Re: Alien Conlang

I'm thinking the breehah would consider it literature or wisdom from
more of the kahpuib'ludoi, (silly humans.) I haven't tried to throw
Christianity into the universe, but there's room for a lot of stuff.

Dave

Roger Mills wrote:
> Mark Reed wrote:
>
>> What's "best" depends entirely on the cultural context.  If I recall
>> correctly, the Klingon Bible Translation Project assumes human
>> missionaries - in that case, there was also established contact
>> between the aliens and the humans, and the language already has words
>> for "Earth", "human", etc.   Nevertheless, if the intent is to win
>> alien converts to a religion, it might be best not to translate things
>> in a human-biased way. :)
>
> This problem always arose when I considered translating bits of the Bible
> into Kash, who are not physically "Homo Sapiens", though they correspond in
> most other ways-- upright, bilateral symmetry, sentient, speaking, call
> themselves by a term that can be translated as "human" etc. etc. About the
> only part they'd be sympathetic to would be the Genesis Creation story, but
> everything thereafter wouldn't gibe with their belief that, having
> created/set in motion the Universe and all things in it, the First
> Cause/Power/Mind/Deity?/whatever no longer takes any interest in it, and
> certainly does not guide, influence, or in any way intervene in the affairs
> of one measly planet or one special people. The Spirits supposedly do, of
> course, but they aren't "gods", having power only in their particular
> domain.
>
> Adaptations might work-- perhaps in the Babel story, it could be the Sky
> Spirit who's offended at the intrusion into his domain.
>
> 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 have some luck amongst the Gwr, if they don't mind cold weather.
> :-))))
>
>
>
--
Pu Poetor jai'her hi'nar dai Par bin Pard Groemark'muluin'mig, bah dai
nah boeke bahgarp'Par'ku moif'foi, hu mef'regreeg. (Jn 3:16 in Breehah)