Japanese invocations, Gaelic/Hebrew endearments...

[tamtrible]

Two unrelated scenes [mumble] that may never see the light of day, so don't try too hard on this one, just if you happen to know... [/mumble].
Both are questions of both language and cultural detail. Not sure where/how to search, so pointing me at sites/search terms (in English, please...) would be if anything more useful than actual answers.

Comments

[spinshadow]

For the Japanese invocation questions:

To clarify, tengu were associated with Susano-o(-no-Mikoto) by descent rather than being his servants. A closer-to-meaning association would probably be with Kurura (the Japanese name for the Hindu Garuda) or possibly Sarutahiko. Earliest avian association was with black-eared kite, though now they're most commonly associated with crows and ravens. Of course, since we're talking about fluffbunny 'mages', the bit about associations can be happily ignored if you'd rather stick with Susano-o. Author's choice, as it were.

If you're interested in continuing the research yourself, try "Japanese (Buddhist/Shinto) chants" or onmyouji/onmyoudo. For a starting point on information about Japanese 'monsters', I'd recommend The Obakemono Project. Wikipedia has some good articles on Japanese mysticism and mythology to get you started on deeper research as well.

I'll have to look into those other guys.

[tamtrible]

Things are not set in stone... it's mostly that I want them, trying to be "bad boys" (they're a bunch of hopeless dorks) trying to invoke Bad Things, at least to the extent of their very limited understanding. And Susano-o is a deity of--ambiguous provenance, at least.

[gogoangelgunboy]

one of the most beautiful endearments i know of in hebrew is "neshomah" - roughly equivalent to "soul." and if your boy speaks romany..."bahkro" means "lamb" *smile*

[smellingbottle]

I'm assuming that this is a fantasy in which you have deleted the effects of English colonialism and the demise of the Irish language, which is now spoken as a first language by only a tiny percentage of Irish people? (It looks likely to decline still further, so the chances of it being spoken as a mothertongue by anyone at all 200 years in the future is minimal, unless this is a fantasy with very little relation to the reality of the present, or the likely future. This will also be necessary to solve the problem of a native Irish speaker, who is, by definition from an isolated, rural, traditionally Catholic part of the west of Ireland could be either 'flamingly gay' or a 'witch'.)

The Irish language is referred to as 'Irish', not 'Gaelic' in English, and as 'Gaeilge' in Irish.

'A ghra' (with an acute accent on the a of 'ghra') means 'my love'. 'Asthor' (with an acute accent on the 'o') means something equivalent to 'darling', and 'mo chroi' (with an acute accent on the 'i') means 'my heart', also used as a term of endearment.

[tamtrible]

I'm assuming that efforts were made to revive the language betwixt now and then; I'm also assuming Liam does not get along well with his family. I may have to at least make it not his first language, in light of this, but there's no way he *wouldn't* know it.
And it's entirely likely that Irish and English are... co-first languages (solved nicely by having, say, a grandma who primarily speaks Irish)

[smellingbottle]

Actually, I'd be thrilled to think there was the remote possibility of Irish-speaking gay astronauts in a couple of centuries.

[xnamkrad]

Well given there are more Irish speakers now than when I was in school (30 years ago) and even the BBC now produces Irish language programs, the language is not dead yet.

[mdyesowitch]

Your Orthodox Jew, if he's from an Orthodox family and his background is European will almost certainly know Yiddish as well

[tamtrible]

I'm thinking of making him from Israel. How does that skew things, as far as Yiddish, do ya know?

A few Yiddish endearments:

[mdyesowitch]

Bubbeleh -- little grandma = sweetie, darling
Mammaleh -- little mamma, sweetie, etc
Tattaleh -- little papa, sweetie, etc
Ketseleh, ketsenyu -- kitten, pussycat, sweetie, baby
Feigeleh -- little bird, sweetie, darling (has become a pejorative term for "homosexual" so has to be used now with awareness. But was very common term when I was growing up as an endearment for children

[dorianegray]

Irish endearments...off the top of my head, "mo chroí" (my heart), "a stór" (treasure - in the vocative case), "a ghrá" (love - in the vocative case).

Very rough pronunciations: "muh kree", "a store", "a graw".

[tamtrible]

er... by the way... vocative case?...

[dorianegray]

Some languages (Irish is one; Latin is another) have a vocative case which is used to signal the fact that a person or thing is being addressed. It's sometimes expressed poetically in English as "Oh [name of person or thing]".

The important part in this instance is to know that you would only use "a stór" or "a ghrá" when speaking to the person - not when speaking about them.

[dorianegray]

Which works perfectly with what I want, I'm looking for pet names for Liam to drop in conversation with his intended. Yay!