Liturgical Language Puns

When practicing your religion, is speaking in another language a part of it? If so, which language do you use?

Avestan is the liturgical language of the Zoroastrian religion and is classed as an Eastern Iranian language. Was Avestan a commonly spoken language amongst Eastern Iranians of that time? If Zoroastrianism was such a widely practiced religion in the area, why did Avestan cease to be a spoken language?

Do we know of any Iranian languages that descend form Avestan?

Do Maronites most commonly celebrate the liturgy in Aramaic or Arabic? If not in vernacular.

It says on the wiki page for it that it was based on Slavic dialects in Greece, specifically around Thessaloniki, which today would be mostly Bulgarian dialects.

Is Bulgarian then a descendant of OCS? I don't really know much about the languages here, I'm just curious if OCS has any descendants/whether if it even was a spoken language that could have descendants.

After thinking for approximately 1 minute I realized that Spaghetti is Italian therefore the Flying Spaghetti Monster must have created everyone as Italians before we were corrupted...

I realize the question sounds odd, so to clarify: For the purpose of this question, "liturgical language" is defined as a language through which religious services are traditionally conducted, which is not the vernacular language of the communities in which the religion is most commonly practiced. Whether the lay people commonly understand it is not relevant, what makes it a "liturgical language" is that it is not in common vernacular use outside religious contexts, and may be culturally connected to the religion.

Example: Until about the 1970s, Roman Catholics conducted services in Latin, even though most of the laity did not understand it. This still occurs in traditionalist Catholic groups and some schismatic sects.

A potential example - doesn't fit exactly what I mean, but fits my technical definition: Some high church Anglicans will use "archaic language" in liturgy, this being Early Modern English circa 1660s when the oldest Anglican liturgies still in common use were written, and while archaic, this is usually understood.

I am wondering if this sort of thing is known to happen in Protestant churches? I am aware of this in Eastern Orthodox churches and other religions, but I would like to know if it exists in post-Reformation Christianity.

I know they used Greek in the New Testament but that's because it's aimed at a Greek-speaking audience. Any evidence Jesus spoke Hebrew or was it a dead language when he was around?

So I've been told that latin is a more... "spiritually powerful" language because of its liturgical use by the church, and similar to old Greek or Slavonic in the eastern churches.

This makes sense to me, but what about when latin was first being used. Prior to growth of the church, latin was not the normal tongue, it would have been Greek or Aramaic.

So... Did latin become powerful overtime due to church use (thus could English become powerful through its similar use by the American church) or was Latin made powerful immediately upon church endorsement (thus if the American church somehow became a Sui iuris with English as the official language, would English be on par with Latin due to church endorsement)?

Title says it all. I often see people call Latin, Coptic, and at one point, Hebrew dead languages but just by the sheer fact that people use them to communicate, shouldn’t they be (considered) alive?

I'm specifically curious if there were any Dharmic (Buddhist, Hindu, etc.) religious movements along the Silk Road that may have used Arabic as the primary language to disseminate information to adherents.

This seems especially odd considering there was still a living, breathing Roman Empire that spoke Greek in the East. But rather than adopting Greek, many Eastern Orthodox countries ended up using Slavonic or some other local language. Why did Latin enjoy so much more universal adoption?

For the last few decades, the Catholic Church has had an issue as to whether the liturgy ought to be said in Latin as it was for several centuries, or in the vernacular.

To my understanding, the Orthodox Church is much more divided in that the Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the vernacular. Was there ever an issue as it spread beyond the Ancient Near East to switch from Greek to other languages?

I know that modern Greek is obviously derived from the ancient form used in liturgical texts, and Russian is derived from Slavonic, but how closely are they related? Can a modern day Russian or Greek understand what is said in church? Is it more analogous to modern English vs. King James English, or modern English and Latin?

Hi, new kid on the block here. This question mostly relates to Hebrew(my applied language here) but I'd presume Arabic speaking Muslims and Sanskrit speaking Hindus and all the other groups similar in style probably have this same issue if they're bilingual:

I've noticed that unless I focus on active comprehension, I will just read through and have a very light, if any, comprehension of what I've just read.

In the context of prayer, that would mean saying the words and knowing the general meaning of each phrase. But, to go word by word/idea by idea would take focus.

How does one passively translate as one reads, similar to native reading??

Hullo! Saavantinn here!

I notice that a really cool theme here is the notion that the teams or gangs are actually more akin to cults, each dedicated, body and soul, to their chosen piece of rock, and each with their own style and culture. I think this is awesome, because it offers us an opportunity to really flesh out this world we're building. What's the history of these cults? How did they begin? How do they relate to each other. I know the stories of the gods themselves are well trod paths, but I'm talking about these cults themselves, and people that comprise them, and their history. And one of the most interesting ways of adding a lot of depth to a setting is to give it an old language, that all of their stories and names and scriptures and legends are written in. I'm a huge fan of the mock-Egyptian works of /u/Aeuma and /u/whoaconstrictor, as well as all the various works written in Unown characters, because they feel like they're hiding some part of a great, high mythos, sprawling back through the ages, that one must sit down and really work at to tease out the treasures within.

I would like to bring a touch of that to this game, if you'll have me. I am passionate about languages, and I have a few years of experience as a conlanger. What I'm imagining is a language that appears only in the background, as almost a side quest; appearing written as Unown on walls etc that can be translated from scraps of paper that the various team members drop. Once translated, they present the history of the gods, stories, riddles, or instructions to unlock new items/gift pokemon/(the fossil items?) or something like that. I don't want it to be at the forefront, right in one's face. I want it to be something extra, something that the player is free to explore or ignore at their leisure. Choose your own level of immersion, so to speak.

If I was feeling particularly motivated, and managed to scrounge up more time than I will ever have, I might even consider doing three closely related languages, one for each religion, and with features pertaining to each; e.g. strict word order and completely regular verbs, for the simplicity and stability of Dommite; free word order, consonant mutations, much dynamism and irregularity for Helician, and an ancient-sounding Amberic, from which the two younger languages/religions are directly descended from a la French and Italian from Latin

Thoughts?

Would this have reduced tensions with the Orthodox Church? Promoted learning following the fall of the Western Empire?

Or would it have created a larger disconnect between the clergy and Romance-speaking populations?

i am a bit puzzled here...

i have very very very old lebanese ancestry with lots of phoenicians in it lol (from my true ancestry, my haplogroup etc)..... and I am white as an european. I know dna changes but...

is it possible that they were more white than lebanese of present day because of hybridation with saudia arabia, ethiopa etc?

or on the contrary were they black like some black african people say?

I had this doubt for a while, so I speak Spanish but I try to pray in English every time that I can, the thing is, I feel more like being reciting without analyzing what I say, more than understanding the prayer (specially with the Hail Mary and the Jesus' prayer) I have mi BCP in english because all the spanish editions are really expensive, should I translate it to Spanish?

Good afternoon/morning all, God bless you.

I am considering visiting a mass at a Melkite Greek Catholic Church in London out of curiosity, if they will let me (depending on COVID regulations). I am quite happy in the Roman Rite, however I am curious about what other Catholic masses look like. I am particularly curious about the Byzantine Rite but there aren't any of those parishes in the U.K, as far as the internet suggests, the Melkite Church is the closest I can find. If I can go, I will probably sit at the back and not take communion in order to avoid too much disruption as I am unclear on whether or not I can receive communion at those churches.

I have a question about the Rite itself. I am reading the description of the rite and it says that it is the "Byzantine Rite in Arabic", why is the Byzantine Rite delivered in Arabic and not in some variant of Greek?

Thank you for your help and may you have a wonderful and spiritually fulfilling Christmas and New Year period.

Hello,

I’m not entirely sure why I’m posting this but any advice or resources or thoughts would be appreciated.

I’m American and grew up in a Pentecostal church, my family moved to a more mainstream evangelical mega church-type congregation when I was in high school. I attended a Christian liberal arts college and and minored in Bible and Theology. The majority of the students and professors were your typical evangelicals, but there were definitely some other flavors mixed in and the culture was intentionally welcoming to Christians of all denominations. Although I had a pretty good familiarity with the Bible from growing up in church, I learned so much about theology and exegesis and church history and loved it. I also loved the author Rachel Held Evans and related to her books so much, when she started going to an Episcopal church it made me want to try it. I had started feeling really dissatisfied and disappointed in the church my parents went to, so I finally attended an Episcopal church for the first time in January 2017. I really liked it and decided to stick with it. I’ve moved a couple of times since then, been confirmed, and now consistently attend a church that I really love and have been there since the summer of 2019, though I dropped off for a while when everything was online.

Still, part of me still feels like I’ll always be an outsider. Like I keep waiting for someone to explain things to me and for everything to make sense. It’s hard for me to even ask questions because sometimes I feel like I don’t even know what I don’t know. I just want to understand more about why we do certain things we do. For example, no one has ever explained to me why we cross ourselves. I do it all the time. It feels good and I like doing it. In my head I just decided it’s a symbol to say thank you for a blessing. But I don’t really know. When I went through confirmation classes I learned plenty about church history and the core teachings and commitments of the church, but not all these little things that everyone around me seems to just know.

My priest is a very good teacher and I am always learning and picking up new things every week. I realized just this week that the pink advent candle is the 3rd Sunday and not the 4th, which I had always assumed, and why that is. I think I am just reaching a place where I feel frustrated and the more I learn the more it seems there is to learn. I’m coming up on 5 years since my first service, and that feels like a l

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Kathmin stared at the data slate, a sense of dread descending over him. He’d hypothesized these creatures had, at one time, inhabited the galaxy, but from the anecdotes and stories he’d gathered during his research, he just assumed they had to be extinct. No creature that predatory and warlike could still exist. Forming a cohesive society would be impossible. Even if the ancient stories were discounted for hyperbole and effect, no civilized culture could withstand the stressors that level of sustained love of violence would create. In some old tales, if they weren’t fighting the gods, they fought each other.

Kathmin looked up. “Is this a joke, Rhubul,” he asked? “Cause it’s not funny.”

Rhubul sighed, “It’s no joke, Kathmin. They call themselves, Humans.”

Kathmin shuddered, “If only half of what I know about these creatures is true, even our fanged friend’s people here will pose them no threat. The Dursk would be like children before an angry god.”

Rhubul, suddenly looking older, replied, “Kathmin, they are real, they are here, and if anything, your stories fall short of reality. Zhiela, perhaps you’d like to be the one to tell him what happened when the Human vessel translated into Roade?”

Zhiela turned serious, “As I said, the ship disappeared from the scopes of our research station and, in almost the exact moment, appeared on our screens near the star in Roade…

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Commander Rigel was socializing with his captains in the officer’s lounge, on the Vigilant, following their weekly dinner. He found these times valuable in fomenting cooperation and competition among his direct reports. The weekly opportunity to showcase their accomplishments and hear about their fellow captains’ work pushed them all to be more efficient and effective with their crews and vessels. He glanced at the viewscreen, displaying a sweeping panorama looking off the bow of the ship. The Vigilant was a cruiser, class 2, and she was his. She was beautifully designed with point defense and beam placements at strategic locations all around. He’d earned his honors in numerous border skirmishes on the Outer Rim. While the Dursk hadn’t fought a war of conquest since the GU Campaigns 500 years ago ground them to a standst