Quantum redactiones paginae "Disputatio:Rangi" differant

Why is this page called Langi - Rangi is the Māori sky god - in other Polynesian languages, Langi probably just means sky. You should be careful not to attribute as 'Polynesian' what belongs to a small subset of Polynesian cultures. Polynesia is diverse, not uniform. [[Usor:Kahuroa|Kahuroa]] 09:37, 29 Maii 2008 (UTC)

:I suggested calling it ''Langi'' in speculation that ''Langi'' will prove the best ultimate Latin spelling. If the god in question stems from Proto-Polynesian times, the reconstructed spelling in Proto-Polynesian would be ''*Langi'' (or, in various typographies, ''*Laŋi'' and ''*La9i''), not the Aotearoa variant (''Rangi''), or the Tahitian one (''Laʻi''), or the Samoan one (''-lagi''). For now, let's call it [[Rangi]] if you like; and we'll see where investigation leads, when time becomes available. Thanks for the information! ¶ Similarly with [[Papa (mythologia)|Papa]]. ¶ The notion that the universe was an earth-mother embraced by a sky-father, whom their offspring separated, is so widespread it may well go back several thousand years, long before Proto-Polynesians had migrated beyond Samoa and differentiated into the currently known Polynesians. Kirtley's index cites motif #A625—"World parents: sky-father and earth-mother as parents of the universe"—as having been attested most clearly from East Polynesia: the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, the Society Islands, the Cook Islands, Tongareva, Niue, the Chatham Islands, and New Zealand. To these, his motif #A625.2—"Raising of the sky. Originally the sky is near the earth (usually because of the conjunction of the sky-father and earth-mother)"—adds additional attestations from East Polynesia (Mangareva & Hawaiʻi) and fresh attestations from West Polynesia: Tonga, Samoa, Nauru, ʻUvea, Ellice Islands, Tikopia, Bellona, Rennell, Ontong Java, and Nukumanu. In all, that's ''practically everywhere'' in Polynesia—a distribution that implies great cultural depth for this bit of cosmology. ¶ ''Langi'' is of course the PPN term for 'caelum', so its indigenous interpretation as ''deus caeli'' is perfectly natural & obvious. The ancient Romans did something similar: they had a god, [[:en:Caelus|Caelus]], which accommodated in his person the functions of the sky. In Samoa, the concept survives in this connection as part of the compound noun ''Tagaloa'''lagi''''' (recte ''Tagaloā'''lagi''''' vel ''Tagaloa-a-'''lagi'''''), referring to Tagaloa—the Proto-Polynesian *Tangaloa—in his aspect as creator of the world, apparently combining in one form the primordial attributes taken separately in Aotearoa as Rangi and his son Tangaroa. ¶ In the Cook Islands, the creation involved several agents, including a sky-father, Vatea, an earth-mother, [[Papa (mythologia)|Papa]], and their children Tangaroa & Rongo (Gill 1876:1-109)—names familiar from all over East Polynesia. Samoa has a myth in which Tagaloa-a-lagi brings forth life from [[Papa (mythologia)|Papa]] by striking it, and a myth in which the genealogy of trees goes back to a primal boy, named '''Papa'''-ʻele, and a primal girl, named '''Papa'''-sosolo. One sees how, in ''Tagaloa-a-lagi'' and these other forms, the functional aspect of each figure gets added to the basic noun as a suffixed noun-phrase—a process seen in Aotearoa in ''Tu-te-wehiwehi'' & ''Tu-te-wanawana'' and in Hawaiʻi in (the "same" fundamental deity, PPN or PEP ''*Tū''?) ''Ku-aliʻi,'' ''Ku-kona,'' ''Ku-nui-akea'' and so on. These concepts and their names are exceedingly slippery! Dixon may have clarified all this long ago, but I don't have his book at hand. ¶ In view of the foregoing considerations, the current definition—"'''Papa''' in [[mythologia]] Maoriana est terra et prima mater"—though it's true so far as it goes, looks too particular & restricted to give the ''whole'' truth of the matter. [[Usor:IacobusAmor|IacobusAmor]] 12:33, 29 Maii 2008 (UTC)