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

Me govanen!

andrew tetent:

> [handling of foreign names in conlangs]
>
> Brithenig handles names similarly.  When people participate in the
> Brithenig discussions they adopt names based on their *here* names
> adapted to *there* equivalents.  Smith becomes Fferreir.  Andrew remains
> the same (pronounced /@n 'dreu/).  Brown is Bryn /bri:n/.
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_.
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.

>       Foreign
> surnames are often left untouched, such as Valoczy.
So in Nur-ellen.  "Jörg Rhiemeier" is rendered either _Jörg Rimajer_
(back-transliterated from Tengwar; when using the Roman alphabet, the
spelling is left intact) or, with the first name (a Low German form of
"George") matched, _Görg Rimajer_ (of which, coincidentally, the first
form is the objective).

>       I wouldn't play
> with names like Yoon/Yune or Chang beyond adapting them to Brithenig
> orthography - Iun, Ciang.  Most Chomro would be gobsmacked by a name
> like Betzwieser - spell it Betswieser or Betswaiser, or leave it alone?
> [z] is a redundant letter in Brithenig spelling, and the possible
Not possible in German, where it comes from!

> pronunciation of the middle diphthong as /ai/, not to mention the
> Brithenig language has ultimate stress.
Betzwieser is a German name pronounced ['bEtsvi:z@r]; in Brithenig, it
would be phonemically spelled _Betsfiser_ or something like that; the
Nur-ellen form would be _Betsviz`r_.

> The use of patrinomics is a living tradition in Kemr.  'Ffeil',
> son/daughter, is placed between the two names.
Nur-ellen forms patronymics by suffixing _in_ (derived from _hin_
"child"; it has replaced the older gender-specific suffixed _ön_ < *-ion
"son" and _il_ < *-iel "daughter").  Thus, "John, son of Richard" would
be _Johan Rihardin_.  Some of these patronymics (mostly, however, based
on native Elvish names) are "fossilized" as surnames, as in _Egnor
Haldirin_, the current charman of Ill Party Gwirdd.

>       This has lead to some
> new surnames, like Llewan, son or daughter of John, _Cowan_.  The name
> John itself has been adopted into Brithenig three times: Iewan, Ioan,
> Gio+n.  All three are still used.
The most common Nur-ellen form of "John" is _Johan_ (pronounced [johan],
not [Zohan], [dZohan] or anything like that), though the short forms
_Jon_ and _Jan_ are also frequently encountered.  More popular than
Christian first names, however, are old, native names (which recently
have spread into the rest of the Kemrese population, such that it is not
at all that unusual anymore if a young person is named something like
_Inglor Fferreir_).

Syld,
Jörg.