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Inspiration for new words!

From:agricola <agricola@...>
Date:Monday, June 24, 2002, 2:50
First of all, anyone in the  DC area: drop everthing and go out and look at the Moon RIGHT NOW!

Tonight's Moon has been the inspiration for some new Talarian words and also a couple
new words in the Sharundaine language; not to mention an extremely important
festival for each.

The Daine call this Moon "halondarro", for which there's no English translation
other than actually describing the Moon tonight. The Talarians call it
"isilomatlarotar", or Moon of the Seven Wheels; which is a pretty accurate
description. Essentially what's going on is a Moon ringed by a double halo,
some empty sky, a rainbow and then empty sky all around. It looks like a big
Eye, which is why the Daine also call these "kalishera", or 'sky eye'; and the
Talarians also call haloed moons "(maxa)spaltayysilas", or 'Moon of wonder'.

Talarian: isilo- is "Moon" (isilas); matla- is "seven" (matlar); and rotar is wheel.
Talarian is good at making long compounds like these. Tonight's might be
conjoined: maxaspaltayysilomatlarotar, or 'perfectly auspicious seven wheeled
Moon wonder'.

The Daine word "halondarro" defies analysis, except that it's an [-nh] class word.
On the other hand, "kali" means 'eye of a living thing' (as opposed to "taran"
and "collou" which mean eyelike things); and "sherras" is sky.

When such a Moon appears in Daine skies, they make of it an excuse to party the
night away. There will be much song and dance (as well as other nocturnal
activities) on such a night.

Talarians find this an occasion to come outdoors and build great bonfires, around which
there will be much song, dance and consumption of soma. Not to mention all the
other nocturnal activities that will inevitably occur sooner or later. In
particular, they will howl and screech and whirl widdershins around the fires.
It is considered exremely auspicious (maxaspaltem) to propose marriage,
conceive a child, birth a child or birth a calf under such a Moon. Such a
festival comes around even less than once in a blue Moon!

Anyone else have moments of instantaneous inspiration like this?

Oh, and for those of you who are missing out, it's like this:

1. a perfectly round full Moon;
2. a halo of bright cream (3 lunar diameters across);
3. a fiery ring of dark, sinister orange;
4. a ring of bright gray sky;
5. a wide band of red-orange rainbow;
6. a band of yellowy-green rainbow;
7. a faint band of dark rainbow;
all surrounded by bright gray sky.

Off to take a last llook before bed!
Padraic.

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Peter Collier <petercollier@...>So how do you...