Rajan vs Raja

Jerry Friedman · 16 Apr 2009, 23:17 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:17:01 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Rajan vs Raja
In-Reply-To: <BD44F0F54FBB4BBFA8C3ACBD43CBD380@eMachinePC>
Message-ID: <253756.65343.qm at web50709.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

--- On Thu, 4/16/09, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
...

> >Well, I don't want you to back down,
> >I just don't remember a single instance of Raja
> >in the books.  Seems like if it was a valid conjugate,

Declension?

> >it would appear at least once.
> 
> I don't mind backing down about stuff I don't care
> much about. In Sanskrit 
> "Raja" is the nominative tense.

Case?

> Just because I'm technically accurate 
> doesn't mean I'm *textually* accurate. I didn't
> imagine it would make a 
> difference to anyone but me.

Apparently I was part of one of those Zeitgeist things that
caused people to have the same reaction all at once.
Strange.

Anyway, I'm impressed that you know about the vocative
case in Sanskrit, as I know nothing about Sanskrit.  But
"cald?" must be deliberately inaccurate Spanish for
"alcalde", maybe suggesting linguistic change over the
millennia, so "the Rajan" could easily be something
similar.  Or just that we can't possibly decline anything
in English--having a different form for "Kill the Rajan"
or "I gave the Rajan permission"--so Wolfe picked one.

Jerry Friedman

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