Re: Proper nouns in Conlangs

Interesting. Thanks.

I have noted that place names in China are also
often in violation of Esperanto rules. Elsewhere
too, but not as systematically.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond Brown" <ray.brown@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 9:33 PM
Subject: Re: Proper nouns in Conlangs


> At 11:30 am -0700 18/10/00, LeoMoser(Acadon@Acadon.com) wrote:
> [....]
> >
> >In Esperanto, all names of persons and places
> >(proper nouns) must have the same ending -o.
>
> Although in his own translation of the Old Testament, Zamenhof did allow
> proper names also to end in the normally adjectival -a, or to end simply
in
> a consonant, e.g.:
>
> Noa (acc, Noan)
> Jesaja [Isaiah]
> Jeremia
> Hos^ea  (i.e. s-circumflex)
> Obadja [Obadiah]
> Zeh^arja [Zechariah]
> etc.
> But, rather oddly, Joshua is _Jos^uo_.
>
> Abraham
> Jozef
> Jakob
> Samuel
> David
> Ijob  [Job]
> Amos
> Jeh^ezkel  [Ezekiel]
> etc                               Ray.
Thus Dr. Z seemed to see the problems
with his own system.

Place names like Versailles, etc. were commonly
left "as is" by many early Esperantists, I believe.

Regards,               LEO