tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 29 07:20:46 1996
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Re: Words for God
- From: "A.Appleyard" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Words for God
- Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 15:20:10 GMT
- Organization: Materials Science Centre
- Priority: normal
ghItlhpu' Thad Vick <[email protected]> (Re: Words for God
ja'chuqpu'Ha'vIS):-
> Elohim = HoswI'pu' -- powerful one, plural
Tilde = long vowel, here.
I thought that Hebrew {'elo~(a)h} (plural {'elo~hi~m}) meant directly "a
god", and corresponds to Arabic {'ila~h}. (Arabic {'alla~h} < {al-'ila~h} =
"the god"). Are there any known uses of the Semitic root {'-l-h} to mean
"powerful" in other references than to God or gods? The only relevant similar
non-religious word that I can think of now is Hebrew {'el}, Arabic {'ila~}
(written {'-l-y}, = the preposition "towards", as if the original idea behind
{'elo~(a)h} / {'ila~h} was "someone that one <turns towards>". The Germanic
word "god" corresponds to Sanskrit {hu-tA}, the passive perfect participle of
{ho-} / {hu} = "to sacrifice", and seems to have originally meant "one who
scrifices are made to".
> The correct transliteration would be <yaHve'>
More exactly {yaHwe}, as the Hebrew letter <waw> was {w} in Biblical times,
and there is no <aleph> (= glottal stop) letter in the Hebrew. The final <he>
letter is merely a Hebrew graphy for final short vowel.
> Christ = wIvwI' -- this is not quite right, since it should be "chosen one",
> not "he who chooses" but i haven't unraveled the mysteries of passive voice
> yet. Grammarians?
As I said, it would be very useful if Marc Okrand ever reveals a passivizer
suffix: e.g. {A wIv B} = *{B wIvX A}.
> [in] Cherokee ... The usual usage is "great spirit" or "greatest spirit" or
> "father of all" or something like that. My dictionary hasn't arrived yet,
> so I don't know if we even *have* superlatives ...
TKD says that:-
(1) "the bold commander" = {la' jaq}
(2) "the commander is bold" = {jaq la'}
(3) "the commander is boldest" is {la' jaq law' Hich jaq puS}
Thus, for "the commander who is boldest", is {la' jaq law'bogh Hich jaq puS}
correct? Or what? 5 extra syllables to merely express superlative seems a lot.