From pycyn@aol.com Mon Sep 11 05:55:32 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 641 invoked from network); 11 Sep 2000 12:55:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by m3.onelist.org with QMQP; 11 Sep 2000 12:55:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO imo-d05.mx.aol.com) (205.188.157.37) by mta2 with SMTP; 11 Sep 2000 12:55:31 -0000 Received: from Pycyn@aol.com by imo-d05.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v28.15.) id a.6b.9881ede (4530) for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2000 08:55:21 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <6b.9881ede.26ee3039@aol.com> Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 08:55:21 EDT Subject: RE:Why no posts? IV To: lojban@egroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 41 From: pycyn@aol.com Names are almost never translated into Lojban, only transcribed. In most languages with which we deal, the meanings of the words that make up a name no longer function or do so in only a secondary way: Kings and Wangs are not kings, a Johnson may be a girl whose father is named Sam, I live in a flat dry place with neither cliffs nor fords around, and so on. Even when parts of the name do function, as in Iceland, where Ragnarsson's father is Ragnar and his sister is Ragnarsdottir, the conventional aspect probably overrides the semantic. The exception seems to be the names of Native Americans -- and perhaps other "primitive" people elsewhere, where, significantly, names are given in a way that reenforces their semantic content -- for events in the person's life. And the names are subject to change: Worm outgrew the name -- and several others. Only his "mission name" persisted -- and it was totally irrelevant to him. Thomas Mann is {tomas man} not "twin human" in Lojban, but Man Who Is Feared All The Way Through His Horses (or whatever) probably is translated, not {tacunkekokipapi}, though his son, Young Man ...., seems to be conventional.