Limitations of Language

Can I misunderstand a word? Misuse it? What is the result of that misunderstanding? What is the result of that misuse.


Is it possible for a man to figure out a reality using a word which refers to that which isn't?


Can words get a woman into a great deal of trouble in the privacy of her own mind?


Calling a given word a symbol for a particular definition helps me to be aware of the limitations of language.


Being aware of the limitations of language helps protect me from building parts of my life around the meaning of a word or sentence which masks or veils my best interpretation of my real life experience,

Lenga d'oc

Languages often define the culture, the people, the nation. Those who spoke, and speak today, the Occitan language I see as an open, liberal, generous, and free people. As such, they have had to be crushed with some regularity. The crushings may have made them a bit less open in recent centuries.

The language had little Germanic or Celtic influence, but was highly Romanized. What it was that was Romanized I don't know. I don't know if there was ever a significant Moorish influence. I am willing to be taught or informed by you. Discourse may take place in the 'comment' section below.

These days the southwest of France may be the place to find the most speakers of Occitan. It is similar to Catalan. A Spaniard tends to be a sort of conservative. Still liberal tending Occitan speakers tend to be more than tolerant of them.

There is a very enjoyable novel by George W. Cronyn entitled The Fool of Venus. That novel can inform one a bit about the manner of the the people who spoke this language in the Middle Ages. They welcomed troubadours. It may be because of them that we know the word 'troubadour. Love Courts were held there. "Make love not war."

Occitan languages have long been spoken in Italy, Spain, and Monaco. In France you may have heard it called Provencal. I believe that the language may be traced back from pre-Roman to pre-historic times.

The land of Languedoc has known Burgundians, Cathars, and Albigensi and may have provide garden space in which Gnosticism could flower.

Now, tell me, what might all this have to do with limestone caves beneath the ruggedly beautiful plateaus, deep river canyons, and jagged ridges of the scenic Department of Aude where the commune Rennes-le-chateau is found?

Hopewell System

Most tribal peoples of Canada and the United States don't speak of the Hopewell System, but from Chippewa and Ojibwa of the north to the Choctaw and Chickasaw of the south a feeling comes up. Its a feeling like, perhaps a stream of arterial blood or a stream of energy connecting them. There are Ojibwa who speak a language that can speak of that flow of wise energy. Its a language which caries more knowledge than many realize. Navajo, Cree, and Inuit speak powerful languages and they know the waters too. The Ojibwa have long known the water ways.


When a language dies much dies with it, but not all. There are other symbols and memories. When I was young perhaps 300,000 could speak the language known to the Ojibwa, now there are not that many. There are still those who can speak more than one sentence and those who can remember a whole chant without an error. The language has guardians and supporters.


These days the gene-pool of the Cherokee may be larger and spread more widely than the Ojibwa line. Who can tell the blood?


In a dream I have been told that we have a few drops of the blood of the sea-going Miigis, but that we ate the wrong turtle. I don't know what the dream means, suspect that it may speak of a lost power that is not completely lost.


My home is far from the great rivers and far from the Great Lakes, but I have heard of an island that has more than a hundred lakes on it! Many of those lakes have islands on them! I reminds me of something I saw on the paper on a can of milk. This same island may be largest island on fresh water. On that island, I hear, are those who ave some memory of thriving connections among many Indian people going back and back and far. They eat Haw berries and remember things. Some teach. They remember the old word for copper.


Some of the people who come to that island, I hear, know strange names like Anishiwaabe, Sheguiada, Shehewaning, and Miigis too. I may have been drunk in LA when someone told me.


If you know more please tell. If I have spoken a lie please tell me. I try to give my best understanding.

There are Old Stories

 There are stories that have been told and repeated for thousands  of years. I want a good story teller to tell them to me. I know bits and pieces of them. I just found some bits and pieces of those bits and pieces repeated in Wikipedia! I feel some validation. I sometimes feel that perhaps what I think I remember is inventive fantasy.


What I recall is often not a complete story, but a sort of broken out of joint thing. The following is what I remember of what wants to be a story. Even with a bit of help from Wikipedia, it is still not a complete story. Maybe one of you can help me mend it. 


Remember, my dates are, at best, my best guess of the day.


Some time between about 1500 BC and 1200 BC(we used to just say long long ago) a certain Amorite king of Bashan was called Og. His army was defeated and he was killed by the men of Moses. He came from  a race of giants. It is said that some of them were twice as high as an ordinary man and twice as wide too. A relative of our Og was also called Og. That Og was on the Ark with Noah and a help to him.


Our Og is mentioned in Jewish legends and in the Qur'an. Some say our Og lived 3000 years and is  the same one who helped Noah. Some men will believe anything; some will say anything to make a good story. Phoenicians knew him as a man of ancient times and use his name as a curse. If you did wrong Og would get you.


Our Og is said to have known the Scythian, the tower of Babel, and the Golan Heights.


It is said that his people of Bashan lived in walled towns in a rugged country. It is said that they lived in strong nicely made homes made of slabs of basalt like iron. In Wikipedia a Porter is quoted of having said in 1867, that he stayed in some of those houses and found them to be in good condition. He added that they my be the very oldest specimens of domestic architecture in the world.


In southern Ireland around Kerry, Cork, and Waterford(where lived Sheehan) and to a lesser extent in Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and even on the Devon/Cornwall order is a certain writing on stone. Only about 400 inscriptions have been counted and they contain mostly personal names. But other words have been translated; words that mean ring, salmon, war chariot, kindness, badger, raven,  short, peak, young woman, straw life, crab, hare, horse, rabbit, lobster, herring. They are said to be a bronze age language.  Some say the writing goes back only to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd century BC. Others say that the writing is much older than the inscription on stone. They say that it was customary to write it on wood long before that. They said that it was written on other materials as well, materials that included gold.


Very similar writing was use to write Old Irish and Primitive Irish.


Irish used this alphabet to write on wood and inscribe on iron as late as 700 AD. In 417 AD scholars from Europe and elsewhere were still coming to Ireland to read manuscripts in that writing. Not long after that Irish Missionaries were bringing their manuscripts to Rome.




From about 1150 through about 1550 the English did a good job of keeping the Irish from tilling their own land, of starving them, of killing their language. After 1550 the English really began to do a job of crushing the Irish ...for a time. The old way of writing was lost, Latin and 'English' was learned


The Old language had been used in literature and history. It had been used in hand and finger signals, and in code. It had power and was used for teaching.


"Sheehan" was written with those letters in that language. The speakers of that language may have named us Shee. They may have called us mound livers or 'sid'  It seems sid and Shee sounded more alike in those days. 


The letters were used to write many languages. The Druids knew them. The earliest Christians wrote Sacred Scripture using the alphabet.


Early Irish accounts say that the alphabet was devised shortly after the the fall of the Tower of Bablel. They may have called it Nimrod's Tower. The head deviser, it seems was the Scythian king Fenius Farsa. Farsa was the son of Baath, who was the son of Magog, who was the son of Japtha, who was the son of Noah. He came to the plain of Shinar with Goidel mac Etheoir, lar mac Nema, his own son Nel, and 72 wise men (nobles, scholars) to study the confused languages of Nimrod's Tower. The people had moved so it took ten years to create The Berl a tobaida and two other languages and a writing system was devised for them.


The writing system and the Beithe-luis-nuin was carried to Ireland.


Ogma mac Elathan and Lug mac Elathan, they may have been on and the same person, carried the writing in Ireland.


Ogma played the harp.


Mac Elthan named the letters of the writing after trees known to the Irish. The word for letters may have been 'nin.' There were originally 20 letters; later  five more were added. The five new letters were called 'feda' which may men trees.


The letters and the writing system may have been named after Ogma, a member of the Tuatha de Danaan. This Ogma may be related to the pre- and post-flood Ogias, at lest one of whom was on the Ark with Noah. His father was Elatha, one o those who developed languages and devised  the system of near Babel. Ogham was named after Ogma in Ireland, but it was Ogmas father who did the devising.


The sysem and the letters and the writing is called Ogham to this day.


Ogham was used to write a number of varied languages. Did the Irish have  a 'phonetic' language before the Phoenicians?

Navajo

Navajo, I'm just this old guy who thinks language is important who sometimes gives advice that nobody has asked for.

Learn your language. If you do, you will have a good chance of thinking better than anyone who speaks just  English. Did you ever meet an Indian who can speak Spanish?

Prayers may be worth more than you think. Prayers in Navajo may be worth more than that.

Have you ever heard of a guy who came back from war who had bad thinking and bad feelings? There is a Navajo cure for that that begins to work in 3 or 4 days. I don't know the ceremonies at all, but a good start might be The Enemy Way.

If you have a chance to practice Navajo, do it. Ask a couple of questions.

If someone wants to help you to understand better Navajo, let them. Try to make some time for it.

Find Out About Korea

One way I was told to find Out about Korea and Koreans was to get a Korean girlfriend. That way you may quickly find out about Korean mothers, fathers, brothers, grandfathers, aunts, dogs, language,customs, culture, religion, etc.

Getting to know something about basic Confucianism may be a calm and useful start for leaning about Korea.

Visiting South Korean cities like Seoul, Gyeongju, or Busan may be eyeopening. Also, in those cities it is not hard to to find helpful English speakers. In getting to know the beautiful Korean countryside, small towns and out of the way cities you may find tour operaters and guides helpful. Consider checking out a mountain and an island while there.

Checking out the two Koreas in Wikipedi is informative even for Koreans.

Travel books (I like to check out the cheaper used ones first) by outfits like Frommer, Moon, and Lonely Planet are often interesting and informative. You can find much at your local library and bookstores. Amazon.com is a great for books and videos. Take a look at The Two Koreas by Don Oberdorfer.

Maybe it is time for you to check out Korean restaurants in your area. Maybe there is a Korean shopping area not too far from you. Remember that there is no rule against striking-up a conversation with  Korean at these places. If a lady takes your eye, remember to find out a bit about her family relationships sooner rather than later.

As long as you are shopping check out the Hyundai and Kia dealerships. There are other Korean car companies you may find interesting; among them GM Daewou.

Old Irish

I suspect that 'fir-' is a prefix meaning 'men.'
Find it in the name of a people preceding the Milasians.

Meditation Related to Thoughtful Talk

Our Our language is natural to us. It activates meaning in each of us. We describe that meaning.

We know that context contributes to meaning. Context is our understanding of our experience. Meaning depends upon our interpretation of our experience. We can talk about context, meaning, experience.

Meaning moving in my mind is influenced by my experience and upon my interpretation of that experience. I am pleased to make some of m experience purposeful. My purposeful experience may include attempts, tries, conscious interpretations. I am othen aware of my doing. I may consider the nature of my doing.

We may tend to experience a "thing" as a kind of unchanging object when we know that it is really a snap-shot of a process in action. We consider how we understand a process.