Re: THEORY: Meaning of names (was Re: [CONLANG] language names)

Remember: "et tu, brute?" means "you too, dumbass?". ;)


On 3/20/08, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:
> On 20.3.2008 MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM wrote:
>
>  > Must the name of the language have a meaning?
>
> I dareasay all names originally had meaning. That in many
> cases this meaning has eventually fallen into oblivion is
> another matter.
>
> As regards personal names this process was intensified in
> Europe because of the demand by the church that people be
> given saints names: those names that were of Greek origin
> were meaningless to Romance speakers, and those of Latin
> origin were meaningless to Greek speakers and often to
> Romance speakers too, since many were built from obsolete
> Latin roots that had become archaic already by early
> imperial times. Needless to say all those names were
> meaningless to the Germanic and Slavic peoples of central
> and northern Europe.
>
> This has lead people in Western culture not to expect names
> to have meanings, but outside the Western cultural sphere
> the meanings of names are as a rule still remembered and
> important.
>
> /BP 8^)>
> --
> Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>    "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
>    à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
>    ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
>    c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)
>

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>