Re: Language Naming

On Thu, 21 Jan 1999 15:45:58 -0600 "Sheets, Jeff" <JSheets@...>
writes:
>So the general convention for natlangs is naming it after the original
>country/nation?  Are there any major exceptions to this?  I think
>Cherokee
>would be one, isn't Tsa-La-Gi the Cherokee word for their tribe?  Do
>they
>actually HAVE a name for their language?  I'm being specific about
>natlangs,
>but I'm interested in knowing what General rules are used to name any
>given
>language.  From what I can tell most languages are based on their
>homeland.
>Are there any other ways that the native speakers of a language name
>it?
Well, Hebrew is some of both....there are two "hypotheses" of where the
name _`ivrit_ (the Hebrew language) and _`ivri_ (a Hebrew person) came
from.  One is that it's a geographical-historical description of the land
Across (`BR) the River and/or the People who Came from Across the River.
The other theory is that it comes from the name _`eiver_, an ancestor of
Abraham.  In that case, it would mean "descendents of `Eiver".

It's called by a few different names in the Bible, actually....in one
place it's called _yehudit_, "Judean", and in another it's called _leshon
kena`an_, "the language of canaan".  Kena`an itself was the name of the
land because of one of the tribes that lived in the low-lying areas,
which is probably where their name comes from - KN` means "to lower", in
Hebrew specifically for "to suppress" and "to convince" (force the other
person's opinion down).


In the Conlang department, _ool-nuziiferoi_ simply means "that which is
spoken", and _rokbeigalmki_ comes from the name of the tribe that speaks
it, _rokbeigalm-a_, "the riders of the waves", their name for themselves
which distinguishes them from the landlubber rest of Middle-Earth.  It's
actually a degeneration, the Rokbeigalm have a reputation for being lazy
with the pronounciation of names.  Grammatically it should be
_rokvmeigalm_.


-Stephen (Steg)

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