tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Apr 04 11:45:53 1996
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Re: KLBC Indians (Re: toughie)
> >Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 11:09:14 -0800
> >From: [email protected]
>
> >I thought about translating America, which is Germanic for on the heather,
> >(Am=on)+(erica=heather), but I don't think you have a Klingon word for heather.
>
> Always think two or six times before trying something like this. Imagine
> you're reading a sentence and come across "On the heather, the average
> family has 2.3 children." On the heather? On WHAT heather? How does that
> affect how many children they have? Where is this heather-field? I've
> been studying languages for a long time, and I must confess I never knew
> that etymology for America (I thought it was Amerigo Vespucci's name;
> wasn't he Italian and not Germanic?) I'm not proud of not knowing it, but
> if I didn't know it, is it reasonable to expect your average reader to?
Not only was Amerigo's name Italian, I believe that he was named after
Saint Americus (sp?), which is itself the Latinized form of the Hungarian
proper name Imre (sp?). I'm afraid I'm blanking out on some of the
specifics--anyone able to elaborate on this?
At any rate, trying to translate a name that has long since ceased to
have any meaning beyond the designation for a place can only lead to
confusion.
Jon Van Hoose
[email protected]