Re: Back!

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Herman Miller wrote:

> Not much directly related to conlanging, but I've been working on star
> maps, figuring out where the people who speak my languages actually live.
> Olaeyat remains in the Gamma Pavonis system. Azzyat, an Olaetyan colony,
> moved from Chi Draconis to Zeta Tucanae, and Nizanya, another Olaetyan
> colony, moved from Epsilon Indi to Delta Pavonis. Striezarait, the
> homeworld of the Mizarian rat-people, now orbits a 7th magnitude star near
> Mizar called BD+57 1438, rather than Mizar itself. Draconia, the home of
> elves and dragons, is a 6th magnitude star in the constellation Draco
> called BD+66 1281. I've tentatively assigned the Thrinn homeworld to a star
> in the general direction of the Pleiades, but actually closer to the Hyades
> cluster: BD+22 583. The Nikta homeworld remains at Delta Trianguli for the
> time being, although I'll probably be moving it once I have a more complete
> star map.
>
        Interesting.  What are your criteria for selecting stars?  Mass,
brightness, heat, possibility of orbiting planets ... ?


> I've actually been wondering about star names, whether anyone has names for
> bright stars or constellations in their languages. The brightest stars all
> have names in English, but they're mainly from Arabic or other languages:
> Sirius, Canopus, Arcturus, Vega, Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Achernar,
> Betelgeuse, etc. Do other languages (natural or otherwise) tend to borrow
> the same star names, or have their own names for the stars? I'm trying to
> decide whether Tirelat should borrow the English star names or come up with
> names (and mythologies?) especially designed for Tirelat.
>
        Doraya has just one word for such heavenly bodies, at least so
far: _talandor_ "wandering star."  It refers to a "star" that moves
from night to night, and is also the name of an important character in
Movari mythology. The problem is that I haven't yet decided where
the Movari exist -- on an alternate Earth, on some planet orbiting a
distant star, or somewhere else entirely.
        I originally conceptualized _talandor_ as a distant moon of the
planet where the Movari live, though more recently, as I've leaned
towards placing the Movari on an alternate Earth, I've decided that it's
nothing more than Venus.  I'm afraid to start researching
star and constellation names in Doraya before I more fully resolve this
matter. :)
        I'm curious as to how other conlangers have solved the problem
of cosmic location, since it does seem to be rather vital to an
important part of a language's vocabulary.  It seems to me that most of
us have languages set in an Earth with a different social history
(extreme: Tokana, where civilization never took place; less extreme:
Brithenig, where history diverged hundreds of years ago; even less
extreme: Elet Anta and Teonaht, which make no modification to history
except to suggest the presence of secretive subcultures).  An almost
equal proportion have chosen to locate their creations on distant
planets (the Kolagian languages, many of Nik Taylor's creations, and the
ubiquitous Star Trek languages).  I'm not satisfied with either of these
options.  Have I missed anything?  Is there a middle ground?

Whee, I've rambled long enough,
Adam

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             myth@inquo.net |
http://www.inquo.net/~myth/ |
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