[Glorantha] Re: Let's Speak Pelandan!

[Kevin P. McDonald]

Benedict wrote:
> Agraketa - basket:
> I suspect this is two ideograms: AgraKeta. Keta could be an inflection of Ket. If that is so, Ket might mean something like concentration or accumulation, later coming to mean town, city or tribe by extension.
I think this is a pretty cool idea.
>  
> Agra might mean something like produce or goods, so a basket is something that enables you to accumulate produce in one place.
>   
The Agraketae are the women's tribe, so perhaps Agra means "woman" and 
Keta means "container" so Agraketa would be She Who Contains, while the 
word Ket may simply imply that a city is a container for people.
> Anu - under
> We already have other ideograms meaning under: tuk, tarbus.
Humm... perhaps Anu is related to Asu, which apparently means "inside" 
or "within". Thus AnuDiDala might mean "Within the Earth"

> Baka - ?:
> My guess is this literally means 'small plant', but generally any kind of non woody plant.
Humm...
MaBakariSaro means the Sweet Blue Sea.
AronBaka is the goddess of vegetation (Aron means "tree")

This one really confuses me! Baka shouldn't mean "blue" or "sea" if it 
applies to AronBaka, so maybe it means "sweet" as in "pure"? So AronBaka 
would be Pure Tree? It sounds weak to me, but I don't have any other ideas.

> Da - child?
> I think it means 'and'. We have EthEloDaTanno, 'whose children are light and dark'.
I'll buy that. I can't remember why I said "child" now anyway!
> De - holder
> I guess that you choose this so dedaddi means 'stick holder'. We have dedaddi explained as "She who holds the the Council Staff". Dedi certainly means 'people' (DediZoraRu). My guess is that Dedi means 'crowd' or 'group of people', and that Deddi (council) is derived from it, with dedaddi being a contraction or inflection of Deddi-Addi: 
> Council Staff.
>   
I like this. I am not sure that it is true, but I like it.
> Deneg – torch? being?
> Eria is life , and DenegEria is 'Daughter of Life', so Deneg ought to be 
> 'daughter'.
>   
I agree - I even used it as Daughter in my glossary. Erski is torch, not 
Deneg.
> Der – going back, betrayal?
> Your suggestion takes Valare's explanation of DerMaElsor at face value. I speculate that Der means 'semblance' or 'similarity'. That fits with what DerMaElsor is, but also gives an explanation of Dero (but different from the provided one) as 'dissembling'. You seem to agree that Der in itself has some kind of negative connotation (we have DerMerth and 
> DerDromus).
>   
This is an interesting idea. I will have to give it some thought.
> Mu – fruit?
> I agree. And then 'muru' would be MuRu, 'our fruit', that is, 'our 
> offspring'.
>   
Makes sense. So SiMuruFerNa would really be Collective-Child-FerNa or 
The Children of FerNa.
> Sarta – chieftain?
> I guess that Sa is an inflection of Si (collective, family), so sarudaran is SaRuDaran, literally (of) clan (of) our father, meaning father-of-our-clan, and thus 'male ancestor'.
>   
Could be - where do you get Si as "collective" or "family"?
> Upelvi -Bounty of All?
> Vi means 'great', so this is probably UpelVi or UpElVi, perhaps meaning something like 'a great quantity of'.
>   
I'll buy that.
> Vog - movement
> We have VogMaradan as 'the apart/separate person', so I suggest Vog as apart or separate and Voga as separation or movement-apart.
>   
But the description of Vogserwesi (Movement-Taker/Nourisher) and 
Weskanvog (Food of Movement) seem to indicate that Vog = movement.
> Oria has similarities to Beseda ('plenty'), so Oria might mean something similar. Let us say it means something like bounty, or riches. What might Peloria mean? A possibility is that PelOria means the same as Dara Happa, 'Land of Riches', in which case Pel would mean 'land'.
Nice!
> If that was so, and KarAnda means 'hand(y)-painted', then PelAnda means 'painted land' or 'land of painters', which makes sense.
>   
Also nice!
> The explanation of Pelanda's name as coming from Daxdarius' city would then be wrong; in any case the city seems to be more commonly called Peldre rather than Pelandre. Perhaps the land gave the city its (second) name, rather than the other way around?
>   
Could be...
> I would suggest the Pelanda original is DaakDaran (incflected, perhaps, as DaakoDaran), literally 'father (of) strangers' but meaning Lord of Strangers: his imperial title rather than his personal name.
But he didn't become the lord of the Andams - he exterminated them. I 
would rather say that his army, a completely new idea at the time, is 
the source of the term. Indeed, Daxdarius is the "father" of the 
strangers that defended/conquered the cities of Pelanda. To most 
Pelandan citizens, Daxdarius' army were strangers - they were from 
another city and were strange and fearsome.
>  As Zora means corpse, Zera might mean killer and Zeridexus might be ZeraDaako, 'killer of strangers'.
>   
Makes sense. I wouldn't bother avoiding the -us/-ius suffix in names, 
though. There are plenty of people in the Entekosiad with that kind of 
name. Perhaps DaakDaran becomes Daakdarius when used as a personal name?

~Kevin McD