Re: USAGE: Name adaptation (fuit: GSF revisited)

On Tue, May 15, 2007 at 08:43:18PM -0700, Barry Garcia wrote:
> On 5/11/07, Benct Philip Jonsson <conlang@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >So how do people render names in their conlangs?
> >Do names have meaning in your conlangs or not?
[...]

Ebisédian is quite bad for butchering names, because of the CV syllabic
structure, and the fact that case is marked by an ablaut-like vowel
contouring operation. In general Ebisédian tries to stick with the
original vowels in the locative case, but if the vowels don't fit the
locative contour they will shift. Ditto with the other cases.  Also
peculiar to Ebisédian is that every proper noun (name) must be prefixed
by a proper noun marker, which inflects for gender and number.  So all
feminine names begin with _`y-_ [Hy], all masculine names with _e-_
[?E], with _hy-_ [hy] and _he-_ [hE] for the respective plurals.
Examples:

Sarah -> `ys3r0', `ysaru', `ysar3', `ysara', `ysari'
Respectively in CXS: [Hys@\'r\A], [Hysa'r\u], [Hysa'r\@], [Hysa'r\a],
[Hysa'r\i]

John -> ej0'n, eju'n, ej3'n, eja'n, eji'n.
In CXS: [?E'dZAn], [?E'dZun], [?E'dZ@\n], [?E'dZan], [?E'dZin].

Sadly, I didn't work very much on the meaning of names in Ebisédian
before I essentially abandoned it, so this is all there is to it. The
few native names that do exist are selected based on their consonants,
which the Ebisédi attach philosophical meaning to.


Tatari Faran is much tamer when it comes to name mangling, but it still
has a relatively constrained CVCV syllabic structure, and the limited
phonology does cause such interesting mutations as Leslie -> _desari_
[dE'sa4i] due to its lack of any lateral consonant, and the allophony of
/4/ and /d/.

Full native names in TF tend to be long, e.g., _tekekuhakirakisan_
[,tE,kEkuhaki4a'kisan], the legendary ancestor of the san faran, and
_jamai'ibunisomatajui_ [dza,maj?ibuni'sOmata,dzuj], the wife of the
same, the legendary mother of the people. However, short-form names are
usually adopted in conversation: e.g., _teke_ for _tekekuhakirakisan_
and _jamai_ for _jamai'ibunisomatajui_, _fia_ for _fiajiniruteinisui_,
and so forth.

Tatari Faran full names appear to be some ancient, forgotten
morphological fusion or portamenteau of short-form names with a string
of what looks like adjectival stems (some of which are no longer in the
modern language). Modern names, in some tribes, are invented based on
this analysis (which is debated by other tribes), by choosing a common
short-form name and suffixing a string of adjectives or adjective-like
stems, with the occasional portamenteau or extra syllable thrown in. It
is possible that legendary names such as _tekekuhakirakisan_ may have
undergone such a process in the recent past, and may not have been the
actual name as used in ancient times.


--T