Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Jeff Jones wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Oct 2000 19:19:48 -0400, Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:
> >
> >> > The one thing that gives me a headache is the fact that monks are
> >> > Asian-like monks, not Western-like monks, but in the story there's a
> >> > senior monk who's also a woman, and I'm worried it'll confuse readers.
> >> > ObConlang, the Chevraqis for monk is probably "one who seeks
> >> > enlightenment."  (Stupid-obvious, but hey.)
> >>
> >> I'm not sure of all the details: What precisely would be confusing about
> >> it? I don't know much about Chevraqis.
> >
> >"Monk" to Western readers, a friend pointed out to me, usually means a
> >male person.  "Monk" to me means male or female; I've seen enough female
> >Buddhist monks on the subway in Seou.  <shrug>
>
> The female equivalent of a monk is a nun, in both Buddhism and in the west.
> The reason for having different terms, though, is strictly historical. Do
> Koreans use the same word for both?
<puzzled look>  As far as I remember, yes.  A folklorist I know told me
this was true in general in the East, but I really don't know details
myself.  :-(  "Nun" to me *does* connote Western monastic female persons
rather than anything Eastern-religious, though I could be very wrong.

YHL