nicknames (was: childish pronunciation of "Christophe")
From: | Adam Parrish <myth@...> |
Date: | Saturday, March 13, 1999, 0:37 |
On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:
> Speaking of names, I wonder how many people here had nicknames based on
> distortions of their names as children, or still retain them? Other
> than common ones like shortenings, etc. I never had any (but then
> again, /nIk/ doesn't lend itself to easy manipulation). My brother,
> Adam, I sometimes affectionately call /&'dVm/, spelled "Adumb", or
> /@'d&m(It)/ (Adamn(it)).
>
The only nickname I've ever had sounds like /'&b@/ -- a distortion
that (like Christophe's nickname) arose from my little sister's attempt at
saying my name in her infancy. My other little sister, five years
younger, also picked up this pronunciation. Currently this nickname is
only used by my little sisters when they're trying to be insincerely sweet
to me. :)
To put more of a conlang spin on it, Doraya has a method of
deriving nicknames (_toren-toren_) from regular names. This consists of
reduplicating the name in the regular Doraya way, then dropping
everything but the resulting reduplication and the last syllable of
the root, e.g.:
Laiyralan -> Analan Anlorin -> Rinlorin
Martanda -> Datanda Trefen -> Fentrefen
I imagine that further distortions of these might happen, leading
to nicknames like _Rinno_ for _Anlorin_ or _Fenne_ for _Trefen_. Anyone
else have unique or interesting ways of constructing nicknames in their
conlangs?
Adam
--
myth@inquo.net
http://www.inquo.net/~myth