Re: A question and introduction

--- Mischa! Rosado wrote:

> Hey everyone.  I'm new to this, in a way, I've been reading your
> emails for a while but haven't said anything yet.
Welcome! I'm glad that you decided to break silence.

> My name is Mischa, and I'm creating a language.
Will you tell us something more about it? Is it based on some other,
existing language or is everything completely and utterly new?
What is its name?
Does it have some "special" features?
Is there a conculture involved? Etc.

> But now I need some help! =)  How would one go about translating
> names into their language?
That's completely dependent on the kind of language you are working
on. So I really would like to invite you to tell something about your
language first :)

Anyway, what I noticed when developing my own languages, that you
sooner or later bump into things that are so culturally determined,
that you just can't go on without doing at least some thinking about
the kind of people (or aliens, if you like) that use them.
In the real world, most family names are derived from animals,
professions, places, characteristics, etc., while some other names have
no clear meaning (and thus could be classified as "a priori").
Since my major language, Hattic, pretends to be as natural as possible,
I more or less adopted this system; most Hattic names I have until now
are derived from birds.
The Hattic Republic being a part of Russia, it is obvious to me that
most first names are directly borrowed from Russian, while some others
are remnants of ancient native names.
Perhaps it is not the most creative approach to the matter, but it
certainly does its job.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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