Re: Minhyan & the goddess of conlangs

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:15:05 +0100, Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:

>
> Who says we want a _Greek_ deity? As I've already pointed out, the Greeks
> simply divided the world into two camps: those who spoke a proper,
> civilized language (i.e. Greek), and those who didn't. The latter were all
> 'barbaroi'. A conlang, as far these deities were concerned, would be
> another barbarous tongue.
Yeesh Ray, are you this much of a killjoy in real life? I only threw
that out there as an idea. Did i ever say anyone had to go along with
it? Holy crap i feel like i'm going to have to walk on eggshells
whenever i bring anything up around you!



> So if a pagan deity is wanted, I guess the  Egyptian 'Thoth' is a suitable
> candidate; but the original request, as the subject line shows, was for a
> goddess.
But who says we want an _Egyptian_ god/dess? (Throwing it back at
you). Who says we can't have a god and a goddess, as Thoth was
associated with languages, etc. etc. but Seshet was the goddess of
actual writing and also was the keeper of the books. From what I know
Thoth simply taught mankind to write, Seshet created writing. She also
tallied the pharaoh's deeds on a leaftletless palm leaf, and she was
the one who helped the king lay out the temples and other buildings.


> Surely the bird has to a parrot - the African Grey is probably the best.
Why a parrot? Why not a Cockatiel? Or a cockatoo, ALL of those can be
made to speak, why does it have to be an african grey even if we go
with parrots, hmmmmm?


> Why the Arbutus? The tree that actually 'speaks' is the Aspen, isn't it?
> (called in Welsh "tafod y merched" - girls' tongue [sic] - 'cause it is
> always chattering)
Yes, but again why should we go with what the Welsh (or anyone else)
though would speak? I've seen aspen, their "speaking" is random noise
of leaves fluttering. Why not go with something that actually was made
useful and was used for writing? Why not the Talipot Palm, Corypha
umbraculifera, which is what was used in South India as "paper" for
writing (and besides it's much more impressive than any Aspen... it
flowers once and dies, sending up the largest inflorescence in the
world).

Note: I'm only being a bit sarcastic here due to how intensely serious
Ray seems about this, which put me just a bit off and makes me think I
need to walk on eggshells in this topic. Lighten up (and this goes for
everyone, myself included), have a bit of fun with this. Instead of
shooting people down by saying things like "who says we want a _Greek_
god", suggest a few others and leave it up to the group to vote.


--
Something gets lost when you translate,
It's hard to keep straight, perspective is everything

- Invisible ink - Aimee Mann -

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