Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

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>
>
>YHL
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?

Jeff