Arin-majlep

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Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Clive Ruggles, Youla Azkarrula


Marshall Islands

Arin-majlep (also Arin-mājlep or, altermatively, Aṛ in Mejleb) is an asterism formed of ε, ζ, and ω Aql recorded in the Marshall Islands in Micronesia (Johnson, Mahelona and Ruggles 2026:[1] 394)..

Concordance, Etymology, History

Variants

  • Arin-mājlep
  • Aṛ in Mejleb
  • Arin-majlep
Arin-majlep asterism in Stellarium

August Erdland was a German missionary and ethnographer who spent the years 1900-03 in the Marshall Islands, where he observed and documented cultural customs and mythology in great detail. As part of this work he recorded and identified 66 names of stars and asterisms. In his list he records Aṛ in Mejleb as an asterism formed of ε, ζ, and ω Aql (Erdland 1914:[2] 79 #35), Mejleb being Altair (ibid.: #34). In their Marshallese–English dictionary Abo et al. (2019)[3] identify the asterism as Arin-Mājlep and explain the name as meaning “image of Mājlep”, Mājlep, “big eye” being α, β and γ Aql.

Origin of Constellation

Mejleb highlighted in Erdland (1914).

Erdland (1914, 86) gives a list of asterisms. He says "Mejleb" is a name for Altair in Aquila which means "the big eye". The name "Ar In Mejleb" would then mean "the copy/ replica of the big eye" with a similar bad omen. The reference to the similar geometrical pattern in the sky seems to be suggestive. Yet he also gives an alternative "Oder sollte ar hier Lagunenstrand heißen?" means that the term "Ar" could also refer to the beach of a lagoon.

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

Mythology

mnemonic tales and cultural significance

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was discussed and adopted by the IAU WGSN in 202x. As this star is already named ..., the WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.

References

  1. Johnson, Rubellite K, John K. Mahelona and Clive Ruggles (2026). Nā Inoa Hōkū: Hawaiian and Pacific Star Names (3rd edition). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
  2. Erdland, P. August (1914). Die Marshall-Insulaner. Münster i.W.: Aschendorff (Biblioth.que-anthropos, 2(1)).
  3. Abo, Takaji, Byron W. Bender, Alfred Capelle, and Tony DeBrum (2019). Marshallese-English Online Dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. ling.lll.hawaii.edu/dicts/MOD/,