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Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

From:Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Date:Wednesday, October 11, 2000, 18:01
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