tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 14 17:09:36 2002
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Re: god (was: Re: a word is needed?)
- From: "Sean Healy" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: god (was: Re: a word is needed?)
- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 22:09:35 +0000
>If I see <<Qun'a'>>, odds are I would probably understand it, but I would
>personally use something different. I've seen <<joH'a'>> used many a time,
>and that's the one I am used to using. Perhaps <<Qun'a'>> would be fine for
>Zeus, Jupiter, P'an Ku or Vishnu, where there is one god deemed to be one
>of
>the greater gods among many, but in a monotheistic system, I'd use
><<joH'a'>> or similar.
Well, 'great lord' doesn't seem much better than 'great god'. It seems to
me to mean (for example) an earl who has a bunch of baronets as his vassals.
He is a great lord compared to them.
But if I remember correctly, when reading the Torah aloud, early Jews said
'Adonai' instead of 'Jehovah' when the tetragrammaton (the four-letter
combination JHVH, or however you want to spell it in Latin letters - vowels
are not indicated on the earliest Hebrew texts) was encountered, because
they believed it was not good to say the name of their god aloud. 'Adonai'
means 'lord' or 'ruler'. So you would seem to have Jewish tradition on your
side if you use {joH'a'} for the monotheistic god of the
Jews/Christians/Muslims.
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