Re: They _don't_ have a word for it!

Herman Miller wrote:
> Anyone have any cool examples from their langs of interesting gaps in the
> vocabulary?
Any words relating to pair-bonds, like "Marriage", "dating", "romance",
etc., is non-existent in Uatakassí.  The bird-heads (as I've come to
call the species, originally it was a joking slur on them by a friend of
mine) don't form pair-bonds like humans do.  Mating is during a specific
season, and mates are chosen for that season.  Thus, to translate
"marriage", or worse, "affair", would require a lengthy discussion of
human behavior that would mystify them.  They *might* be able to accept
the idea of pair-bonds, but then they'd be completely confused as to why
marital infidelity would exist.  "If you want to form permanent pairs,
then why do you look for others?" they'd probably ask.  Any human
literature involving romance would completely confuse them.  "Why are
these humans acting so strange?"  :-)  This also means that terms like
"slut" or "chaste" don't exist.  Sex is a normal activity during the
Mating Season, outside of it, most societies, including the Kassí,
condemn it, in Uatakassí it's called _uagagudialá_, which can be roughly
translated as "fornication" or "perversion".  Two words which also don't
have exact equivalents.

The English word "ritual" only roughly corresponds to _ualíi_.  Ualíi
does not contain the notions of mere habit that ritual often has in
English.  A Ualíi is active, it has a real effect.  Also, it does NOT
have to be old or even repeated.  It usually is both, but not always.  A
Ualíi can be invented on the spot for a single use, under certain
circumstances.  So ... that's kind of both _have_ and _don't have_.  :-)

Technological terms, of course, don't exist.  They are at, perhaps,
bronze age in their tech.

--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
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