Re: Language, Religion, and an information quest (or somesuch) [Mildly OT]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Grandsire, C.A.
> Sent: Tuesday, November 9, 1999 2:43 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG
> Subject: Re: Language, Religion, and an information quest (or somesuch)
> [Mildly OT]
> Axiem wrote:
> >
> > Well, I'm not going to get into why, but now I'm trying to come up with
> > a good word that expresses "God" or a supreme entity, etc, and I was
> > wondering how all of you came up with that word/words for your conlangs,
> > if you even have them?
> The longest form of
> "one" has for the Noli a mystical meaning, meaning "the Universe" or
> "God" for religious Noli. It refers to the totality of things (as a
> whole, not as a juxtaposition).
I really like that idea, Christophe. In Dhakrathat, I used to use the word
<tani> to refer to the few "higher" deities or spirits, and <kuna> to refer
to all subordinate deities and spirits; there was no differentiation between
the good and evil ones (although the religion definitely sees them as being
either good or evil). Then I thought about using something like <Yachka>
"one-person, he/she of one, he/she which is one, first person," for the
supreme deity, but I never really accepted that. Eventually I hit upon the
word [is"tSa], which I really like, but which doesn't really have an
etymological meaning so far. Another problem with it is that I have to find
an Old Dhak form of the name which will yield the result [is"tSa] or
something like it in the modern language.

Another idea I've had is to use some sort of word root meaning "exist" but
inflecting it in a way peculiar to just this one word -- some sort of
inflection that would mean not just "one who exists" but possibly also
"existence" or "one who causes to exist" or something. Is there any
precedent for inflections used in only one, or a few, words in a language?
Maybe I could use an archaic form which later becomes non-productive.