Sargaĺk Astronomical Beliefs and Terminology

The Sargaĺk have a few beliefs about the heavens that may seem peculiar to us; in part, these beliefs also have an impact on the vocabulary with which astronomical phenomena are described.

0. The Sky
The sky is a vault, made from the skin of a giant whale. Even though night and day sky are the same sky, they have different nouns:

c'ik'i - day sky, from *c'ı *k'ib, sun fairway
obŋ́k'i - night sky, from *obń, moon and *k'ib, fairway

1. The Sun,
The Sargaĺk believe in a succession of suns - the sun of today, yesterday and tomorrow are not the same suns. Suns are the eggs of a giant sea bird.
Thus, discussing weathers may use indefinite and demonstrative pronouns with regards to the sun of some day.

c'i - (a) sun

2. The Moon, Obń
The moon showcases some continuity in its behaviors - from day to day it waxes and wanes in a clearly predictable fashion, and its surface has several visible features. Therefore, the moon was known to be a single entity with a short cycle. However, it has several designations for its various phases.

Due to the difference in length of this moon's cycles and female menstrual cycles, no association between the moon and women in particular formed. However, it is used for timekeeping.

3. The Lesser Moon, O(b)sni, K'orpe
The second, smaller satellite of the world in which Sargaĺk is spoken also has a name. It is in a 2:1 resonance with the other moon, and its name in languages of the world often have some connection to that: words like 'halfling', 'little brother', 'slow star', 'double month', 'niner' (for the number of cycles wrt light it goes through per year)

Kor'pe is from k'orme (brother) + pe (diminutive)
Obsni is from Obn (moon) + sni (diminutive)

4. Stars, T'onəv
The complicated patterns visible in the stars convinced the Sargaĺk of the stars being the same from one night to the next. The word for a star is t'onəv, which goes back to a root with the same meaning.

5. Comets, Demkan
Peculiarly, the Sargaĺk do ascribe object permanence to comets - they essentially think there is but one of them. It is considered a star, and this is reflected in several of its names - imxas t'onəv - 'the smoky star', 'ot'amat t'onəv', 'wanderer star'. It is associated with duty. In the original pagan religion of the Sargaĺk, it is one of the eyes of the god Mexro, by which he supervises whether people fulfil their duties.

6. The rainbow, Mirmir
The rainbow is a road taken by good spirits and gods between this world and other worlds, and thus its appearance can be a blessing or a curse - a good spirit may be departing, or a good spirit may appear.  The root may be related to colour, mirəv.

7. Thunder, karbo
Thunder is considered an astronomical feature too. The Sargalk tribes consider it the most concrete reminder of the powers of the spirits. Many explanations for it exist - battles, divine blacksmith work, the cracking of failed sun eggs.

8. Auroras, Sanust'a
Auroras are roads taken by evil spirits and gods between this world and other worlds. Unlike the mirmir, however, auroras can be traversed by heroes and gods as well, making their badness less than the goodness of the mirmir.

9. Nebulas

A couple huge nebulas are visible in the sky. These dark spots are known as lokro, c.f lko, dark.