Expressive power of language

Was teaching tamil to a friend and as I taught I realized a few things myself on how the language expressed some thoughts and philosophies of the region.

First thing I noticed was how philosophy that I am different from my body is being expressed (actually naina had brought this to my attention some time ago but I had forgotten). If someone's ill, the way that is conveyed in english is 'I am not well'. On the other hand, the way this is conveyed in Tamil is, 'udamabu seri illai'. This when literally translated means, 'My body is not well'. I think this so beautifully conveys the philosophy of the region that I am different from my body.

Another example is marriage between cousins. While in northern India, a guy marrying his dad's sisters' daughter or he marrying his mom's brothers' daughter is unimaginable (a couple of my friends freaked out on hearing me suggest this), it is quite accepted in southern India. This concept is also so beautifully captured by Tamil (by Kannada and Telugu too. I don't know about Malayalam in this aspect). In Tamil, one addresses one's dad's brother as 'periyappa' or 'chithappa' based on whether he is elder or younger to one's dad. This translates to 'big' dad and 'small' dad respectively. Similarly, one addresses one's mom's sister as 'periaymma' or 'chithi' based on whether she is elder or younger to one's mom. This automatically (the words have changed a bit for their original way for it to be obvious, but the etymology makes it quite obvious) means that, one's dad's brothers' daughter and one's mom's sisters' daughter are like one's own sisters. Whereas the word used to address one's dad's sister is not derived from the word for 'mom' and similarly the word used to address one's mom's brother is not derived from the word for 'dad'. Thus, the language expresses the culture rule of acceptable marriages amongst cousins quite nicely.

The last one is on money. A person having more than 1lakh but less than 1 crore is referred to as a 'latchathipathi'; which means owner of lakhs. On the other hand, a person having more than or equal to a crore is called 'koteeswaran'; meaning god of crores. This is really tough to interpret. One could be that a person having crores is next only to god. The other is that only god should have more than crores. The interpretation is probably quite subjective. But, with the advent of the modern 'greed based economy', the former is probably becoming the widely accepted notion.

PS: Update
Naina posted a comment on this post and I thought it would be better for the comment to be in the post itself. The following italicized text is courtesy naina.

hey maams, there are a few more since then:

1) when somebody dies, in tam we say "iyarkai yeithinaar" , what does this mean? that death is natural and happens to everyone (and hence 'iyarkai')? or that the dead person has now dissolved into the Brahman - nature? both ways its a pretty deep description. and in contrast, the english version "death" sounds pretty bland :p

2) when meeting guests or friends or even strangers, the practice of putting hands together like its done during worship and saying 'vanakkam'. meaning i pray to the sacred in you and see you as a manifestation of the same. while again, the 'modern' equivalent of shaking hands is a form of saying "i carry no arms".

3) the other day, i saw some narikuravars (nomadic tribe) on the bus and they were refering to everybody as "saami", including the conductor and fellow passengers. this usuage is quite common among many indigenous groups in the region and is ridiculed oftentimes in movies. but i wonder why these people call everybody 'god'.. is it an act of servility or humility? just got back myself from another tribal region a few hours ago, and there they were referring to everybody as "kannu". so sweet! :)