[Aztlan] Translation of honesty

[David Hixson]

Alright, I'm not embarrassed to say that I did a
translation for the Showtime (later Sci-Fi) channel
program "Stargate SG-1".  And I needed to translate
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Wow, talk about a mouth full of idioms.

Not only is "friend" not directly translated into
Maya, but neither is "enemy" (and both are now Spanish
terms in modern Maya).

But Hube's observation is very correct.  The lack of a
one-to-one translation does not mean that the language
did not have the concept of "friend" nor "enemy". 
They are simply (in my opinion) a more poetic concept
in Mayan, built of other words that together create
the concepts of friends and enemies.  Just as
"straight" can mean "honest" or "true".  The Mayan
languages were very poetic with their idiomatic
expressions.  It really is a beautiful language family
to explore in this respect.

-Dave
--- Hube Smith <husmith at charter.net> wrote:

> I think the "honesty" discussion began with some
> inquiry regarding the Maya 
> word
> 
> for "honesty" being somewhat elusive. Am I being
> snarky by recalling the 
> discussions about
> 
> Maya "having no word for 'friend'"?
> 
> 
> The Cordemex has 9 listing for "amigo" and I
> recognize (I think) the 
> elements my
> 
> compadre told me meant "friend"  -- "ing yet tal"
> (?) or "my with-comer."
> 
> 
> It is a curious thing but not unknown among people
> who study other 
> societies. That is,
> 
> a tendency to propose distance from good, old
> Judeo-Christian concepts, 
> often without
> 
> casue or without proposing reasons for those
> purported "distances."
> 
> 
> I think it safe to propose that the modern Maya have
> friends, are as honest 
> as most, are
> 
> not overly-cruel to dumb animals, and don't
> generally beat their wives when 
> the bath water is cold.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Hixson" <aztlandave at yahoo.com>
> To: "Aztlan" <Aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
> Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 9:06 AM
> Subject: Re: [Aztlan] Translation of honesty
> 
> 
> > --- Hube Smith <husmith at charter.net> wrote:
> >> The Cordemex has "Honestidad" as:
> >>
> >> sah -- (I don't see anything but "fear" in the
> entry
> >> itself.)
> >> sahlemil --  (Seems to be a good one.)
> >
> > Considering that my dictionaries also provide "Zac
> > Lemil" as Honesty, while Hube found "sahlemil" in
> his
> > search, I looked up this term in the Cordemex, and
> it
> > seems to mean "very white" (which may again be an
> > idiomatic expression for "very pure" -- aka
> honesty).
> > Zac (Sak) and Sah are variations on the same root.
> > However, this is my own reading of the
> composition,
> > not one offered verbatim in any dictionary.
> >
> > -Dave
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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> 
> 
> 



       
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