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fait

Position 5 Hard Support
I have heard that Mongols actually type in Latin with only official, formal things written in Cyrillic, at least when it comes to internet things like comment sections and message boards, and probably forums. I'm sure it varies per person.
 

kastom_lif

Kava Lover
Уусарлай, би Монголоор мук яарьдар. All I know is stuff like sanbainuu, ger, tsai and borts.

Ever put borts IN your tsai? With some melted butter and salt, mmmm.
 

kastom_lif

Kava Lover
Here is a story from the island of Hiw, way up at the northernmost end of Vanuatu. It was told by Jimmy Tiwyoy and recorded by Alex François.

Here is the story of the mat from the Underworld – a true story.

It happened at a time when one of my ancestors, called Samuel, was alive.

Grandpa Samuel was one of my mother’s uncles.

During his life, Grandpa Samuel was a shaman.

He would travel to the Underworld, sometimes walking, sometimes floating.

The story takes place in the village of Grētaweghone, in the mountain.

People were living there, until one day, an old man passed away.

And as this old man had passed away, the men of the village were all sitting in the club house, drinking kava to mourn his death.

Meanwhile, the women were all gathered in the house of the dead man, to hold a vigil over his body.

So they were lamenting on and on, and at some point, my grandfather Samuel heard the voice of the old woman who had just lost her husband.

And as he heard her wail, he became overwhelmed with sorrow.

She was wailing, lamenting how much she was missing her husband; and how much he had always loved her.

Her husband had always be so kind to her, always so caring…

She was terribly upset to have lost him.

And in the midst of her lament, she would invoke the name of my grandfather Samuel:

“Old Samuel! You’re a man of power! If it is true that you can visit the Underworld, I urge you to take pity on my husband, please bring him back to life!”

But her husband had already breathed his last breath! Everyone was already mourning him.

At this moment, the men who were busy drinking kava heard the wails coming out of that house; and among the women’s laments, they heard the voice of that old woman –

she was asking Old Samuel to prove he was really a shaman who could travel to the Underworld, that he was truly a man of power; and she was begging him to try and recover the soul of her husband from the realm of the Dead.

And as he heard this, he told his companions in the club house: “Sorry, my friends, but I have to go.”

So he rose and walked out.

And he just kept going. He walked simply like this, with his wordly body.

When he reached down in the Underworld, everyone there was dancing to celebrate the newcomer who had just died.

The man was still lying in his house – except that this house was all brand new: the thatch roof, the rafters, the purlins, the bamboo wallings… everything was made of raw, green wood.

And so, the old man – or rather, his soul – was still there, lying inside the house.

The leader of the Dead was particularly mighty, as he mastered magic plants of great power.

This made it quite dangerous for Old Samuel to rescue that man’s soul from the Underworld.

The dance went on and on like this. At some point, the line of dancers veered back to the spot where they had started; and as they were dancing along, our man jumped in, a flower stuck in his hair.

As they kept dancing like this, he beckoned one of the ghosts.

So he beckoned him, and told him: “Can I be friends with you?”

“Yes of course,” the other replied, “How can I help you?"

“Well, I would like to retrieve my relative who’s lying in the house, that very same person whose arrival you’re all dancing to celebrate.

But then – it’s going to be quite difficult for me, because your leader is so powerful. It’s just impossible for me to succeed.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” replied the ghost.

“Our leader is indeed extremely powerful.

But that’s alright, I’ll show you what plants you need, so you can go back and prepare them.”

The ghost explained the plants to him, and he went back.

So he walked back to our World, here. He immediately looked for the plants he needed [to become invisible to ghosts], and rubbed them on to himself.

Then he stuck a hibiscus flower on his head, and set off again.

When he reached back the Underworld again, he realised how much easier it had now become for him.

He climbed on the house, and with his thumbs snapped one of the sago canes in the thatch structure.

He snapped one of those canes, and watched down. He saw the old man there, whose soul was lying on a mat.

As he beckoned him and called his name, the old man looked up. And as he held out his arm to invite him, he saw the old man’s soul rise in the air.

But just as he rose like this, his mat was rising with him!

The soul flew up like this, floated through the thatch leaves, and came to sit on the roof with Old Samuel. Then the two of them stepped on the mat, and set off to fly back to our World.

They flew all the way, till they reached above their home. Old Samuel knocked on the ridgepole, and everyone there startled.

At first, they were startled as they heard Samuel knock the roof. But their biggest shock was when they saw the old man, and realised his breath had come back to him!

Today, that type of mat is one which most people, especially most women, know how to weave.

Well, not everyone knows: some women actually do not know well how to make it – this is because we’re talking of a secret type of mat, one which was brought right from the Underworld.

Luckily for us, Old Samuel was able to explain everything: this is how the people around him were able to learn how this mat should be woven.

Nowadays, this mat is still in use, and it looks different from the more common type that’s called “the Banks Islands mat”.

The mat I’m talking about is one where the thick stems lie on both sides, while the part in the middle is flat.

This is all. Thank you.
 
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verticity

I'm interested in things
So.. speaking of the Cyrillic alphabet, I came across this neat Venn diagram a while ago showing which letters are used in various Slavic languages (and Mongolian..). I don't know any of the languages, but still find it fascinating. You might notice that this diagram has a shape that sort of looks like what you might see in an image from a colonoscopy, but rest assured that is only a coincidence because that sort of thing would go against the ground rules for this thread...

cyrillic.jpg
 

fait

Position 5 Hard Support
So.. speaking of the Cyrillic alphabet, I came across this neat Venn diagram a while ago showing which letters are used in various Slavic languages (and Mongolian..). I don't know any of the languages, but still find it fascinating. You might notice that this diagram has a shape that sort of looks like what you might see in an image from a colonoscopy, but rest assured that is only a coincidence because that sort of thing would go against the ground rules for this thread...

View attachment 10027
Quite a few non-Slavic languages use a bunch of letters that the Slavic ones don't use. Many Turkic languages, for example, use many of the letters Mongolian does, but a few represent different phonemes, so the letters aren't necessarily legible. It's fun comparing them all!
 

kastom_lif

Kava Lover
Quite a few non-Slavic languages use a bunch of letters that the Slavic ones don't use. Many Turkic languages, for example, use many of the letters Mongolian does, but a few represent different phonemes, so the letters aren't necessarily legible. It's fun comparing them all!
Hmm... if you include Tatar, Kazakh and Yakut, there's also ә, җ, ң, ү, һ, қ, ұ, ҕ, and ҥ.
 
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