the eye of the storm

some semi-linguistic notes

introduction  | pronunciation  | grammar  | vocabulary  | rosetta text  | notes

a traditional Ardegn greeting

nyúvante iágaerúvau may goodness (good fortune) be sent [to you]

Often abbreviated to just 'nyúvante', although in formal settings it is considered good etiquette to use the whole phrase. To be really formal you would use the entire original:

nyúvante ren ús iágaerú

Nowadays this is likely to regarded as rather pretentious, unless you are in extremely posh company.

Interestingly, this preserves the old (transitive) form of the verb iágú, with the meaning to send (forth). In modern Loegare, iágú means to go, and would originally have had the intransitive form iágimu. It has no passive form (in modern Loegare iágaeru is meaningless).

a saying of the prophet Aghotsa (Agosta)

ímanyúvante telqua aeru : virtue (lit. inner goodness) is difficult.

This seemingly rather trivial saying is central to the message of the prophet Aghotsa, a notable figure in the history of the Shihari Islands, and is actually very difficult to render into English, because of the meanings of both ímanyúva and telqua.

In Ardegn the prophet's name is rendered as Agosta, as the 'gh' and 'ts' consonant groups are alien to Loegare and too difficult for most speakers.

In fact, this is, of course, the Loegare translation of the original, and is itself rather imperfect. Whole volumes have been expended on the meaning of the phrase.

ímanyúvante does not strictly mean virtue, or rather it means more than just virtue. The most literal translation would be inner wealth or inner good fortune, and carries with it the idea of someone who is at peace with themselves and with life, who possesses inner strength.

telqua means hard to grasp, or hard to maintain a grip on, something is telqua if it keeps slipping away from you. It was originally a term from hunting, and implied an animal that was almost too cunning to catch, and that even when caught would have to be constantly guarded otherwise it would find a way of escaping. As a result, and rather ironically given its presence in a religious saying, telqua is actually something of a swearword (albeit not a particularly strong one).