Re: Conlang names?

Den 8. nov. 2007 kl. 16.47 skrev Henrik Theiling:

> What about names in your conlang?  Have you made lists?  How did you
> derive the names.
Well, this is special to me, as I built one of my langs, Urianian,
from a list of names. In it, I have enough names to fill a small
town. Analysis of the names has been the crucial factors for deciding
many features of the language. Still I haven't fully analysed them.
But I would like to mention some main features:

There are several characteristic endings, most of which consist of a
vowel followed by a consonant. The vowel in some endings seem to
vary, probably with the class of the root the name is derived from,
whilst in other endings the vowel seems to be more constant, only
varying some with dialect. There are some dialect differences.
Particularly some consonants are voiced in some dialects are unvoiced
in others. I have found IE derivations for some but not for all. Some
have only proposed meanings based on what type of root they tend to
be attached to. Here are the main ones:

-d/-t being from (< -o:d), patient of verb (< -to-)
-g/-k hailing from place, belonging to group/tribe (< -akos)
-ig/-ik possessing material or immaterial property (< e:ik)
-b/-p hailing from, heir of (< apo)
-m hailing from family (< plural ablative in -mo-)
-m/-n being adj or noun (< -on-)
-on foster child (< au-n)
-f unresolved, but occurs where IE w > f
-al doing verb or child of
-yl being like something
-r/-l reflexive or middle derivation of verb
-s/-z being (like) noun/adj (possibly a relict of the lost nom. ending)

Of other formants I think I have identified the good old IE augment
in some names, particularly in the lowlands. And there are names that
seem to derive from reduplicated perfects or other reduplicated forms.

Quite a few names end in a vowel followed by two consonants. This
seems to be the result of merging two of the above endings. For
example -rs is rather common. Quite a few other names have two or
even three such endings in a row without vowel loss.

There is a small number of popular names, otherwise the variety is
very large, so it seems Urianians prefer unique names and don't
believe that a name confers anything from a former bearer. Names with
biblical or saintly origin exist, but are rare. The original
polytheism survived against millennia of missionaries in Uriania, but
only barely for a while, so Christian traditions have some influence
in the shaping of Urianian names. I am assuming that last names in
general are not family names, but bynames that are given at a solemn
pagan ceremony when approaching adulthood. But Christians to some
extent have adopted the Danish (relatively modern) habit of
inheriting family names.

Suraetuan (Gaajan) evolved in somewhat the same manner, because I had
the names first, and used them as an authority when designing the
language. But I had much fewer Suraetuan names, and much more liberty
in deciding on the features of the language. Suraetuan has a large
number of derivational suffixes, prefixes and infixes which I have
used later to create new names. Examples:

j-/i- being adj. or doing verb
u- the one doing verb
-ja that which does verb
-ta being from, hailing from
l-/il- ability, liability to do verb
-tu patient of verb
-se/-ase she who is noun/adj.
-ea he who is noun/adj.
-aj he who does verb
-ae she who does verb
-lu/-li/-il possessor
ga-/gar- worthy of
ka-/-ka-/kar-/-kar- full of
-ra- cause of, origin of

Some of this is from an old etymological dictionary of Basque that I
have studied, which seems to be highly unreliable, other things are
from websites dealing with North East Caucasian, whilst some are from
my original names with no derivation yet. I have a bit of work still
to make a coherent system out of it.

LEF