Re: Proper nouns in Conlangs

From: "LeoMoser

> > Mangiat wrote:
> >
> > > Interestingly Italian had a very strong tendence to italianize
> everything
> > > foreign, even names (In philosophy, i.e., I've just studied quys as
> Tommaso
> > > Moro, Francesco Bacone and Renato Cartesio, aka Thomas More, Francis
> Bacon
> > > and René Décartes).
>
> The problem in China is vastly more difficult,
> since such names must become "names" as
> defined by Chinese convention -- beginning
> with a one-syllable surname from a limited
> list of possible names.
I beg to differ. Jostein Gaarder, author of _Sophie's World_ and _Through
the Glass, Darkly_ among others, is rendered in Chinese as "Qiao2Si1Dan4
(dot floating in space) Jia4De2" ("jia4" is not a surname). Whammy famous
like More may get their name truncated to just their surnames: "Mo4Er3",
More, "Pei2Gen1", Bacon, "Di2ka3er3", Descartes, Gan1nai3di2", Kennedy, etc.
Mo4 and "di2" are legit Chinese surnames, but "pei2" and "gan1" are not.
Less famous and relatively newly famous get the first name, floating dot,
last name treatment. Brad Pitt is "Bu4lai2de2 (dot) Bi2te4"; "bi2" is not a
surname. Gwynyth Paltrow is "Ge3Ni2Si1 (dot) Pai4chuo3"; "pai4" is not a
surname. Mere mortals, like Leo, Adam, and I, who have done the China thing
may pound out a Chinese name that suits us, but the illustrious who are only
blowing into the Orient to shill a movie or advance a diplomatic agenda get
names that are clearly foreign sounding. Sure, a Chinese surname and the
first syllable of a foreign surname may coincide, but nothing is guaranteed.

Kou