 親指 - oyayubi "parent finger"
index finger: 人差し指 - hitosashiyubi "person pointing finger"
middle finger: 中指 - nakayubi "middle finger"
ring finger: 薬指 - kusuriyubi "medicine finger" (don't know the meaning of this)
little finger: 小指 - koyubi "small finger"
Spanish:Imralu wrote:Finnish:
Thumb: peukalo
Index finger: etusormi (= front finger, forefinger)
Middle finger: keskisormi (= middle finger)
Ring finger: nimetön (= nameless)
Little finger: pikkusormi (= little finger)
German:
Thumb: Daumen
Index finger: Zeigefinger (= point-finger)
Middle finger: Mittelfinger (= middle finger)
Ring finger: Ringfinger (= ring finger)
Little finger: kleiner Finger (= little finger)
Turkish:
Thumb: başparmak (= headfinger)
Index finger: işaret parmağı (= sign finger, visible indication finger)
Middle finger: orta parmak (= middle finger)
Ring finger: yüzük parmağı (= ring finger)
Little finger: serçe parmağı (= sparrow finger)
Swedes (and other Scandinavians) call the middle finger the long finger and all the rest are basically the same.
In Scottish Gaelic, the ring finger is mac-an-aba, which seems to mean "son of the abbot"
Thumb: pulgar (related to Latin pollere 'to be strong', folk etymology says it's because that's what you use to kill a pulga 'flea'')
Index: índice (related to indicar 'to indicate')
Middle finger: el mayor ("the biggest one"), dedo medio, dedo de enmedio, dedo del medio ("middle finger"), cordial, dedo (del) corazón ("heart [finger]")
Ring finger: anular (related to anillo 'ring')
Pinkie: meñique (related to menor 'smaller'), auricular ("ear [finger]" (because that's the one you use to clean your ear???))
In San Salvador people don't use cordial, dedo (del) corazón, and auricular is IMO quite rare.