Re: Naming conventions
| From: | Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, April 12, 2007, 22:20 |
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On 4/12/07, Dave Rutan <rutan3@...> wrote:
> Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to name things
> such as an alien race which is already named in other languages. If it
> comes down to naming them as 'Members of System GIV3.3,' how is that
> handled?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you
mean their name for themselves, or other people's
name for them? If their name for themselves, then
it seems unlikely they would call themselves
'Members of System GIV3.3'. More likely "people"
as veritosproject suggests, or "talking creatures,"
or "thinking beings," or something; or (more
likely still) a name that used to mean one of those
things in the proto-language but through sound
and meaning change now just means "this species
we belong to".
Other people's name for them? You could make
up a name in another conlang, human or alien,
or in a natlang (perhaps a future-evolved version
of English or Mandarin or what have you) describing
them by an epithet for an interesting obvious
characteristic they have, or naming them for
the humans' name for the star system or region
of the galaxy they come from, or where humans
first met them...
--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry
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