Re: Butchered Foreign Names

Am 09/05 14:21  Steg Belsky yscrifef:
> On Tue, 5 Sep 2000 09:23:54 -0400 Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...> writes:
> > ObConLang: Do y'all deal with butchered foreigners' names in your
> > conlangs?  :-)  By some strange coincidence, my name is entirely
> > pronounceable in Chevraqis.  My boyfriend's name is a nightmare (but
> > then, his last name is Betzwieser, which is a nightmare in Korean,
> > too).
> >
> > YHL
> -
>
> Rokbeigalmki generally picks the closest phoneme to the strange foreign
> one and uses that.  Since it has a large phonemic inventory that isn't
> always necessary, though.
>
Brithenig handles names similarly.  When people participate in the
Brithenig discussions they adopt names based on their *here* names
adapted to *there* equivalents.  Smith becomes Fferreir.  Andrew remains
the same (pronounced /@n 'dreu/).  Brown is Bryn /bri:n/.  Foreign
surnames are often left untouched, such as Valoczy.  I wouldn't play
with names like Yoon/Yune or Chang beyond adapting them to Brithenig
orthography - Iun, Ciang.  Most Chomro would be gobsmacked by a name
like Betzwieser - spell it Betswieser or Betswaiser, or leave it alone?
[z] is a redundant letter in Brithenig spelling, and the possible
pronunciation of the middle diphthong as /ai/, not to mention the
Brithenig language has ultimate stress.

The use of patrinomics is a living tradition in Kemr.  'Ffeil',
son/daughter, is placed between the two names.  This has lead to some
new surnames, like Llewan, son or daughter of John, _Cowan_.  The name
John itself has been adopted into Brithenig three times: Iewan, Ioan,
Gio+n.  All three are still used.

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

It hurts me to watch the snaring of the unicorn.