Semantic Analysis

Several Santali terms in this Language Package carry a narrower, broader, or simply absent semantic range compared to their English source word, which affects how consistently they can be used across contexts — an especially significant concern given how many terms here are freshly constructed compounds rather than words with long-settled theological use.

Narrower-than-English terms

• pobitro horko (saints): English “saints” can informally suggest “especially holy people,” but pobitro horko must be used for all believers corporately (Romans 1:7), never for a specialist ritual class — a narrowing risk sharpened by the existing, recognized categories of Naeke (village priest) and Ojha (healer).
• balaw kana / balaw reyag kami (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 Santali rendering is context-sensitive and must be checked against which sense is active in each verse, and must be kept distinct from a person being ritually summoned by a bonga.

Broader-than-English or absent-range terms

• bachao (salvation): this word’s ordinary Santali range covers rescue or deliverance from ordinary danger; it has no pre-existing extension into eschatological salvation. Its range must be deliberately widened by explicit teaching in this curriculum rather than assumed to already carry doctrinal weight.
• Isor (God): as a loanword, Isor lacks the rich, pre-existing devotional and narrative associations that a native high-god term like Marang Buru would carry — an advantage for avoiding syncretism, but a disadvantage for immediate warmth and familiarity that this curriculum should compensate for with strong relational teaching (e.g. around apu, Father).

Implication

Where a Santali term’s semantic range differs from its English source, or is simply not yet extended to cover the needed doctrinal sense, the glossary’s notes field (see translation_memory.json) exists specifically to flag the mismatch for translators, so a term isn’t applied mechanically in a context its actual current Santali usage doesn’t yet support.