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.
>
> Thanks a lot :)
>
> -Axiem
> -axiem@swbell.net
> "T'e'ny' ka'rum krtobe ce'lumus^!"
In ea-luna, there is _ruwu_, which covers all supernatural
entities. Individual gods have descriptive names. The
central Goddess of their religion has the rather simple
name "Earth Mother" (_iludina_), where "Earth" (_ilu_)
is also the common word for soil. Dirt Mama. :) There are
dieties for every clan, family, and even household, and
then there are a wide variety of nature spirits. I suspect
that the spirit of a particular natural feature or place
(X) would be called X-li-ruwu. And Iludina might also be
called ea-diwe-li-ruwu or ilu-li-ruwu. There are more
specific words naming particular types of lower order
supernatural beings (e.g.-- ghost, demon, etc), but my
feeling is that those would mainly be in poetic usage.

To translate the Bible, one would have to come up
with an agreeable descriptive name for God, if
one wanted to have a chance at getting the
point across to the natives... Except that missionaries
are subject to execution, at least until the revolution
comes along.

[On a bit of a tangent, "ghost" would certainly be
poetic, since there is another word for a deceased
person, and the deceased are thought to be alive
but no longer physical, and also omnipresent.)

--

Mia Soderquist (tuozin@dmv.com)
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