Re: nightmare butchery of lastnames (was Re: Whiteness?)

In a message dated 2000:09:05 6:24:30 AM, yl112@CORNELL.EDU 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).
Kerno deals with For'n names pretty well, actually. Since most names
that one deals with are European, they already have cognates. Some,
like Charles, don't work because there's no /ch/ sound; so you gets
Carles [ka:rl]. Romance names work best (Jeanne Carles is a current
fad); Germanic and Slavic less so. Oriental names get interesting,
especially when it comes to the formulation of names for the
Onomasticon. Zhang would be Janges [Za:~] in speech and common
writing. Yeah, just like Jean (spelled Jeanne). :)  For Onomasticon,
Zhang would probably be Iancus or similar; while Jean is Iohannes. My
name, which is always mangled by English speakers, would probably
follow Brithenig practice and be Padregs ['pa:dZrEgh];  in
Onomasticon, Patricius.

Talarian doesn't take For'n names at all well, on account of its
curious phonologic landscape. Zhang, if such a name existed *there*
would become Sanhar or similar. This isn't really much of a problem,
because the few truly foreign people who settle in the land - a few as
traders, fewer marry into a clan - would be given a Talarian name as a
matter of course.

Padraic.