RE: Re: Inappropriate Names

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 07:28:18 +0100


> > > When I'm looking for a name, I tend to take a
> > > word, then apply a bunch of liguistic changes
> > > to it - "T" can transmogrify into anything from
> > > "D" to "S", Rs and Ls can swap places, etc.

> Just find a book of basic liguistics and see what fun you can
> have making new words from old.

Really, the slide from early Welsh (Brythonic) to modern can provide quite enough, esp. when you add in the standard mutations that are just part of the language.

Early Welsh for wood: coit
Modern: coed

The vowels soften and the sharp T slides to a D

Then you look at my husband's name: Dafydd Wyn

His cousin has the same middle name, but as a first name. So, naturally, it acquires a G on the front (or rather, Dave drops his G). Gwyn. Meaning "white", in both cases. But there's a song, "David of the White Rock", which is really "Dafydd y Garreg Wen". No, I'm not sure why the vowel changed from Y to E. And that "garreg" for rock is only thus because it follows a vowel, it's really "Cerrig".

Yes, looking things up in a Welsh dictionary is fun :) But perhaps you see why I find that a Celtic language, with this whole change/movement thing built into it, is the obvious basis for anything Orlanthi!

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