ConLand names in translation

And Rosta scripsit:

> What is the ungarbled version, and why is it a riddle?
One ungarbled version is:

        "There are three English words ending with -gry.
        Two of them are hungry and angry. The third word is
        very common; in fact you have just encountered it.
        What is the third word?"

Answer: "three" (viz. the third word of the whole utterance).

> O wow! Can you run through the history of these for me?
Assuming that the underlying Vulgar Latin form was LIACIA rather than
LUACIA, then initial L > ll, the final vowel falls off, and the C
gets lenited to g.  But that doesn't account for its palatalization,
which might have produced "Lleig'" [LejdZ] as Padraic said.
Normally [tS], [dZ] only occur before front vowels in Brithenig,
and are written c, g.  But when final, the orthography is c', g',
reflecting the now-omitted vowel (as in ffelig' < FELICI-).

> I wonder what _Kemr_ is in Livagian. Is _Kemr_ just the normal development
> of _Cambria_? Do other European lgs call _Kemr_ by their local reflex of
> _Cambria_?
Mostly.  Historically the English called the place Wales and the people
Welsh, as they do here, but since 1805 (Federation) the Latin term
Cambria and the Brithenig name Kemr have predominated.  The verb "to welsh"
is very much with us, however.

> OTOH, if Kemr and Cambria are felt to be fundamentally different entities,
I think not.

The Chomro (= the natives; English people living in Kemr are Kemrese,
but not Chomro) are of course those same Romano-Britons.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
       I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin