Actually, American English dictionaries list that, but only down around definition number 4 or 5. "Adherence to religious principles" is higher up on the list. The primary definition is "essential quality or character," of a person, thing, idea, or the cosmos itself.
Nice thread. Very informative. Looking forward to the next letter. How many letters are there in total?
Here's the Wikipedia article on the Devanagari abugida. Be sure and scroll down to the table of all 1,296 biconsonantal conjuncts. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
American English dictionaries not the ultimate gosple of languages. Dharma is simply not translateable into any alien language. Arabic salaahat comes quite near. How far do the religious meaning attach to it if I say: It is against my Dharma to kill unprovked that too in self defence. To undertake self defence is my dharma. Self defence extends to defence of the nation, king, village, family and self, in that order. Can you tell me where god, religious principles, a "higher being" etc. come into picture.
* * * * NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR RC: I received your complaint about "unscientific ranting." I'm having trouble determining what you were complaining about. The post that your report points to is very short and not at all provocative. I'm trying to trace back through the thread, and I'm not finding anything. Nirakar asked who translates "dharma" as "religion" in English usage. I'm not sure anyone has done that in this thread, but as I pointed out in my own response, that is not the meaning that is generally applied to the word in English. The primary definition of "religion" requires a god, and in my limited knowledge dharma does not involve gods. On the contrary, American English dictionaries are indeed the ultimate authority on the English language in America, which is the one we're using here. Very few words translate perfectly from one language to another, but that does not stop us from borrowing words. Taj Mahal is Farsi for "palace" (literally "crown place"), not Hindi or any other Indian language, but that's what the Indians call that building. We've adopted the word dharma into English and we're surely not using it 100% correctly, but nonetheless it has enriched our language. Note: To my knowledge, there is no rule on this website requiring all posts to be in English. People used to post in other languages but it hasn't been done in years. I once translated a Spanish post into English. I don't know who defined dharma as "religion," but apparently it wasn't anyone who is currently participating in this discussion. One of the secondary definitions of the word "dharma" in English is "adherence to principles, including religious principles," but that's a fairly oblique reference, and none of us is using it. I don't know whom you're arguing with, but it's not me.
My PM or whatever should have remain confidential. Period. You sure breached a protocol. Dharma does NOT translate to religion, but rather to a WAY OF LIFE, or a trait or a characteristics, a property, quality etc. I can give example for each. Whatever dictionary, if it translates Dharma to mean religion, HAS to WRONG. You can adopt it, but I cannot. Taj Mahal. Yes, a farsi word. But both taj and Mahal are very muck part of Hindi vocabury. In this respect we are quite flexible and open minded. So many words have been taken from other langusges. What is portugese for a bucket and potato? We use BALTI and ALOO. AND no. Mahal is used for a PALACE, in Farsi and Hindi. PS: What a lousy quote system when it can be improved. Unsceintific. vBulletin can do it too. How many symbols are needed to write a Language. Minimum TWO, and it is possible as Pingala about 300-400 showed while developing a mathematical system for poetry and music. But more the characyers, the better the clarity. So, phonetically, Devanagari is one of the best scripts. Of the 1296 combination I just cannot prounce about a score. What is your chance, Fraggle? NIL. PIE 2without intimate knowledge of prouncements. Oxymoron.
You did not send me a Private Message. You submitted a Report on a post by clicking on the REPORT button. Those are not confidential. I still don't understand what you were complaining about.
IMO, whole of PIE business is pseudosceince. It is clear by now that you do cannot pronounce Sanskrit words, nor do you know its grammar nor the intricacies. PIE is largely based on Sanskrit words transliterate into roman script, which anyway is inadequate for this, and divested from the sounds. Cardinal rule of Gangesh that a language [vocal] has existence independent of a script, but not the other way around. But if written in a script, the script must convey the sounds, with the help of proper rules of pronounciation. You need to spend time in a Sanskrit language lab.
This is a very nice thread. Well, it started out that way. I wish you'd continue it instead of arguing with Fraggle about another thread. Can't you two do that through PMs?
I avoid carrying on individual conversations with members. I haven't got the time and in any case I prefer to write for as wide an audience as possible. If something isn't appropriate for discussion on the forum then I generally don't bother with it.
Yes. But I lost the momentum. Takes time to organise a letter. 52 letters, excluding the compound sounds.
