Re: Alien Conlang

>Den 28. feb. 2007 kl. 00.43 skrev Roger Mills:
>>
>>Further, lacking the concept of Original Sin, they don't feel the need for
>>redemption. I think missionaries would be quite frustrated among the Kash.
>
>They might learn a lesson or two from missionaries on Earth who have
>worked among peoples with no concept of original sin. You could
>bring in alcohol, for example, or if that is known, some other
>exotic drug. Or a sexually transmitted disease. Or if all else
>fails, call for the military.
>
>The Klingon Bible Translation Project - my word, the ideas of some
>of these Earthlings. I'm not very familiar with the Star Wars
>universe, but don't the Klingon have a religion or ethical system of
>their own? Some kind of Bushido aesthetical ethics, perhaps?
>
>LEF
That the majority of people of a nation or, in the case of Klingon,
fictional species, believes in a certain belief system does not
preclude some people to embrace other belief systems. Thus, although
there is a traditional Klingon religion, this does not mean that
noone could embrace another religion, even if only secretly, because
Klingon society disapproves of foreign religions. Moreover, people
could translate foreign scriptures out of interest only. It is thus
plausible enough for any language to image a translation of foreign
sacred texts known to them.

As a lurker, I always enjoyed the lack of political or religious
discussion. Please, Lars, do not stray away from this. There are
enough other fora (forums, if you like) for people who enjoy
ridiculing other people's beliefs, be it political, religious or
otherwise.

ObConlang, in my current project, I think about incorporating
religious change, i.e some words hint at an older religion in a more
or less animistic vein, while the current major religion was brought
by invaders. In the course of translating the terms of the invader's
religion, the people sometimes simply loaned the words from the
invader's langugage (Prakyat) as well, while for other terms, they
used already existing religious vocabulary. I cannot tell much more,
as I haven't fleshed it out really, just started a bit for the last
relay text.

Simply loaning words for unknown terms is common in such translation
projects. In German, many ecclestiastic terms are derived from Greek
and Latin or were neologies, trying to imitate Latin word forms, and
as far as I know, the situation is the same for English and many
other languages. Or look at Farsi and the many Arab words they use in
religious context for Islamic terms.