Ignacy R. Danka, head of the Department of Classical Philology at L/ódz' University, Poland, also happens to be the co-founder of a neopagan club (not unlike a freemason lodge, established ca. 1954) called the Clan of Ausran. Most of the members are reportedly linguists and students (mainly from L/ódz' and Warsaw); they speak a conlangish imitation of Brugmannian PIE (called Ausran or "reconstructed Indo-European") to one another and worship a reconstructed pantheon of IE deities. They also compose religious hymns called <mentla:> (pl. of <mentlom>) in the Ausran language.
It isn't my way of doing linguistics, but I suppose it's fun to those concerned.
Here is one of Danka's mentla, translated into English (and partly into Latin, in deference to Victorian attitudes) by Krzysztof T. Witczak [_Studia Indogermanica Lodziensia_ II, 1999]. "Aryan" is a synonym of "Ausran" in this context. <ä> stands for *&; and the original Ausran spelling system makes use of the macron to indicate vowel length. Other conventions are self-evident, or so I hope.
**********
Mentlom obhi ek^womeidhei (M. XXIII)
Ek^wonä, deuke Medhu:nom ad Aryons, nes ek^womeidhom
Dhe:tum imes, welomes kWe potoi syeme yag^nesi tesmi,
Swa:dubhi esti teda: rabhtwom no:bhos medubhi sma.
Ya:likos e:st ek^womeidhos, ta:likos esseti edeyu:
En pi:sda:m re:g^putla:s seryesetor pesos ek^wi:,
Meidhopotis yo:ros, so pesesbhi yebhesyeti ek^wa:m.
Alyos markos smeitesetor, yos kaptwos bhu:syeti nr.bhos,
Tom tyegWnosyo ek^wi: memso: monowes dayesontai,
Kru:m medhupo:tlois po:sont, esti g^hi nu:n ek^womeidhos.
[Witczak's translation:]
A hymn on the Horse Feast (H. 23)
Horse-goddess, lead the Mead-god to the Aryans, [as now] we go to prepare
The Horse Feast and we, half drunk, want to be present during the sacrifices.
At the moment we will rage [be mad] because of sweet mead.
As the Horse Feast was formerly, so it will be today:
In cunnum regis filiae insertur penis equi,
Octobris equi sacerdos validus pene futuet equam.
Another horse will be let out to be caught by men [the Aryans],
They will then be dividing [and eating] the meat of the sacred horse,
They will be drinking its blood from their bowls for mead, as there is Horse Feast now.
**********
I hope no horses, mares or princesses were hurt during the actual feast.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
From: "P&G" <petegray@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Texts in PIE
> >We should naturally find only one version supplied,
> > simply because we only ever have one point of view. ... If the reader
> needs to be spoonfed ....> It depends
> > on the purpose of the opus
>
> Yes, I take your point. But I think there is an increasing degree of
> scholarship between saying:
> (A) "Here is this text in PIE" and
> (B) "Here is this text in PIE according to my reconstruction" and
> (C) "Here is this text in PIE according to my reconstruction, with a few
> notes about major alternatives."
>
> But in any case, I agree with you about the point of the exercise - and the
> fun of it.
>
> Peter
>
>
>
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