Semantic Analysis

Several Kannada terms in this Language Package carry a narrower or broader semantic range than their English source word, which affects how consistently they can be used across contexts.

Narrower-than-English terms

• ಪವಿತ್ರ ಜನರು (saints): English “saints” can informally mean “especially holy people,” but ಪವಿತ್ರ ಜನರು must be used for all believers corporately (Romans 1:7), never for an ascetic or literary elite — that narrower, elevated sense belongs specifically to ಶರಣರು, the title of the 12th-century Veerashaiva Sharana poet-saints, and is explicitly rejected for this use.
• ಕರೆಯಲ್ಪಟ್ಟ / ಕರೆ (called/calling): the same English word “called” covers at least three distinct senses in Romans (called to apostleship in 1:1, called to be saints in 1:7, and effectual calling to salvation in 8:28–30). The Kannada rendering is context-sensitive and must be checked against which sense is active in each verse, not applied uniformly.

Broader-than-English terms

• ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯ (power): used consistently for “power of God” (Romans 1:16) specifically to avoid ಶಕ್ತಿ, which has a much broader field in Karnataka tied to the Shakta/mother-goddess devotional tradition (Chamundeshwari at Mysore). ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯ is semantically narrower and safer, even though it is slightly less common in casual speech.
• ನಂಬಿಕೆ (faith): covers both “belief” and “trust” in Kannada, which is actually an advantage here — Romans uses “faith” to mean active, personal trust in Christ, not mere intellectual assent, and ನಂಬಿಕೆ’s broader range captures both without needing two separate words.

A term whose destination, not meaning, is the risk

• ರಕ್ಷಣೆ (salvation): unlike a term with a simply “wrong” competing sense, ರಕ್ಷಣೆ’s risk is structural: a Lingayat-background reader may accept the word’s meaning (deliverance/protection) readily, while still mentally routing the doctrine toward the shatsthala path’s Aikya destination rather than the ongoing personal relationship this curriculum teaches. The glossary note for this term exists specifically to flag that risk to translators, since it will not surface from the word’s dictionary meaning alone.

Implication

Where a Kannada term’s semantic range differs from its English source — or, distinctively in this Language Package, where a term is correct in meaning but still at risk of being routed toward an incompatible theological destination — the glossary’s notes field (see translation_memory.json) exists specifically to flag the mismatch for translators.