tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Oct 04 16:54:57 2001
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Re: Strange coincidence
Qor'etlh wrote:
: Speaking of strange coincidences: "ferenghi" means "foreigner" in one
: of the Afghani dialects..
It has been noted and discussed in several Trek fora that *farang* means
"foreigner, Westerner, Frank" in a number of languages including, to this
non-linguist at least, English -- consider a possible metathesis (phonetic
transposition) of the G and N in "foreigner".
A quick search on google.com produced a couple of informative posts:
_______________________
message at <www.emich.edu/~linguist/issues/4/4-492.html >
From: Gwyn Williams <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 17:18:33
Subject: Re: More replies on "FARANG" ("Westerner") and related terms
There has been considerable continuing interest in this term which
originated from Germanic 'Frank' and spread through Muslim trade routes
after the Crusades into Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. In my last
posting (LINGUIST List: Vol-4-459. Tue 15 Jun 1993) various people had
given these varying forms:
In a general "West" to "East" progression:
"frangos" ("Westerner") - Greek
"ifrangi" - Greek ("Latins (Catholics)", Turkish, Arabic
"frang" "a European" and "frangiya" "The Country of the Franks; Western
Europe; Latin language or church" - Syriac, the classical Aramaic
(Semitic) language used in some Middle Eastern Christian churches,
"afrangui" - In Arabic (in Egypt and in some North African countries)
"ifranji" or "franji" - Arabic dialects
"faranji" - Arabic, "farangi" - Egyptian
"ifranji" (nom masculin singulier, "ifranj" or "ifranjiyine" au pluriel -
Arabic "ifranji (pl., more precisely collective) "ifranj" 'European',
"firanja" "Land of the Franks, Europe" - Modern Standard Arabic
"afrang,faranj, ferang, ferangi" - Modern Persian
"feringhi" - Persian
"farengi, farangi, pirangi" (Tamil version) etc.- Dravidian in India
"farangi" - Malayalam (borrowed from Portuguese in 16th century)
"farang" ("Westerner") in Thai
"barang" - Cambodian
"farang" - Thai from Persian "farangg" in 16th century(?)
"pha-rang", "pha-lang-xa" - formerly Vietnamese
"barang" - Bahasa Indonesia (reduplicated) "goods", "stuff" things such as
might be brought by traders
"paalagi/papalangi/vaalagi/papa-'aa" - Samoan
("four layers"--Rarotongan)/Maori "paakehaa" (likely a coincidence)
"Ferenghi" on Star Trek.
_______________________
message at <www.emich.edu/~linguist/issues/4/4-558.html >
From: "Marie Egan" <[email protected]>
Date: 9 Jul 93 09:19:56 EST
Subject: Farang to Ferenghi
Three recent posts (4.424, 4.459, and 4.492) dealt with the word
farang meaning foreigner and similiar words in a number of languages.
People speculated about the origin of Ferenghi, the name of a species
of traders who appear on the televesion shows Star Trek: The Next
Generation (ST:TNG) and Deep Space 9 (DS9) and in the related books.
I forwarded the discussion to some people who always seem to know the
Trek episode plots before they air (hoping information could flow two-
ways) and have finally gotten a response.
The following is the text of letter from Brad Kane (Prodigy id
HPVM55D). He is a frequent participant in Star Trek discussions on
Prodigy and has a friend who works at Paramount. Rick Berman is the
producer of ST:TNG and a producer of DS9.
From: Brad Kane
Subject: Help with name ...
Date: 7/07 09:39 PM ET
Well, I asked my friend at Paramount
about it, and he asked Rick Berman, and
Berman just smiled and said, "You think
that's something, take a look at some of
the other names of races and planets
we've come up with." Supposedly, they've
used everything from Eskimo to Hitachi,
and no doubt some of them are pretty
vulgar. Good work, it's something I've
never thought of myself.
So now we know (3rd or 4th hand) that the similarity of Ferenghi to
farang and the other words is not a coincidence, even if we don't
know from which language they constructed the name Ferenghi.
The comment about the names of other races and planets sounds like
a challenge.
_______________________
Now, to bring this back to Klingon... I've sometimes wondered where the
Federation first heard of the Ferengi. Could it have been from the Klingons,
who call them {verengan}? Remember that in the TNG pilot episode "Encounter at
Farpoint", Picard et al. had apparently never actually met or seen the
mysterious Ferengi and were only relying on rumor and hearsay. (Pretty nasty
rumours at that, at least before Paramount decided to tame them. But that's a
whole other thread!)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons