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Re: Big Six Revisited... again :/

From:Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@...>
Date:Friday, June 23, 2000, 4:37
CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>In some of my languages, I try to use some version of the native name for >things like places and languages (e.g., borrowing from "Éire" instead of >"Ireland"). I'm starting to break out of that pattern with my latest >language, Sagi. It started with countries like Albania and Finland (whose >own names for themselves, Shqipëria and Suomi, are not widely used in >other >languages); the Sagi names for these countries are (for the moment) >"halbániya" and "fíntávla". But Germany is still "dóityitávla" (in part >because Japanese has "doitsu", and also because words for "German" and >"Germany" are so variable in other languages).
In Saalangal i've been using the English names for countries: Spain - Speyn (although espanya sounds nicer), France - Frans, England - Ingland. Germany would look odd in the latin orthography i use for Saalangal: Dyermani, but "Doytsland" is probably more recognizeable.
> > >Incidentally, I don't have any consistent pattern for translating >"meaningful" elements of names such as "land" in "Deutschland". Sometimes >I >translate them, as in "dóityitávla", but other names are untranslated >(e.g., "sieraleóna", "Sierra Leone"; "kodivuára", "Côte d'Ivoire").
The proper way to do country names in Saalangal is to use the name of the country (in Saalangal orthography), and add the suffix -lay, -elay (the suffix comes from pelay - country): Italy - Italialay Spain - Espanyalay America - Amerikalay England - Inglandelay Germany - Doytslandelay But, the -lay, -elay isnt really necessary because they would be known as countries.The suffix would be used in official documents. Or where someone wants to speak "properly" (whatever that means :)) To say someone is from one of these countries, you put basa- (of) onto the word for the country: Italian - basaitalialay Spaniard - basaespanyalay American - basaamerikalay In reality, most folks would probably say them as: basaitalia basaespanya basaamerika _________________________________________________________ This ain't a yes, this ain't a no, just do your thang, we'll see how it goes