Re: Semantic mismappings

> > Whether you openly renounce allegiance to your lord/lady, or just
> > silently betreys him/her, he/she has every right to have you executed
> > in a maximally painful way, but only in the later case does he/she have
> > any right to look down on you. In the former case you're an _achatear_,
> > with your honour intact, in the later a _goembho_ ['gwemBo], something
> > like "traitor", with your honour lost. Can anyone think of a convenient
> > way of making the distinction achatear~goembho in English?
Andreas,

I was interested not only in John's historical discussion written in answer
to your question but also in what you wrote about your conculture.  I'm
curious about something.  Given the consequences of openly renouncing your
allegiance, why would anyone ever do it?  I can deduce that renouncing
one's allegiance is something that is actually done, because there is a
special name for a person who does it, but there must be something
sociological going on here that would induce someone to become an
_achatear_, because doing something that would give someone "every right to
have you executed in a maximally painful way" is a fairly counterintuitive
move, to state it mildly.

Isidora

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