Re: Naming the conlang

En réponse à Scotto Hlad :


>Hello everyone. I am just joining this group and look forward to talking 
>with others with similar interests.
>
Welcome to the list! :)

>
>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."
Personally, I usually just make the names up, and find a derivation to 
explain them later, or not. But that's because most of my languages are a 
priori.

>
>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 have two Romance conlangs in my pocket: Reman and Narbonósc. Reman 
doesn't have much of a background, but the little I know is that it is 
completely isolated from other Romance conlangs (and it shows in its 
grammar, in many ways stranger than Romanian's ;) ). So giving it a name 
based on "Romance" wasn't such a bad idea, although it was not done so 
intentionally :) .
My other Romance conlang was originally called "Roumant". When I revived 
it, I decided such a name didn't fit, especially since it became part of a 
bigger whole, as other official language of France in Ill Bethisad, an 
alternate Earth with a different timeline from ours. It is spoken in all of 
Southern France, and has official status (France *there* is a bit like 
Belgium *here*). Being surrounded with other Romance languages, it made no 
sense to call it "Romance", which is what "Roumant" simply means :) . So I 
inquired about the name of the Roman provinces where it developed, and 
found out it developed originally in the province called by the Romans 
"Narbonensis". I decided such a locative name was exactly fitting, and 
given the sound changes of the language, its modern name became "Narbonósc" 
("Narbonese" in English, "Narbonnais" in French). I didn't abandon the name 
"Roumant", though. Just like French scholars and linguists call the link 
between Vulgar Latin spoken in Gaul and Old French "Roman", Narbonese 
linguists and scholars call the link between Vulgar Latin and Old Narbonese 
"Roumant". The name was just recycled to refer to the ancestor of the 
language it originally named. I felt it was fitting ;) .

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.