T'amwè

Méníshè

Etymology

From t'a- +‎ bwè.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /tʼa˧mwe˩/

Noun

t'amwè (earth class, plural t'amwèyà)

1. tree ring
2. time, era, moment (in the sense of a period of time where something remains consistent)

   Sé t'akálà bà jùrìmé kat'énjì t'amwè.

   Perhaps it is time for some new leadership.

   -General Sharma (Motherland: Fort Salem, Episode 103)

   Audio (DJP)

   (file)

Related Terms

• ùrì

 

Creation and Usage Notes

One of the earlier notes David gave me when we started working on Méníshè was his idea that circles should play a big role conceptually and metaphorically in the language (I may be completely wrong in saying this, but I assume circles carry important connotations in most forms of witchcraft, where the circle is seen as the strongest shape or formation from which to perform magic). As we got to know the witches who speak Méníshè better (through reading scripts for the first season), we found out that they refer to their magic as Seeds. When we started talking about notions of time and how these witches may view the passing of time, we wanted to connect both circles and seeds, and we landed on the idea that they would view time as expanding outward in all directions, as if growing globe-like from a seed or point of origin. David had the genius idea to connect that expanding growth of time to tree rings, which led us to using t'amwè to refer physically to a tree ring and metaphorically to time. -Jessie Sams 12:26, 2 April 2020 (PDT)