[YG Conlang Archives] > [engelang group] > messages [Date Index] [Thread Index] >
And Rosta scripsit: > What's a good way to handle names in a self-segmenting > engelang that constitutes an optimal balance between (a) preserving > self-segmentation, (b) distorting the original name as little as possible, > and (c) concision. I think that the xuxuxi strategy, though not designed for names, can be adapted to them without much difficulty. It preserves (a) and (c), and offends (b) in two ways: (b1) All stress is initial (b2) Vowels in unstressed syllables may be changed. I admit that (b1) is hard, but (b2) seems to me to be close to what vowel-reduction languages do anyway, as well as the typical effect of migrating names between languages. Here are the self-segregating vowel rules: Harmony type Initial syll. vowel Medial syll. vowel Final syll.vowel Front i or e i or e or a o or u Back o or u o or u or a i or e Low a o or e or a i or u My own name "dZankawen", e.g. has correct vowel harmony, and "androsta" would need to have its final vowel changed, leading to "androsti" or "androste", (No polysyllable can end with "a".) -- John Cowan <jcowan@hidden.email> http://www.ccil.org/~cowan "One time I called in to the central system and started working on a big thick 'sed' and 'awk' heavy duty data bashing script. One of the geologists came by, looked over my shoulder and said 'Oh, that happens to me too. Try hanging up and phoning in again.'" --Beverly Erlebacher