Re: self designations

> Am 05/18 15:53  dirk elzinga yscrifef:
>
> > What names do the speakers of your languages use to refer to
> > themselves? Are the names morphologically transparent? How did
> > these names come about?
The speakers of Yivríndil call themselves Yivríndi when referring to their
specific ethnicity, or Yivri when referring to their race as a whole.
Neither form is morphologically transparent, although their etymology is
beleived to go back to the Proto-Yivril roots *ñi, meaning "person" and
*bsr, meaning "light."  These were compounded with the collective
plural ending *i into *ñibsri, meaning "the light people."  The sound
changes after that are fairly simple: ñibsri > jibsri > jibhri > jivri,
<Yivri>.  The -ind in the name "Yivríndil" is of uncertain origin, but may
be related to a partitive ending -nd which is also found in Yivríndil
patronymics.


Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
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