Re: CHAT: Directions
| From: | Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, July 8, 1999, 15:29 |
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On Thu, 8 Jul 1999 10:50:11 +0200 Christophe Grandsire
> 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 -).
Hebrew has a whole lot of different words for the directions, msot of
which are Biblical terms that i doubt anyone really uses anymore.
North:
Tzafon - probably from the root TzPH, "gaze". North of Israel are the
Hermon and Lebanon mountain ranges, from where you can see a lot of the
area.
Smol - "left", if you're facing the sunrise.
East:
Mizrahh - from ZRHh, "shine (forth)". It's actually a verbal phrase, as
in the quote _mizrahh hashemesh ve`ad bo'o_, "from the rising(-place) of
the sun until it's setting(-place)". I seem to remember the phrase
_mizrahha shemesh_, which means something like "towards the rising-place
of the sun", so i assume the original term was the phrase _mizrahh
shemesh_.
Qedem - from QDM, "forwards", if you're facing the sunrise. QDM also has
to do with "early, ancient", making an interesting ambiguity in the
phrase _bnei qedem_ between "children of the east" and "children of the
ancient (times)". This is the word used in the Babel text.
South:
Darom - i don't know what root this comes from, DRM...maybe from DR
(dwell). it's the commonly used word today.
Negev (Negba = southwards) - the Negev is the desert region in the south
of Israel.
Yemin / Teiman - "right", if you're facing the sunrise. Teiman, which
probably comes from the same root, YMN, is Yemen, the southernmost part
of the Arabian peninsula.
West:
Ma`arav - from 3RB, "mix", probably to do with the colors mixing around
at sunset.
Ahharon - "afterwards", the opposite of _qedem_. In Modern Hebrew it's
used to mean "last", but it actually just means "after". the
Mediterranean is called _yam ha'ahharon_, "the sea of the west". The
Mediterranean is also called _hayam hatikhon_, "the upper sea",
contrasting with the Persian Gulf, _hayam hatahhton_ "the lower sea".
Today the Persian Gulf is called _mifratz paras_ (=P.G.).
Yam (Yama = westwards) - "sea", a reference to the Mediterranean.
> 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.)
These are *months* in Rokbeigalmki! :)
_^jalag^semoz_ "descent of the sun", the last month of the year, between
the last new moon and the winter solstice.
_^ghalub^semoz_ "rise of the sun", the first month, between the solstice
and the first new moon. Today is the 16th of Ghalu:b (they're usually
called by just the first part of the name, with an accent on the second
syllable remaining from the compound). the Rokbeigalm live in the
Southern Hemisphere.
-Stephen (Steg)
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