Other Languages' "Pure" Meaning "Just"

Manuel refuted my claim that there is not historical precedent for
"pure" being synonymous with "just", refering to small-whole-number-ratio
(SWNR) pitch relationships. (Or more specifically, I claimed only that I
did not no of any such precedent.)

The example he cited was a word in another language that refers to SWNR
harmony, and that nominally translate to the English word "pure".
(Unfortunately I deleted that message, and don't recall either the language
or the word in that language. Sorry.)

After reflecting on that a bit, I've decided that he translated his
words incorrectly. If a word like "just" has two or more meanings, you
must translate it according to the specific meaning you're using the word
for.

For example, the Spanish word "lengua" can have two English
translations: "tongue" or "language". Although in English "tongue" is
sometimes taken to mean "language", I would certainly not translate the
Spanish sentence "mi lengua esta rojo" as "my language is red".

Similarly, if I were translating a sentence in Spanish that uses the
word "pura" to refer to SWNR tunings, I would still translate it to "just",
because the sentence refers specifically to SWNR harmony, not to the
generic meaning of "pure". That since the pre-existing English word for
SWNR tunings is "just", and there is no previous attribution in the English
language of that specific meaning to the word "pure". (Or again, none that
I personally am aware of.)

Understand however that I have no problems with describing just
intonation as sounding pure. That's fine because it DESCRIBES just
intonation, rather than devising an additional DEFINITION for "pure".
Adding a new definition to the synonym stew only risks novices thinking
that the two mean two subtly different things.

It also can lead to confusion when attempting to use "pure" for its
existing, general meaning. Consider for example this sentence: "Whereas
JI uses axiomatic definitions of thirds, fourths and fifths, meantone is
built purely upon a circle of fifths." Without taking "pure" and "just" as
synonyms, people will correctly understand the sentence to mean that a
circle of fifths is the only underlying basis behind meantone tunings. But
if we accept "pure" to be synonymous with "just", then people could
misinterpret that sentence to mean that meantone is synonymous with
pythagorean tuning.

So I personally think that we ought to accept the hand of vocabulary
cards the English language deals us whenever possible.

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 2 Jan 1997 09:15 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA06642; Thu, 2 Jan 1997 09:18:21 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA06634
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id AAA02612; Thu, 2 Jan 1997 00:18:18 -0800
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 00:18:18 -0800
Message-Id: <199701020315_MC2-E30-FA9D@compuserve.com>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu