Re: Country names

Jeffrey Henning wrote:

>  This is okay, since the language is resistant to
> borrowing anyway, prefering to coin new compounds from its roots
> instead.
>
> As a result, I decided for country names it would be fun to name each
> country after an animal commonly associated with it.  In other words,
> rather than borrow "Mexico" as 'Mesicon' it might takes its name from
> the chihuahua.
Well, on the discution on how specific an animal should be, I guess this
should also depend on the perspective of the Novvocu people, which animals
are common where they live and how important for them is making a
distinction.

For example, comparing Wales and China, you have in English one word for two
mithological yet quite different animals: the European Dragon and the
Chinese Dragon.  In the llama discution, well, from my Colombian point of
view a vicuña is a sort of llama and while I can tell them appart from a
good picture, I could not distinguish them from the drawing in a coat of
arms.  But fur a Peruvian this might be a critical distinction.  How about
for a Novvocu speaker?

Anyhow, both llama and vicuna had been borrowed in Spanish from probably
Quechua, and had been borrowed into English from Spanish.  So, unless the
Novvocu are Andean people, they would probably either borrow the word for
llama/vicuna from another language or just plain borrow the name of the
country: Peru... or call the animal as Andean Camel... but then, they have
to borrow "Andean"/"Andes"...  At this step, the Novvocu will call Peru as
the "Country of the camel of the big mountains from the Southern New World"
(or any other way to convey South America) "South New World Big Mountain
Camel Country"...

Well, this if the Novvocu already have a word for Camel...

Where are the Novvocu from?

-- Carlos Th