» Kerath's arch: concept art, Prima Guide

[jefftom]

a few letters on a draw of the arch
(Robert Grace, Prima Guide, Complete Chronicles, p. 242)



s.h.i.s i.s m.e h.ah.ch.dh w.r.j.t.t.e.n

for
this is me harshed written
or
this is me hacked written
or
this is me arch written
or
?

[K'laamas]

I think it actually reads (or at least was meant to be read) like this:

th-h-ih-s   ih-s   t-h-eh   h-ah-n-d   w-r-ih-t-t-eh-n
"This is the hand written"
Or basically:
"This is hand-written"

This is a horrible, horrible example of D'ninglish, on so many levels...
The text on that image was probably used as a place-holder for the concept art, & then they put it in the Prima Guide without realizing what the text said (presumably they didn't send it to RAWA for proof-reading ).

Incidentally, I believe the actual text on the Arch of Kerath in Uru itself is the same text on the Harbor near the Ferry Terminal, & in the 'Hoods (over the doors to the Classroom & the Egg/Seed Room):

"rebahntahno tenee-en shemtee"
"The [something] [verb?]s you (plural)"

A few thoughts:
1- "-tahn" turns a verb into a noun, but "bahn" is unknown, & that would make "o" some kind of new suffix...
2- "ahno" means water, but "bahnt" is unknown.
3- "ten" means "simple" & "nee" means new. Or "tenee" could be completely unrelated.

Being in several prominent places in D'ni, I'm assuming this phrase was a major D'ni motto of some kind, akin to "United We Stand", "E. Pluribus Unum", or "In God We Trust" in the United States. I wish we knew what it meant.

There's a thread about this around here somewhere...

[khrees]

Here is an archived thread of our discussion of the Kerath's Arch text from back in 2006:

Second look at 'rebahntano teneeen shemtee'

We covered a lot of ground but came to no definite conclusions.

Shorah,
Khrees