Re: THEORY: Browsing at Borders Public Library

On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, andrew wrote:

> On Sun, 10 Oct 1999, Ed Heil wrote:
>
> > So here's the conlanger challenge:
> >
> > What are some of your concultures' "Keywords"?
Mislaid Ed's message (must have hit 'd' instead of 's', it's easy to
do that, especially late at night), but here are some of mine:

arli "realities" - the world, the universe

   It is assumed that the One, when he created the world, thought of
   things and they came into being (the way our world was made by the
   Word, the world where Valdyas is was made by Thought). It implies
   that the world itself contains several realities, i.e. that
   there's no *one* reality.

Next, the three components that all life consists of:

hayen "living matter"
anea "living energy"
vurea "divine inspiration"

   Plants are alive and are made only of _hayen_; animals, being
   alive and sentient, are made of _hayen_ and _anea_; people, being
   alive, sentient and divinely inspired, are made of _hayen_, _anea_
   and _vurea_.

   In a person, these three components each have a concrete
   representation that can be perceived by people who have that gift,
   _semti_ (see below):

haysen "physical body"
anie "astral body" (not the best term, it's a rough equivalent)
vurie "divine spark, soul"

   When something living dies, _hayen_ reverts to _sein_ "inert
   matter"; that is, the once-living entity becomes a thing. That it
   was once alive does give it a special status - dead people, for
   instance, are entitled to being buried with due reverence - but
   scientifically it's no less a thing than, for instance, a rock.

   The _anie_ can only hold its own when held together by the
   _vurie_; a person's astral body can go to the gods, with the
   _vurie_ still in it - even if it doesn't have a physical body any
   more, it's still the same person. A dead animal's _anie_ has no
   _vurie_ to fix it, and falls apart and dissipates to join with the
   free _anea_ that's everywhere in nature, like background
   radiation.

semte "gifted person"
semta "to perceive with _anie_ senses"

   Some people have the gift not only to perceive _anea_, but to use
   it: to perceive with the senses of their astral body, and to
   manipulate _anie_. This has to be learned, obviously, the way a
   child learns to interpret what he sees and hears, to understand
   language, to walk and to make things with his hands.

   The number of people in Valdyas who have the gift is surprisingly
   high: about one in seven, but most people never realize it, and
   fewer still are trained and competent.

rheis "trust, esteem, reverence without distance"

   This is the kind of esteem that children ideally have for their
   parents, pupils for their teachers, husbands for their wives - and
   vice versa, in all cases. It means seeing the other whole, with
   all their faults, and still holding them in high esteem, without
   placing them on a pedestal. "Trust" comes closest, with a strong
   dose of love mixed in, though it's perfectly possible to have
   _rheis_ for one's enemy ("I'm honoured to have you as an enemy" -
   it's like Rihannsu mnhei'sahe).

   Irina

            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)