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When I went to my first SF convention, ConText '89(which was, of course, where I met Nicole for the first time), I remember an article on Charles de Lint in the program booklet. It was called "Waiting for the thunder". His newest book at the time was Svaha, a term which I recall being defined as "An Indian term for the period between lightning and thunder." The book itself was very atypical for de Lint, being science fiction, almost cyberpunk, with a Native American main character.
It occurred to me recently that "Svaha" doesn't sound very Amerindian to me. So I Googled it. I found some references to it in Sanskrit, which made me think, abashedly, "Oh, it must be the other 'Indian'." Except that most references to it that I can find define it as something more like "Amen". Well, first of all Svaha is the wife of Agni, and hence a fire goddess. One site says that it derives from "su"--"to move, go, press out, enliven, impel, generate" and "aha"--"to say, speak". I'll take that with a grain of salt, but I find no reference to lightning and thunder at all.
There is a "Svaha Productions" theatre company, who use de Lint's definition, but I can't find it supported anywhere else without direct reference to de Lint, so I suspect they've just copied his spurious one. For that matter, other sites just refer to it as "Native American", so maybe they're just confused. One site says that it is specifically Navajo.
Perhaps the two words are unrelated, from different languages, or(since all languages share a common ancestor)descend from only vaguely related terms("fire" and "lightning" could have a common root, for instance). Or perhaps Charles de Lint just made it up, as the "Native American Baby Names" site implies. A reference on "Google Answers" says that he claims he did get it from some NA language, but lost or discarded his notes. Uh-huh.
Shame on you, Charles. My respect for him, already teetering, slips another notch. "Svaha" turns out to be just as Native American as "Tonto".
It occurred to me recently that "Svaha" doesn't sound very Amerindian to me. So I Googled it. I found some references to it in Sanskrit, which made me think, abashedly, "Oh, it must be the other 'Indian'." Except that most references to it that I can find define it as something more like "Amen". Well, first of all Svaha is the wife of Agni, and hence a fire goddess. One site says that it derives from "su"--"to move, go, press out, enliven, impel, generate" and "aha"--"to say, speak". I'll take that with a grain of salt, but I find no reference to lightning and thunder at all.
There is a "Svaha Productions" theatre company, who use de Lint's definition, but I can't find it supported anywhere else without direct reference to de Lint, so I suspect they've just copied his spurious one. For that matter, other sites just refer to it as "Native American", so maybe they're just confused. One site says that it is specifically Navajo.
Perhaps the two words are unrelated, from different languages, or(since all languages share a common ancestor)descend from only vaguely related terms("fire" and "lightning" could have a common root, for instance). Or perhaps Charles de Lint just made it up, as the "Native American Baby Names" site implies. A reference on "Google Answers" says that he claims he did get it from some NA language, but lost or discarded his notes. Uh-huh.
Shame on you, Charles. My respect for him, already teetering, slips another notch. "Svaha" turns out to be just as Native American as "Tonto".
