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? IMO, this is one word that is a very defining
>word for a culture, is how they treat this word. Like, is there a single
>word to describe a deity, or different words depending on the type? I'm
>on an information quest right now, and I wouldn't mind some
>suggestions/advice/etc. on a good way to come up with a word to
>represent this, or even what your word/words are.
A word for God... I'm still laboring over that.  The modern ('vulgar') Tech
name for God is borrowed from Arabic, i.e. _?al~a:h_ (l~ = 'dark'  l),
written _?a-lla-ha_.  In more philosophical or liturgical settings, the
borrowed term is Greek _Theos_, realized in Tech as _te-so_ and pronounced
_te:sw_.

As for the *original* word for God, there may not have been one.  Actually,
Techians before the advent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam had their own
form of monotheistic religion, where God didn't have a name per se.  The
'names' ascribed to God are merely titles and attributes.  Borrowing from
the Jews (and Assyrians), _ya-ha_ [ya:h] became a popular term for the
Godhead and it is still used today in constructs, such as 'alleluia', that
sorta thing.

A few Old Tech (basically unmutated modern Tech) 'names' for God:

`a-li   he that burns (` = voiced h) (Their ancient practices involved
fire-based rituals.)

'a-ba   father, 'daddy' or 'grandpa' (' = glotal stop) (compare Aramaic
_?abba_)

'a-ri   friend, 'one of us' (we were made in His image)

'e-m@   mother, 'mama', she that feeds us (God to Techians is Spirit,
neither male or female according to human understanding) -- today God is
called 'he' for the sake of orthodoxy, but he is still ascribed with
'female' attributes, meaning completion and transcendence

'e-di-na    lord, master, husband (God is seen as the 'bridegroom' of
humanity)

qo-b-za bread, 'He who is our provider, our feeder, our strength'

t'a-p'a (C' = ejective) to hit a target, here meaning 'He who succeeds, He
is victorious'

tu-li   priest, pontiff, shaman, intercessor: 'our Advocate, our High
Priest' (in Christian belief, a title ascribed to Jesus Christ)

And one other religious name: hlo-t'a (hl = voiceless lateral fricative),
meaning 'he is cursed, he is infamous' is used to refer to the Devil, who
was considered in pre-Judaic Techia to be one of the thirteen Ancestors
(fathers of each of the tribes) who went astray and betrayed his people.
The transitive version of this verb (I haven't figured out how to mark
causatives yet) would also be used, since it then means 'he cursed', 'he
slandered'.

Incidentally, this verb is cognate with Hebrea _s'a:Ta:n_ and Arabic
_s^ayTa:n_ -- Satan.

Danny

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