Re: CHAT: Directions

At 03:34 08/07/99 -0500, you wrote:
>The cardinal directions in Watakass=ED:
>North: Wabiiput=ED - lit. "left place" (when looking eastward, north is on
>left)
>East: Wabiikad=EDz - also means "sky", lit. "place of the sun"
>South: Wabiimunv=E1 - lit. "right place"
>West: Wabiigazl=ED - also means "shadow", lit. "place of dark"
>
>Left: Put=ED
>Right: Munv=E1
>
>What do you think of the ambiguities between "east" and "sky", and
>between "west" and "shadow"?  Does it seem realistic to have such an
>ambiguity?
>
        I like them! Very poetic. I find them realistic enough (by the way, does
anybody know where the names of the cardinal points come from in our
natlangs? - it seems that they have a common origin in Romance languages
and English -).

        I have the same kind of ambiguity in Moten:
East: eme|saj, lit. "rising of the sun" (and also used with this meaning)
West: emekun, lit. "falling of the sun" (ibid.)
North: do|zunla, lit. "place of night"
South: emezunla, lit. "place of the sun"

>It could create interesting ambiguities in religious texts - would, for
>instance, tiglad=EDz wabiikad=EDzta mean "a ruler from the sky" or merely=
 "a
>ruler from the east"?  :-)
>
        That would be an interesting ambiguity, which could be the origin of some
legends coming from events that really took place. A story of people living
"in the east" would become a legend of supernatural people living "in the
sky". Same with "west" and "shadow". What do you think of it?

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>
                                                        Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepage/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html