Re: Conlangea Multilingual Phrasebook, 2nd edition

On Sun, 18 Jun 2000, Irina Rempt wrote:

>On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Padraic Brown wrote:
>
>> After your host has given you what you asked for, say:
>> "Fflatiomt teke", which means 'may the Gods bless you'.
>> Your host will answer, "Fflatao teke", which means 'I
>> bless you'.
>
>Some general concultural questions (better take this to conculture as
>well. I'm curious):
>
>Who is entitled to bless, only gods, symbolic representatives of the
>gods (priests, the head of the house, someone's mother), or
>everybody? What happens if you're not a god and you bless someone, do
>you call on the gods to bless them? Is it possible to bless objects,
>and how is that carried out?
Since the words used in the place where we expect "thank you" and
"you're welcome" are, in fact, "bless you", yes everyone can bless.
These are fairly common kinds of blessing, invoking a kind of general
blessedness on the recipient. They aren't as "powerful" as properly
made religious blessings, but they don't need to be.

There are blessings of a more religious nature that the priests
give (in the name of one or more Gods); and there are blessings
that the Elder of the house may give, in her capacity as the
family's priest.

Things - like tools, new tack, religious articles, etc. - can be
blessed (often by a priest) through fiery purification. The article
is either passed through the smoke of a temple fire, or a piece of
the fire is carried to the items to be blessed (a new house, for
example) and is carried around it. Intercessions are asked on behalf
of the objects' owner and sentences pertaining to the object or its
intended use might be recited. A house blessing is generally cause
for a modest feast, to which the priest(s) are invariably invited.

>> Your host will pour water in a cup for you and for himself.
>> He'll dip the fingers of his left hand in and sprinkle some
>> to the East and West, saying "Palanusha Uruwanas-cas palamamto
>> Saweltam-tam carxxaratos-te tlasolimtas-hal merhahanat."
>
>Translation, please?
Sorry! "Mighty Uruwanas with strong arm the Sun from East to West
hurls."

>> You
>> should then do likewise.
>
>Why East and West? Is any water ever sprinkled to the North and
>South?
No! Not to the South, and certainly not to the North! The South is
waste, burnt by the Sun and nothing lives there - only sunburnt and
windswept nomads. Only fools travel into the South, where they find
worthless green stones and worthless cloth made from snake piss.  The
North is the land of ghosts and evil sickness, rotting cities and
unwholesome forests. No one lives there. Nothing and no one goes
there; travellers speed along the Northway, which skirts the desolate
lands in the North, as fast as they may, and always travel armed to
the teeth.

The ancestors of both the Talarians and the Yllurians were Sun
worshippers, for whom the East and West were the especial lands
of the Sun. The Talarians still hold fire in great reverence, as
a physical manifestation of the imperishable flame that animates
the universe, but the Sun is no longer worshipped. There are still
vestiges, however, of such practices. The Yllurians still worship the
Sun, and she is their principal Goddess.

>> Finally, you may ask your host: "Maasusha tu?"
>
>"You are well?" presumably.
Yes. Really "of goodness you?"

Padraic.

>   Irina