Re: Consistency in naming (was Re: creating words (was Re: "Language Creation" in your conlang))

At 11:11 AM 11/14/03 -0800, you wrote:
>--- Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> wrote:
>
> > Now the dumb thing is that I always say
> > Trehelish, instead of the native
> > Trehelo, which could refer to (probably) one
> > person, many people, the
> > people as a whole, or their language.
>
> > So I'm not a great one for consistency.
>
>Plus, you've got at least me thinking of them as
>Cwendaso rather than the native name; and
>Trehelish rather than Trehelo!
Some of that with the Tovláugad/Cwendaso is that, when I first started
talking about them, I honestly didn't know what it was that they called
themselves.  First I had to decide what the name meant, then I had to
translate it into Índumom Tovlaugadóis.  Now that I've got that
straightened out, I call them Tovláugad fairly often, and will work on
doing it with more frequency (although I really hate having to hit
alt+shift twice in the middle of typing it.)  The Trehelish name for them
is perfectly legitamate, as it means "the people of the Cwendas
(Mountains)," and that is where they have lived exclusively for the last
400 years.  (It's better than calling them "dusklings," which is a racial
slur referring to their gray skin color.  Any number of Trehelish refer to
them as that.)  Tovláugad is a better term, though, because it it can be
used to refer to them during other historical periods when they did not
live in the Cwendas, and it identifies the people with their religious beliefs.

As far as "Trehelish" vs. "Trehelo," that is simply a difference in whether
you want to use an English andjective/noun or a native one.  I got used to
using the English version, because the conculture existed for years before
I knew the necessary morpheme to make the native term.  (And even after I
knew the correct morpheme, I didn't think to use it, because I was so used
to calling them "Trehelish.")

If you want even more confusion, I can try to find out what the
Tovlaugadóis is for "Southerner" and start referring to the Trehelo by that
name, since the Tovláugad have always called the Trehelo "Southerners."  I
wonder what the Nidirino call the Trehelo?  Probably a lot of things, when
they aren't listening.  The Nidirino don't necessarily like being under
Trehelish rule, but, if they tried to rebel, they'd be slaughtered.  The
Trehelo are far more numerous.  As it is, the Nidirino have at least a
small say in the running of the national government and a large say in the
running of local affairs.  They're the ones who got the religious freedom
laws passed quite some time ago, because they weren't willing to accept the
presence of Death temples among them nor the lotteries.  The religious
freedom laws are in effect throughout the entire country, not just in the
Nidirino portions of Trehelan.

What I am wondering is how Trehelan ended up as a united country and a
representative democracy.  During the Trehelo Conquest (I really am making
an effort to use only the native terms, Padraic, and I hope you appreciate
it :)  ) and before, the Trehelo were governed more or less by competing
warlords, each of whom tried to get the best warriors to swear allegiance
to him.  The oath of loyalty that was used back then (sorry, don't know the
native term, but will need to soon) when a warrior swore allegiance to his
warlord is still used today.  All Trehelish soldiers take that oath.  It's
an oath of absolute obedience, and one of the interesting side effects of
that oath is that a modern-day Trehelo soldier could, technically, be
executed (by torture, even, which is not otherwise a legal means of
execution today) simply for disobeying a single order.  In practice,
though, a soldier would be hanged for dessertion and simply disciplined for
any lesser offence.  Another interesting fact is that the National Council
will soon have good reason to entirely ban the use of the oath outside of
the govenrnment, but, at the present moment, Trehelish (I'm going to use
the English form here out of native grammatical concerns) law still upholds
that oath.  If you swear that oath to someone, and then violate it, the
person that you swore it to does have the legal right to kill you.  This is
one of those laws that never got taken off the books, even though it should
have.  It took a near-disaster of national proportions before the National
Council understood why the swearing of that oath to anyone other than the
government needed to be made illegal.

In any case, Trehelo started out being ruled by competing warlords.  The
warlords made alliances among themselves in order to become strong enough
to begin to conquer the surrounding country.  They also built castles and
walled cities in the days before the land was subdued.  Sovchilen started
out as a walled city in a loop of a large river.  Sovchilen has grown
immensely, and the original walled city is now the Fortress, the
headquarters of the Trehelo military.  The walls of the Fortress are
octagonal, very thick, and go all the way down to the bedrock.  I have no
idea how many acres are enclosed within those walls; it's a very large
enclosure.  The Trehelo now reckon their years since the laying of the
cornerstone of the Fortress.  It's probably in the upper 500's or lower
600's, perhaps a bit higher.

I'm not quite certain how they went from being ruled by indepenent warlords
to becoming a united representative democracy.  The origins of the National
Council probably have something to do with independent warlords meeting in
councils to decide on strategy, but how you get from there to Councilors
being elected by the general population, I really don't know.  And
Trehelish women vote and hold office, too.  Where that came from is
something that I can't figure.  The Conquest took about 150 years to
accomplish, and a lot of cultural shifts took place during and after that
era, but how I can't figure.  Ideas will be entertained, since I am at a loss.

Anyway, I will try to use the native terms from now on, when I know them.

Isidora

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