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Re: USAGE: (Mis)Naming a Language

From:Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...>
Date:Thursday, October 28, 2004, 6:15
 --- David Peterson skrzypszy:

> So, my question: Has something similar happened to anyone else?
Well, the primary condition for it to happen has been fulfilled, because I dó have a conlang that shares its name with a natlang, albeit an ancient one, namely Hattic. However, the situation you described has not (yet) occurred to me.
> And, do you think I should change the name of the language? > Would you, in this situation?
When I started Hattic, I had never heard of the real Hattic either. It took me a while to discover it. But once I knew, I seriously considered changing the name as well. Not that I particularly wanted to: changing the name of a conlang is not a light thing to do, and I was both used and attached to the name "Hattic". Well, I brought it up here on Conlang, and after some discussion I decided to keep the name. The chief argument were the many examples *here* of completely unrelated natlangs with the same name. So, do I think you should change the name of "Kele"? Well, it seems you have already come to a decision, but for what it is worth: no, I don't think so. If you create a conlang with a name as short as this one, the odds are that another language or dialect may exist with the same name. In my opinion, that shouldn't be an argument against keeping it. It could be recommendable to make it very clear on the page of the language that it is a constructed language, having nothing in common with the natlang Kele; just a matter of courtesy.
> Also, what if someone created a language with a name like Teonaht, > not knowing that one already existed, and (with no disrespect to > this imaginary person) was far better?
I would probably just point it out to this person, and ask him/her politely to change the name or otherwise disambiguate (which in the case of two constructed languages is definitely easier than between two natlangs). If that doesn't work, well, there's always the option of hiring a killer... Jan ===== "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito." Relay 10: http://steen.free.fr/relay10/ Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com