Re: Naming the conlang

Hey Scotto.

It's interesting to see the responses to your query; most everyone has
tried to rationalize their language names within the fictional language
itself (at least phonologically). The name of my own project,
Miapimoquitch, is not meaningful in the language, nor does it conform
to the language's phonotactics in i) having a labio-velar stop ("qu"),
ii) having an "o", iii) having an alveopalatal affricate which is not
followed by a front vowel, and iv) having a word-final consonant. The
name Miapimoquitch is one I coined from Southern Paiute roots and means
roughly 'little Hopi'. It follows in the tradition of Native American
languages being named by someone other than the speakers. Examples
include 'Navajo' and 'Papago', neither of which are meaningful in those
languages, and both of which are even felt to be derogatory. (The
speakers of Miapimoquitch are all dead, so we don't know what they
thought of the name.)

Dirk

On Jul 8, 2004, at 5:18 PM, Scotto Hlad wrote:

> Hello everyone. I am just joining this group and look forward to
> talking with others with similar interests.
>  
> Ok I'm sure that here is another topic that has been discussed so many
> times that everyone is groaning yet again. That being said, I have
> fraternal twin conlangs being developed, one a Romance language and
> the second an a-priori languge.
>  
> I am the parent of 4 children and recall well the delight of volleying
> back and forth with the mother of my children over names. There would
> be no list that one can reference anywhere online that gives the
> latest names that people a chosing for their infant conlangs.
>  
> My question is how have others named their languages? Dare I ask what
> the derivation of the names of various languages is. The first conlang
> I ever developed (sometime in the last millenium) was called "Kadingu"
> which meant "the tongue."  I understand as well that at least some of
> the aboriginal languages of North American are simply derived from the
> word for "people." I believe that Dene is an example: Dene just means
> "the people."
>  
> I don't want to name my baby romance somthing like "Romanza" or
> "Ladino" or something so obvious. My a-priori language will probably
> derive from the word for tongue or people.
>  
> I'd really like to see how other colangers have wrestled with this and
> arrived at their conclusions.
>  
> Thanks,
> Scotto
>
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

Grammatica vna et eadem est secundum substanciam in omnibus linguis,
licet accidentaliter varietur. - Roger Bacon (1214-1294)