Re: This morning

On Sat, 15 Sep 2001 03:02:15 -0700, SuomenkieliMaa <suomenkieli@...>
wrote:

>PS. Tough conjuring up a word for enemy, I admit!
>This, because my conculture for Vya:a:h -- in the
>distant galaxy called "Vaa:vy'yy" ["vaa:" means
>"scared" and "vy'yy" means "unity", made up of "vy"
>(for "one" or "#1") and suffix "-yy" (meaning similar
>to "-ness")] -- is supposed to be an 'enlightened'
>society of human-like creatures who live at all costs
>in peace.  I gave in to adding this sort of
>vocabulary, because things like enemy refer an actual
>concept - even if that concept doesn't really apply to
>the Vaa:vy'yy galaxy.
Would they have historical records of past wars? Or fiction dealing with
the subject? Perhaps wars are such a distant memory that they really don't
have a need for the word "enemy". The Zirien people have extensive
memorials to the victims of past wars (which came near to exterminating
their entire species). The word for "war" ("juâ:ç" in Simîk / Zírí:nká) is
one of the few obscene words in the Zirien languages. Yet war has been
obsolete on the Zirien homeworld Rieshai for centuries (perhaps millennia
-- I haven't worked out the chronology). They have the advantage of being
in an isolated, hard to reach, strategically unimportant location. All they
know about war comes from reports from other worlds and their many
well-preserved historical records.

Still, a word for "enemy" ("tâu"), removed from the context of war, is one
the Zireen still find useful -- mainly in the context of disease. Zirien
have some of the best medical technology in the galaxy, but even so,
disease is a powerful and often deadly enemy.

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