Sir Darius the Clairvoyent Posted 2 hours ago So, this is something I have pondered about. I think this is in large part while I struggle to understand the philosophy of the far east: that our languages differs so radically. Here is a list of the world largest families: World language families Indo-European. 2.562 billion. 44.78% Sino-Tibetan. 1.276 billion. 22.28% Niger-Congo. 358 million. 6.26% Afro-Asiatic. 340 million. 5.93% Austronesian. 312 million. 5.45% Dravidian. 222 million. 3.87% Altaic. 145 million. 2.53% Japanese. 123 million. 2.16% In the case of this forum, I assume the overwhelming majority belong to either indo-european or Sino-tibetan. In fact, 66% of the world does. What I want to discuss here, is how this forms our understanding of reality. As the only chinese word I know is Nǐ hǎo (I am not excagerariring, it really is) I will limit myself to talking about some indo european words and its realtion to spirituality. I hope, however, anyone familiar with other languages can share some of their knowledge. So lets look into some indo european concepts: breath and spirit All the following word has or had the double meaning of breath and spirit: - Ånd or varations of it (scandinavia) - spiritus, mens, animus or anima (latin) - Pneuma (greek) - Geist (german) - spirit or mind (english) - Espirit (french) - Atman (sanskrit) Here comes the juiciest part, in my opinion. Atman is a direct cognate to ånd (mentioned above) as well as old english ǽþm and eþian, from where the modern english word breath comes from. Sacrifice «In the creation myth, the first man Manu and his giant twin Yemo are crossing the cosmos, accompanied by the primordial cow. To create the world, Manu sacrifices his brother and, with the help of heavenly deities (the Sky-Father, the Storm-God and the Divine Twins),[43][47] forges both the natural elements and human beings from his remains. Manu thus becomes the first priest after initiating sacrifice as the primordial condition for the world order, and his deceased brother Yemo the first king as social classes emerge from his anatomy (priesthood from his head, the warrior class from his breast and arms, and the commoners from his sexual organs and legs).» So, what we see here is that the world is shaped by a sacrifise. Trough ritual sacrifice to the gods the world is kept in order. Cosmic order and universal reason Wall of text Spoiler Linguistic evidence has led scholars to reconstruct the concept of *h₂értus, denoting 'what is fitting, rightly ordered', and ultimately deriving from the verbal root *h₂er-, 'to fit'. Descendant cognates include Hittite āra('right, proper');[67] Sanskrit ṛta ('divine/cosmic law, force of truth, or order');[68][69] Avestanarəta- ('order'); Greek artús ('arrangement'), possibly arete ('excellence') via the root *h₂erh₁ ('please, satisfy');[70] Latin artus('joint'); Tocharian A ārtt- ('to praise, be pleased with'); Armenian ard ('ornament, shape'); Middle High German art ('innate feature, nature, fashion').[71] Interwoven with the root *h₂er- ('to fit') is the verbal root *dʰeh₁-, which means 'to put, lay down, establish', but also 'speak, say; bring back'.[72][36][71] The Greek thémis and the Sanskrit dhāman both derive from the PIE noun for the 'Law', *dʰeh₁-men-, literally 'that which is established'.[71] This notion of 'Law' includes an active principle, denoting an activity in obedience to the cosmic order *h₂értus, which in a social context is interpreted as a lawful conduct: in the Greek daughter culture, the titaness Themis personifies the cosmic order and the rules of lawful conduct which derived from it,[73] and the Vedic code of lawful conduct, the Dharma, can also be traced back to the PIE root *dʰeh₁-.[74] According to Martin L. West, the root *dʰeh₁- also denotes a divine or cosmic creation, as attested by the Hittite expression nēbis dēgan dāir ("established heaven (and) earth"), the Young Avestanformula kə huvāpå raocåscā dāt təmåscā?("What skilful artificer made the regions of light and dark?"), the name of the Vedic creator god Dhātr, and possibly by the Greek nymph Thetis, presented as a demiurgicalgoddess in Alcman's poetry.[36] Another root *yew(e)s- appears to be connected with ritualistic laws, as suggested by the Latin iūs ('law, right, justice, duty'), Avestan yaož-dā- ('make ritually pure'), and Sanskrit śáṃca yóśca ('health and happiness'), with a derived adjective *yusi(iy)os seen in Old Irish uisse ('just right, fitting') and possibly Old Church Slavonic istǔ ('actual, true').[71] (An interresting note here is that both the term darma as well as karma is derived from rta. Same concept, in other words. Logos is another famous example). Hospitality and reciprocity In proto indo european the words for to give and take was the same word. Likewise for host and guest. This implies a culture of reciprocity (which we also see in sacrifise mentioned above). In ancient greece as well as norse society it was a crime/taboo to not let a wandering stranger stay the night and feed him. We find refferences to this in havamal as well as other places. In Norway it was literal law until somewhere in the 1800s. Tacitus, in his work Germania, likewise remarks on how the germanics both give and take without any guilt, and how the concept of rent is foreign to them. Relationship between mankind and the gods The PIE word for god meant celestial. The word for man meant earthly. You see this reflected in latin homo and humus as well as english (t)human. Another distinction is made, as in Homer for instance, between the imortal gods and mortal men. However, trough acts of superhuman courage, some men could ascend, become gods, achieve everlasting glory. This is what happened to Ceasar for instance. From Havamal (sayings of the high one, aka Odin): 77. Cattle die, | and kinsmen die, And so one dies one's self; But a noble name | will never die, If good renown one gets. 78. Cattle die, | and kinsmen die, And so one dies one's self; One thing now | that never dies, The fame of a dead man's deeds. The serpent slaying myth Long story short: cattle is stolen, Trito (the warrior) goes to a cave and fights a serpent (the word for serpent is negation) or some kind of monster (read: aboriginal), slays the serpent and retrive the cattle. Cattle was to them what money is to us, basically. So Trito is the archetypical warrior. It means, as you can probally tell, third, and has been used as ephitets to both Zeus and Odin. A more mystical interpertation: «According to Martin L. West, the Proto-Indo-European name *Trito('Third') may have been a "poetic or hieratic code-name, fully comprehensible only with specialized knowledge".[33]« Paradise The PIE imagined the afterlife/paradise as a green field/steppe. Not suprisingly, considering they were steppe people Before this, all has been sourced. From here on tho, this is pure speculation. The word eden (paradise) from the bible is borrowed from sumerian. In sumerian, the very same word means steppe. Any connection, do you think? final remarks This thread was suppoused to be about how languages shapes our world view. However, it turned into a monologue on the proto indo europeans, both because I lovd the topic and because I am a rambler… However … I would highly appreciate if some of you could share some concepts from your own language, that would be difficult for a non native to comprehend! ❤️🔥 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
