Re: ,Language' in language name?

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Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> writes:

> Hi!
>
> How many people's conlang names contain the word for ,language' in
> that language?  I suspect that's around 100%, right? :-)
Far from that, judging from the material already posted, and indeed
mine don't.  The meaning of _Germanech_ ought to be obvious, namely
"of/pertaining to Germania" (the Germanech name of the country is
_Germanje_); _Nur-ellen_ means "Low Elvish".

Daniel Andreasson <danielandreasson@...> commented on the issue:

> Could there be a correlation like this?
>
> developed conculture -> does not contain "language",
> but rather a toponym or some word that describes
> the people, or similar.
>
> no conculture -> contains "language", since there
> is no culture to refer to.
Well, there might be a correlation.  A conculture means a source of
language names, and be it the name of the country where the language
is spoken or the name of the people who speak it; without a conculture,
one has no other source for a name than the bare bones of the language
itself (if in doubt, use the language's word for "language").

But as always, there are exceptions to the rule.
I think the correlation is significant, but not too strong.

And then, there are conlangs without a name in the language itself.
My own projects often start with an "external" name assigned to it,
especially as long as it's little more than a cloud of ideas
and I can't say what the fictional speakers call it.
For example, I still don't know much about what Macaronesian
(a sister language of Nur-ellen) will look like, let alone what
the Macaronesians call their language; hence I simply call it
"Macaronesian", after a little-used term for the Canary, Azores,
Madeira and Cape Verde Islands where the language is spoken in an
alternative timeline.  Some day, I will know what the Macaronesians
call their own language, and then I shall use that name.

Jörg.
.

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