Re: History of constructed languages

-- Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
As for Nimrod, throw in a few final "ch"s and a couple of "z"s, and the
medieval populace will *believe* it's Hebrew.  This works for many of the
incantations I've come across. Same with Pluto, I guess, although the words seem more
recognizable.
BTW, there are some intrusions of Hebrew in the Paradiso: Canto VII: 1-3:
Osanna, sanctus Deus sabaoth,
superillustrans claritate tua
felices ignes horum malacoth.
[Can't get the accent marks, sorry).
Now sabaoth is Kabbalistic, isn't it?  One of the 72 Divine Names?  I
recognize it from Moshe Idel's _Kabbalah_.  I don't know about malacoth.  Is that made up?
Sally
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(my computer is broken and being fixed; i anti-<heart> webmail)

_Tzeva'ot_ may well have some Qabbalistic significance; not being a Kabbalist, though, i
don't know what it may be :) .
It's a recognized (albeit somewhat rare) name of God, found paired with the
tetragrammaton: "YHVH Tzeva'ot", parallel to the use of place or object names
with non-Israelite deities of the surrounding cultures, like Ba`al Zevul
(='Ba`al Zevuv', >> Beelzebub).
The word _tzeva'ot_ itself means "[military] forces/hosts".

As Charlie mentioned, it's found in the Biblical quote "holy holy holy" which
originates in Isaiah ch.6:
_veqara' zeh el zeh ve'amar: qadosh qadosh qadosh Y Tzeva'ot, melo' kol ha'aretz kevodo_
"each [seraph] called to another and said: holy holy holy is God of Hosts, the whole
earth is full of his glory"

"Malacoth" i'm not sure about... it could be _malkhut_, "kingship" or "kingdom", which
does have Cabbalistic significance; it's the lowermost of the _sefirot_
(emanations), identified with the 'Shekhina', the Presence of God. if i
remember correctly.
Or it could be _melakhot_, "works" (plural noun, not singular verb).
Or _mal'akhot_, "angel" with a feminine plural ending?


-Stephen (Steg)
 "since you left, a lot has changed here..."
     ~ 'canaanite blues' by ehud banai