Re: Biblical Hebrew

On Mon, 19 Aug 2002 04:14, Roger Mills wrote:
> Many have written:
> >>From: Dan Sulani <dnsulani@...>
> >>
> >>On 15 August, Peter Clark wrote:
> >> > of "to have compassion" or "cherishing." The specific word for "womb"
> >>
> >>(as
> >>
> >> > opposed to "belly") is rechem. It's not quite clear whether which word
> >> > derives from which; scholars?
> >>
> >>I suppose that leaves me out (not being a scholar of Semitic langs),
> >>but FWIW, my dictionary has the emotions and the bodily organ
> >>as being related to different sets of cognates in ancient semitic langs.
> >>But in each case, the cognate from one set is very similar to the one
> >>from the other set across all the langs mentioned. Thus, it's quite
> >>possible that the connection between the emotions and the organ
> >>dates from proto-Semitic times. _Real_ scholars, please?  ;-)
> >
> >It gets even better - there's good anthropological evidence for bodily
> >correlates to particular emotional / mental states.  The chakra system
> > from yoga is a good example, but there are other examples ranging from
> > the Hopi, to the !Kung, to the Australians...  nothing that qualifies as
> > "universal," but there are some striking similarities across cultures.
> > There is
>
> probably
>
> >some real physiology here...
> >
> >Andy
>
> My 2¢--
> FWIW, in Malay/Indonesian, _hati_ is the word for heart in the figurative
> sense, as seat of the emotions/soul or whatever, and there are many
> compounds and idioms for states of mind/emotions.    But it actually means
> 'liver' (likewise in most related languages).  A quick search through
> available dictionaries gives:
>
> Western Bukidnon Manobo (Mindanao, PI) liver only
> Pilipino/Tagalog liver only
> Malegasy liver, with a few compds. meaning close family members and the
> like.
> Fiji liver, and 'viewed as the seat of cowardice and courage'
FWIW, Tok Pisin, a Melanesian creole, has - or used to have - "bel" as the
seat of emotions.  And again, FWIW, "givim bel", while in some places meaning
something along the lines of "to love someone", in most places had the
decidedly concrete meaning of "to make pregnant".

Wesley Parish

>
> Kash uses _haniyu_ for the figurative meanings; there is no evidence yet
> that it ever referred to a body part, but we'll work on that.......
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."