Sunday Words: Abugida, Pogroms, and Deiparous

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Apologies for my absence these past weeks, was utterly swamped at work, but I'm back with extra words to make up the difference!

a·bu·gi·da [ˌɑːbuːˈɡiːdə]:
origin: (1864) Ethiopian; from Ge'ez (a-bu-gi-da), the first four structures in the language, borrowed from the Greek idea of alpha-beta for alphabet.

noun
We tend to think in terms of our own anglo culture, which terms our written language as being based on the "alphabet", but abugida is based on four letters, and indicates a language where every consonant is connected to a vowel -- one alters the word by altering the vowel.

This basic style is at the core of many Abramaic & Eritrean languages with extensive texts regarding history, mankind, and philosophy -- the Brahmic family of India & Southeast Asia posses the most ancient of these languages. Sanskrit is a famous abugida style language couching great wealths of early human history. See also: Hindi, Burmese, Cree, Bengali, Malay, Ojibwe, etc.


An example of Cree.



po·grom [pō-ˈgräm]:
origin: (1880) Yiddish; via Russian; pogromit= "devastation" or "to wreak havoc", po-= "like" + grom= thunder

noun
Instigated violent mob attacks on minorities and/or citizens, usually persecuted for being different from the mainstream. The word is most commonly associated specifically with Russian attacks against Jews, which although not officially sanctioned, where not prevented by authorities either; similar attacks against Jewish people happened in Poland and Germany.

The word is used simultaneously to mean efforts to exterminate an entire ethnic or religious group; an organized massacre. Pogrom can also be synonymous with the meaning "ghetto", as Jewish people were also often organized into slums or isolated neighborhoods where they struggled among the poor -- targeting "pogrom" violence in those districts made targeting minority families all the more simple, for walls & gates installed to protect could just as easily be used to entrap them.


de·ip·a·rous [dė`ĭp´å`rŭs]:
origin: (1913) Latin; deus= "a god" + parere= "to bring forth"

adjective
To bear or bring forth a god or goddess.
→ btw, you'd be in rather good company: Zeus (who birthed Athena fully formed from his crown), Mary (the virgin mother of Jesus Christ), Queen Māyā of Sakya (the married mother of Buddha), and Rhea Silvia (claimed Mars was the father of Romulus & Remus).

☆ Take this quiz to see your potential deiparous lineage! ☆

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

The Japanese syllabaries, hiragana/katakana, are almost abugidas -- there's a sign for a syllable-ending -n sound, but otherwise. The forms are not descended from Sanskrit in any way (they're simplifications of Chinese characters with that pronunciation), but the modern ordering is adapted from Sanskrit (via Buddhist scriptures, I assume through Pali as an intermediary but I don't honestly know).

---L.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

The Japanese language has a consonant, and vowels, which can stand alone (or be paired with one another and a single consonant). Although, I have no idea why it would be necessary to differentiate wether or not this specific language did evolve from Sanskrit. Most refer to the language as a syl·la·bar·y anyway and not an abugida.

However, the exact origin of Korean & Japanese remains hotly debated and somewhat mysterious:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world/asia/04language.html?_r=0

http://users.tmok.com/~tumble/jpp/japor.html

http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Hebrew-Origin-Japanese-People/dp/9652293393
*proposed Hebrew origin!



Also, we must not forget that the Ainu, were the native people of Japan & did influence their culture/language as well, despite being ultimately superseded: In their Yukar Upopo (Ainu Legends) is told, “The Ainu lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came” and specific allusions to Scandinavian genes are referenced more than once.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_language
http://www.yamagata-europe.com/en-gb/blog/item/862/the-finnish-japanese-connection



According to this source (http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/evolalpha.html) (as one with excellent visual examples), you've also been remiss in mentioning several other languages that likely were not influenced -- like the vast majority -- by Sanskrit: Korean hangul, Cherokee, one for the Cree, and Inuit of Canada.

I will take this opportunity to throw in, however, that the Sikh are keepers of vast and tiny collections of books filled with ancient knowledge written in these types of languages and no one is bothering to translate them (in fact many have been deliberately destroyed instead). This was part of my interest in abugida languages. Beyond rich philosophy, the Sikh books discuss aspects of human culture that would sometimes blow our minds, such as knowledge about travel or medicine that we'd assume would've been impossible to know at those times.

What we know versus what we think we know (and our lack of enthusiasm to examine this) is a canyon for the entirety of civilization -- let alone mere individuals -- and it strikes me regularly the amount of arrogance that I come in daily conversations instead. Discussing, perhaps, as presented, what languages were clearly influenced by the earliest known languages to man presents a perfectly interesting interesting prospect without need for embellishment or obfuscation.

Although, if the topic of specifically Japanese culture is preferred, there is an interesting article (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/opinion/comfort-women-and-japans-war-on-truth.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000) in today's New York Times worthy of consideration.