[Lexicog] A prototypical blessing

[Mali Translation]

Wayne,

One can see "blessing" as a benediction or benefaction, as
conveying God's beneficent power in word and deed.
So if Cheyenne does not have a word for blessing or the
act of blessing, does it not have a word for curse/malediction
either?

Fritz

> Wayne,
>
> Whether one is a believer or not, the word "blessing" is widely used.

I know. But Cheyenne is one of those languages which has no word for
blessing or the act of blessing and there are no formulaic blessings which
might simply not have a superordinate label.

> In English and French "to bless" can be used in the following way:
>
> 1) God blesses a human being

In Cheyenne we have used the term "to be good to someone" for this, but it
is a new usage and is only understood by Cheyennes as God being good to
someone, not necessarily as a blessing, although, of course, there is a
semantic relationship.

> 2) A human being blesses God

Humans would not do this in Cheyenne, except that they can "repeatedly say
God's name" which is a way of saying that someone is praising God.

> 3) A human being blesses another human being

Only done paralinguistically in Cheyenne, as far as I know, after 30 years
of vigorous lexical work.

>
> The second use is less common in modern Bible translations, where
> "to bless God" is replaced by "to praise God."

Right, as in Cheyenne

Wayne

> In the African
> languages in which I have worked I have never found that a human
> being can bless God (it does not work in German either) which
> corresponds to the prototypical meaning of "blessing", viz.
> "enrichment, empowerment". The inferior cannot bless the
> superior which is perfectly biblical.
> In arabicized African languages I often find the semitic root BRK
> (in the concept BARAKA) for a blessing coming from God (ultimately
> every blessing, spiritually or materially comes from God). For a
> blessing pronounced by a human being I often find DUBA or DUGAWU
> or another similar form transliterated from Arabic. This often
> means "prayer", too. So a human "blessing" is a prayer or wish that
> God may bless/enrich/empower another person.
> As in Hebrew the root BRK can be used for the three above-mentioned
> uses (maybe also in Arabic?), I wonder what the common thread for
> speakers of semitic languages is. But I am also interested what
> speakers of other languages perceive to be the central/prototypical
> meaning of a "blessing."
>
> Blessings,
>
> Fritz Goerling
>





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