Special Language
In several groups, shamans utilized a distinctly archaic version of the normal language interlaced with special metaphors and speech styles, for example "the shadow is ripening" (the shaman is returning from his spiritual journey during a seance). Expert shamans could speak whole sentences differing from vernacular speech. Also the shamans among Asiatic Eskimos had a special language, using periphrastic substitutions for names of objects and phenomena; they used it for conversation with the (spirits). These spirits were believed to have a special language with certain substitutes for ordinary words (“the one with a drum”: shaman, “that with tusks”: walrus). The Ungazighmiit (belonging to Siberian Yupiks) had a special allegoric usage of some expressions.
Observing Sorqaq shaman's seance in a community at Thule, Peter Freuchen explains the motivation in that case:
| “ | During their seances angakoks are not allowed to mention any objects or beings by their regular names, since it could bring disaster upon the ones mentioned. | ” |
In this case, the special language was understood by the whole community, not restricted to the shaman or a few “experts”.
In some groups such variants were used when speaking with spirits invoked by the shaman, and with unsocialised babies who grew into the human society through a special ritual performed by the mother. Some writers have treated both phenomena as a language for communication with "alien" beings (mothers sometimes used similar language in a socialization ritual, in which the newborn is regarded as a little "alien" - just like spirits or animal souls). The motif of a distinction between spirit and "real" human is also present in a tale of Ungazighmiit (subgroup of Siberian Yupik)
| “ | The oldest man asked the girl: "What, are you not a spirit?" The girl answered: "I am not a spirit. Probably, are you spirits?" The oldest man said: "We are not spirits, real human" | ” |
Another interesting example of the special shamanic usage, and its contribution to relexicalization:
| “ | Relexicalization is commonly found in cases where native terms were restricted in use, as in old shamanic terms, or became obsolète as a resuit of modernization or technological changes. Thus, in West Greenlandic, an old shamanic term agiaq 'rubbing stone' has become 'violin.' | ” |
Read more about this topic: Shamanism Among Eskimo Peoples
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or language:
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“It would seem as if the very language of our parlors would lose all its nerve and degenerate into palaver wholly, our lives pass at such remoteness from its symbols, and its metaphors and tropes are necessarily so far fetched.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)