Spousal names (Was: Re: "Mister" (was: Re: New Lang: Igassik))

On Wed, Oct 25, 2000 at 02:04:57PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
[snip]
> <shaking head and grinning>  My boyfriend of 3 years has the last name
> "Betzwieser."  "Strange last name" is in relation to my own name, and
> German and Korean just don't seem to mix!  If my name were, oh, Frieda or
> Carla or Elise, I'm sure I'd feel differently.  <G>
[snip]

Hmm, "Yoon Betzwieser". I don't know German, but that sounds more like a
sentence rather than a name. At least it sounds better than "Yoon Ha
Betzwieser" -- that'd be *really* odd. I do know, however, that some
non-European women just keep their family name and tack on the husband's
last name at the very end, so your name would end up as something like
"Yoon Ha Lee Betzwieser" which at least is more palatable than "Yoon Ha
Betzwieser". :-P

Alternatively, why don't you "adopt" a German first name, then? ;-)

ObConlang: what happens to names when a native speaker marries a
non-native speaker? (in conlangs/concultures that adopt the convention of
one spouse picking up the other's name, that is.)

I haven't thought much about naming conventions in my conlang/conculture
yet, but I was thinking of just using the equivalent of "X the son of Y"
and "X the spouse of Y". This can be done simply by using the idiomatic
noun-case stative constructions, eg:

1)      ni       epitr0'    d3    `ylii'        /ni ?&pitrA d@ yli:/
        <subord> Peter      <aux> Ylia
        (loc)    (masc,org) (cvy) (fem,loc)
        "Ylia the daughter of Peter", literally, "Ylia, the one who is
        from Peter". This is simply an originative-conveyant construction
        within a subclause; the corresponding standalone sentence would
        be:
        epitr0'         `yl33'.                 /&pitrA ylV":/
        Peter(masc,org) (fem,cvy)
        "Ylia is from Peter."

2)      ni       epitru'    d3    `ylii'        /ni ?&pitru d@ yli:/
        <subord> Peter      <aux> Ylia
        (loc)    (masc,rcp) (cvy) (fem,loc)
        "Ylia, who is Peter's [spouse]"; literally, "Ylia, who is towards
        Peter". This is a possessive* stative construction, and in this
        context, defines a spousal relationship. The standalone sentence
        would be:
        epitru'         `yl33'.                 /&pitru ylV":/
        Peter(masc,rcp) Ylia(cvy)
        "Ylia is Peter's [spouse]".
        Note that the order here is arbitrary; we could just as well put
        Peter in the conveyant case and Ylia in the receptive -- both
        would mean the same thing, but with different focus. In other
        words, Peter's name becomes "Ylia's Peter" and Ylia's name becomes
        "Peter's Ylia", after marriage.

[*Note: although it's called the "possessive stative", it does not always
mean possession in the English sense of the word -- it literally just
means something is focused on, or directed at, something else; usually
implying intimacy, and hence, possession, or spousal relationship.]


T