Saell Haukur!

--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, Haukur Thorgeirsson
<haukurth@...> wrote:
> > Hmmm. I am not aware of any direct equivalent to 'juga' in
Germanic languages. Certainly, 'yoga'(long O) becomes Proto-Norse
*yuka and Norse 'ok'(-it, a dyri) by the G-to-K rule (Indic to
Germanic), but 'yuga' means something very different.

> From a purely phonological standpoint I would expect an Old Norse
relative of 'yuga' to be 'uk' or 'ok' and an Old Norse relative
of 'yoga' to be 'auk' or 'jók'. Those would represent two or three
different grades of the same root.
>
> Indo-European u eu ou éu óu
> Sanskrit u o o au au
> Germanic u eu au eu au
> Old Norse u jú au jú au

Yes, this would seem to make sense phonologically, but somehow we got
stuck with forms like Norse 'ok' (*juka) and Modern English 'yoke' (I
do not have my Old English dictionary with me, as I am far from home
on a remote computor). I would like to find out what grade the vowel
in Sanskrit 'yoga' is relative to other Indic forms from this same
stem and then compare it to Germanic languages. Until the local net-
service is restored, I will have to start carry reference books in my
car to help answer these kinds of questions.

> My etymological dictionary again suggests a link between Old
Norse 'ok' and sanskrit 'yuga'.

Interesting. Does the dictionary mention anything regarding the very
divergent meanings of 'juga' and 'ok'? Phonologically, I would also
expect some relationship here, however obscure. 'yoga' is complicated
to translate in the extreme. While it translates literally in English
as 'yoking', the term actually refers to the practice of separate but
related types of 'yoga' (such as karmayoga, bhaktiyoga, jnanayoga,
rajayoga), any of which practiced in isolation, or in conjuction with
one or more other 'yogas', can lead to union with the Supreme Being
IF the 'yogi' has a pure undefiled heart and NO other objective but
to know and to love the Supreme Being, who can NOT be known by those
with purely worldly motives of personal gain. This, in a nutshell, is
what most reputable beginners' handbooks in Hinduism (Aryan Dharma)
have to say about 'yoga'. Needless to say, translating these concepts
into a language like Old Norse would not be easy. European languages
are really 'Judeo-European' at this point, not 'Indo-European' - the
'Indo-' element was for the most part lost with the acceptance of a
modified form of Judaism as the religion of Europe. All of life, from
birth to death (and the afterworld), are defined according to the voc-
abulary and concepts of Judaism (which does, however, show some very
srong influences from Zoroastrianism, a branch of the Aryan faith).
This being the case, western European languages have little or no voc-
abulary to express the concepts native to Aryan religion (or Chinese
religion, for that matter). In order to translate an Indic Scripture
into a language like Old Norse, we would undoubtedly have to invent
at least as much 'new' vocabulary as the Judeo-Christian Norse did to
express Hebraic concepts. To start with, I would probably translate
the word 'yoga' as 'oking' (a feminine) to distinguish it from the
etymologically related 'ok'. This accomplishes two important ends: 1)
it suggests a connection with 'ok' 2) it creates an equivalent con-
cept noun for Norse. 'karmayoga' (the 'yoga' of 'yoking' to the Sup-
reme Being through 'righteous' action) could maybe be translated by
something like 'gervi-oking/gjorvi-oking'. The 'Supreme Being" is a
concept which already exists in the native Norse belief and has from
the time the Indo-Europeans first arrived from the east - it is thus
easily translated as '(h)inn almattki ass' or '(h)inn riki'.
Sanskrit 'rtm' and Avestic 'asha', which is the central conception of
all Aryan religion - being the One Eternal Law, both moral and physi-
cal, according to which all things 'turn' (vikja - compare the
Indic 'rtvij' - one who turn things according to the Law), already
exists in Norse as 'veskop' (see also 'Urdr'). More about this later.
Best wishes to all.

Regards,
Konrad.
In any case my attempt at humour was to translate
> 'satya-yuga' as "it sanna ok" - which of course doesn't make any
sense :-)
>
> Kveðja,
> Haukur