Re: Proper nouns in Conlangs

The summary below is very useful, but
it does point up the problem: proper
names are difficult for an IAL -- or any
conlang that reflects people and places
on earth.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt McLauchlin" <matt_mcl@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 9:48 PM
Subject: Re: CONLANG Digest - 17 Oct 2000 to 18 Oct 2000 (#2000-285)


> >In Esperanto, all names of persons and places
> >(proper nouns) must have the same ending -o.
> >So a book of geographical names would have
> >hundreds of thousands of names -- all ending
> >the same. So would the phonebook. This is
> >not the case in any natural language.
>
> This is not quite true. The names of large places and very famous
> (particularly classical) people are Esperantized: Parizo, Londono,
Sokrato,
> Platono. Also, Esperantists often take an Esperantized first name: Mateo
> McLAUCHLIN. Esperantized versions of most common Judeo-Christian first
names
> exist.
>
> However, the vast majority of names are not Esperantized. In Zamenhof's
> translation of Genesis, for example, he talks about Adam, Eva, Eden, not
> Adamo or Edeno. However, he does add -on for the accusative (Dio forsendis
> Adamon de la gxardeno). One of my friends doesn't even do that, instead
> using the universal preposition je (Mi malamas je Jean Chrétien).
>
> In fact, even when there is an Esperantized version of a famous person's
> name, except with classical names, it is rarely used. I've never heard
> anyone refer to Zamenhofo, for example (although I have heard Ludoviko
> Zamenhof.) In my translation of The Doubter's Companion I am talking about
> René Descartes, not Renato Kartezio, although I do use "karteziismo" for
> Cartesianism.
This is no place E-o's the famous "only 16 rules"
or have I missed it? It seems far more important
than the rule on dropping final vowels for poetry.

> Some journals spell the person's name and then add a pronunciation: Bill
> Clinton /bil klinton/. And when the person's name doesn't come from a
> language with a Roman alphabet, they are spelled out with Esperanto
letters,
> although not usually Esperantized: Pjotr Ilicx Cxajkovskij.
But would't these be pronounced in E-o
with an added -o? Or some vowel? Or
does E-o assume that a final in -cx is
acceptable?

Regards,                              LEO