Good morning! Since yesterday was April Fools Day, I didn't want to write anything about Wenja. Here, in Kentucky, the land is beautiful. The leaves are green, the flowers are blooming, and the sun is bright! It's spring (yay!), and I'm happy that winter is finally over.
Today's word of the day is one requested by Assassin_Pan72 a few days back. What on earth is that lady saying when she bellows: Cha dijam su. Cha dijam suuuuuuu! You hear it in the village; you hear it out in Oros after completing an escort with a group of lost Wenjas. This is an expression that means "Here (the) earth / land (is) good." The word in question is dijam, the word for "earth" or "land". Note that this dijam su is different from dijamsu, which means 'in the land', as you can see below in Sayla's scene. (She's saying U Udam dijamsu "(Go) in Udam land".
And where does dijam come from? From PIE *dʰ(e)ǵʰom- 'earth'. This is word that is ALL OVER the place in the Indo-European languages. From Latin humus 'ground' (in-hum-ation), homo 'man' (homo sapiens, human), Greek khthon 'earth' (chthonic 'from the earth'), Hittite tekan 'earth', and believe it or not English bridegroom, a modified pronunciation of bride-goom, literally once 'bride-man'. If you're wondering how 'earth' became 'man', the latter originally meant 'earthling, the one from the earth (vs. gods)'. (No, this is not evidence that aliens colonized the Indo-Europeans) If you're curious, this word is also in Wenja: dishman 'human, earthling'.Tu sakwan prasti!
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