Re: THEORY: Browsing at Borders Public Library

At 13:18 10/10/1999 -0600, you wrote:
>Barry Garcia wrote:
>> >So here's the conlanger challenge:
>> >
>> >What are some of your concultures' "Keywords"?
>>
>> I'm not sure if I follow what you mean (its 2:39 am as I write this!). Do
>> you mean words that are frequently used or that have some sort of=
 cultural
>> significance?
>
>Words which are fairly frequently used, but which are not
>translatable easily with a single word -- that have to be explained,
>and that convey a concept that is important to the culture.
There are lots of these in Kelen. Here are just a few of my favorite.

=E1r=F3n
This word is usually translated as 'father' or as 'lord'. It is also the
way I translated 'God' in the Babel text. What it really refers to is the
head male in an organized group of males. Among the Kelen, this is the only
male authority figure someone is likely to meet. Among the Iranj (a
sister-race to the Kelen who happen to speak mostly the same language), the
word refers again to the chief in the group of males. However, among the
Iranj, this group of males is one that has succeeded in finding a group of
related females to mate with. Therefore, the =E1r=F3n is the official and le=
gal
head of the family and also the official and legal father to all the
offspring born to that family. The Kelen probably borrowed the word from
the Iranj, but the Kelen head of the family is female.

shi=E9n
This word often translates as 'understanding', but is also used in the
phrase shi=E9n =EDr=E1=F1 which is used to convey a certain acceptance of th=
e
vagaries of the universe. It is used in multicultural areas, such as
Lanoraen, to convey an acceptance of the vagaries of cross-cultural
communication, and thus would translate into 'understanding varies'.

n=E1r=E1
This word is the hardest to translate. I've used it to mean 'honor',
'obligation', 'order', 'law', and generally the underlying order of the
universe, or of society.=20

That's all for now. I'm going to eventually have a number of these on my
webpage, but I'm too busy working to do that just yet.
Sylvia

Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
http://pw2.netcom.com/~sylvia1/