Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: self designations

From:Irina Rempt <ira@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 22, 2001, 10:14
On Fri, 18 May 2001, dirk elzinga wrote:

> What names do the speakers of your languages use to refer to > themselves?
Well, they usually call themselves _rastin_ "people" (literally "thinkers"), but they use that for all people in the world, even those from Velihas who are perhaps technically a different species (as different, I think, as dogs and wolves). To call them "the Rastin" would be incorrect and feels patronizing to me. To specify that someone is from Valdyas, one may say _Valdyis rastin_ "people from Valdyas", or _Valdyis salea_ "someone from Valdyas. This is only relevant abroad; people tend to identify more with their region or town than with the whole country.
> Are the names morphologically transparent?
Yes, obviously :-)
> How did these names come about?
The river that dominates the country is the Valda, and Valdyas means "Valda-area". It may be cognate with the root /val/ "king, rule" (_valan_ "king, queen"). Irina -- Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay. irina@valdyas.org (myself) http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas