Thanks, NG!
Indeed, the chants often seemed like collections of random syllables to me, too. In fact, while I've taken some words from them that seemed to fit the patterns established elsewhere, there's still a lot I had to ignore. However, given the context they're placed in, I was able to make a few guesses. If I remember correctly "yavar ha" was from an Orb experience chant, and "ha" had one of the most certain meanings, "light" (In Voyager it told us "Ha'Dara" was "home of light", and seeing as "ha" is found in B'hala, city of light, and in B'hava'el, the sun, it seemed quite certain). "Yavar ha" seemed naturally to then mean the light of the orb, and as the orbs are known as the "tears" of the Prophets within the faith, I decided "yavar" was probably "tears". Surprisingly, though, even though some words like that are my guesswork, I found that a lot of the Bajoran language established on screen and in the novels did hang together in a way that allowed me to find clear patterns, even if it wasn't intentional. Even if it is simply coincidence, I was impressed how the established words seemed to fall into place. After having decided "B'" denoted sacred status, "Ja" seemed to signify a social element and "Arra" was about spiritual positioining and place, I was thrilled to realize that B'Ja'Arra would therefore mean something like "people in a position of holiness"! "Bajora" could therefore translate as something similar to "people of god". This was quite fun, and I'll probably add to it if later books establish other words.Oops, one I forgot, from the "Terok Nor" novels: "Ra-vu Rum'ta"- archaic, "Child of Night". "Ra" means time, so I'm guessing "Ra-vu" is "night".
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