Re: Naming conventions

Dave Rutan wrote:
> I have a question regarding an Alien Conlang I'm working on. This
> conlang best resembles Solresol in that it has one ten syllables from
> which all the words are derived, (Solresol had seven.)
>
> 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?
>
> Has anyone else ever done something like this?  Any advice appreciated.
>
> Dave Rutan
You could do a lot of different things.  They could call themselves
"people", "us", they could name themselves after a place, a mythological
ancestor, a clan or family among them, a country.  They could have a
word that means their analogue of "human" as opposed to "animal".

What other people call them is usually one of two options, borrowing a
pre-existing name for them as best they can, or making one up to
describe them.  If the name is borrowed from another language, it could
be the native term of the race being described, or it could be someone
else's descriptive term.  Think about terms for different groups of people:

"Han" is the Chinese term for themselves, named after a ruling dynasty
of China.  We call them "Chinese", derived from a different ruling dynasty.
"French" derives either from a word meaning "javelin", as a typical
weapon of the Franks, or "fierce", as a description.
"Navajo" probably means "thieves" in the Tewa language, but the Navajo
call themselves "Dine", which means "the People".
"Incan" derives from the Sapa Inca, the ruler of the Incan Empire, and
was applied by the Spanish to the whole group.
The Degar are usually known as "Montagnard" in English, which is
borrowed from French, meaning "Mountain People".  I don't know what
"Degar" means.

Just some ideas.

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