Re: USAGE: (Mis)Naming a Language

My conlang Sohlob was originally _Sahrab_, but then I discovered
that this is a Pakistani surname, so lest I offend some Mr/Ms
Sahrab I changed the name to _Sahlab_, only to discover that this
is a (modern) Egyptian drink of some kind(*), so I changed it
again to _Sohlob_, this time Googling to make sure it didn't exist.
Somehow the Egyptian association stuck though, for the conculture
and the land where it is located bears som similarity to ancient
Egypt.

(* I also had troubles keeping apart the lang's /r_0/ and /S/ in
my own pronunciation, so I changed all instances of /r_0/ to /K/
which is a cooler sound overall.  Later I changed /S/ to /s\/ --
a much more distinctive sound -- and resurrected the /r_0/ ~ /K/
distinction in a dialect of the language, which has three dialects,
a fourth in the works and a sister language planned.)

David Peterson wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm still offlist, but I thought I'd bring up something that happened
> to me.
>
> Yesterday I received an e-mail from a lecturer at CSU Sacramento
> (a.k.a., Sac State--the rivals of the UC Davis Aggies) asking about
> languages that have a drum register.   [In Africa, certain tone
> Bantu languages can be whistled or drummed, since they have
> rules about tonal phrasal patterns.   They can't communicate *completely*,
> but they can do a lot.]   Anyway, this professor specifically wanted
> some phrases from a language called Kele.   This is because,
> unbeknownst to me, there's a tone Bantu language called "Kele".
> Undoubtedly, he found me on the internet because of my
> language, which I called "Kele":
>
> http://dedalvs.free.fr/kele/
>
> I gave him some info on who he could talk to to get some info
> on the real Kele, but I'm a little put out that I unintentionally
> mislead someone.
>
> So, my question: Has something similar happened to anyone
> else?   And, do you think I should change the name of the
> language?   Would you, in this situation?   Also, what if someone
> created a language with a name like Teonaht, not knowing
> that one already existed, and (with no disrespect to this
> imaginary person) was far better?
>
> You don't have to reply offlist; I'll follow the thread via the
> archives.
>
> -David
> *******************************************************************
> "sunly eleSkarez ygralleryf ydZZixelje je ox2mejze."
> "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."
>
> -Jim Morrison
>
> http://dedalvs.free.fr/
>

--

/BP 8^)
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

         Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant!
                                             (Tacitus)

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