{"id":24472,"date":"2020-05-07T07:22:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T14:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=24472"},"modified":"2020-05-07T07:22:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T14:22:36","slug":"invented-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=24472","title":{"rendered":"Invented Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel–it is, before all, to make you see.” –Joseph Conrad<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I wrote about Ida B. Wells’ intention and ability to make the world see<\/em> with her words, see the disgrace, the horrors, the inhumanity on one side, but also the innocence, the courage and the determination on the other. It brought to mind, don’t ask me why, the power of another unusual woman who tried to make the world see<\/em>, with new words, an entire new language in fact, focussed on the beauty and blessings of the world around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No clue, what propelled Hildegard von Bingen<\/a> (1098-1179) into my consciousness, other than perhaps a chain of associations to remarkable females, particularly those who lived in times where everything but everything was stacked against their ability to leave a mark. (Times that lasted – it took more than 800 years for the church to canonize her, in 2012, finally.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We generally know her as a 12th century Benedictine Abbess, a mystic, a composer, a scientist, poet, writer and artist, who had visions, most likely induced by severe migraines. We might remember that she founded two monasteries, in the Rhineland, a fertile part of Germany, and flew, for the most part, under the radar of Church authorities with her unorthodox teachings, since they simply took her not seriously as a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We don’ think of her as the tenth child in her family, brought into an isolated monastery as a gift to the church as an 8-year old, confined to a stone cell with a small window for most of her life, with one meager meal in winter, two in summer. Or as a crafty rebel. I remember a story in my childhood “Famous Women in History” primer that had her act more like an Enid Blyton heroine than a nun: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A man who had been excommunicated for involvement in revolutionary activity died, and she gave permission for his burial in the abbey cemetery. With the local bishop absent, the canons of the church demanded Hildegard exhume the body from consecrated ground. She refused, claiming she knew the man’s sins had been forgiven. So the canons authorized civil authorities to dig up the body. On the evening before their arrival, Hildegard, vested in her attire as abbess, went to the grave, blessed it, and then, with the help of her nuns, removed all the cemetery markers and stones, so the plot of the excommunicated man could not be identified. The irate canons placed the abbey under interdict; Mass, sacraments and the singing of the divine office were forbidden on its premises. Still, she would not yield. Church authorities finally lifted the interdict. <\/a>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had no clue that she invented an entire language, Lingua Ignota<\/em>, that was likely intended to make the holiness in all things visible, acknowledging how a higher power shapes our existence. The\u00a0Lingua Ignota<\/em>\u00a0can be found in\u00a0the Riesen Codex (Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, Hs. 2, ff 461v-464v<\/a>), also called the Giant or Chain Codex, a compilation of Hildegard\u2019s theological writings that were collected near Hildegard\u2019s death. The language consists of about 1000 words, introduced with but one sentence, who appear in the hierarchical order of her medieval world: God and angels, then humans, then animals, then plants etc. The words are entirely new, but shaped by German and Latin roots and pronunciations, though apparently having a sing-song feel, which, of course, ties into her extraordinary musical gifts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a sample:<\/p>\n\n\n\n