Re: Foreign names in conlangs (was Re: Butchered Foreign Names)

On Fri, 8 Sep 2000, =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rg?= Rhiemeier wrote:

> It is still somewhat popular to translate names into Nur-ellen, as long
> their meaning is clear.  Thus, "Smith" becomes _Angdan_ and "Brown"
> becomes _Barn_.
<rueful look>  I know the "Ha" in my name refers to summer heat or
something, which I think must've been wishful thinking on my parents'
part since I was born in *January* (but in Houston, so maybe it was that
hot?), but I can't remember what "Yoon" stands for.

> First names are either left untranslated or matched to the commonly used
> version of the name, so "Andrew Smith" would become either _Andru
> Angdan_ (1st name untranslated) or _Andras Angdan_ (matched to the
> common form).
> Untranslated names are carefully rendered as faithful as possible
> because the Elves *hate* to butcher names.  They are turned off enough
> by the way other people tend to mangle *their* names (especially the
> front rounded vowels occasionally occuring in their language often end
> up as just about anything else...), and they think they ought not do to
> other languages what they don't want others to do to their language.
:-)  An attitude I agree with, though I regret to say that I never did
get my friend Agnieszka's name right.  :-(

YHL