Subject: A long-lingering relic of a more smug age.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-05-26 03:02:00 UTC
I created my screen name back in 2006 or so. I had just created a writing blog aimed at posting humorous non-fiction articles in the vein of Dave Barry. I decided to make homage to Poor Richard's Almanack by Ben Franklin and called myself Poor Cynic. The blog withered away to nothing, but the name stuck around.
Names are brilliant, aren't they?
Got heaps on this board itself, from the burningly sexy 'Larfen J. Stocke, esq' to the maybe-less-sexy but infinitely-more-burning 'JulyFlame' to the forever-sexier 'Huinesoron'.
We could cause a global economic crisis with all the names we've got lying around here.
But I'm curious.
Where'd your names come from, then?
My name doesn't have a very interesting story.
One of those dumb kids who bought into the whole 'Class Clown' thing (I wasn't very funny for a clown,) and I reckoned laughinstok would have worked.
It did until a few years back, when I made it into a proper gentleman's name.
But this isn't about me.
It's about you.
Consider it a trust-building exercise.
It is a variant of my Gamertag. I like keeping things simple. I came up with it as a result of trolling someone who was spouting off a bunch of random paranoid conspiracy theories. So i acted as if I were some kind of highly advanced evil government ai. I kind of like the way it looked, so I stuck with it.
Once upon a time, a young lad needed a username. Said young lad was unable or unwilling ( I truly can't remember) to simply use his favorite animal as he had in the past, and so he looked for something new. He had a certain fondness for badgers and a love of Star Wars, and so he combined the two, and the name stuck.
At least, I think that's how it happened.
If anyone is still feeling the translation bug, I wish you luck with this one. If you'd prefer something easier, I have gone by a few other names, most notably WordWolf, Talven, and Talath. I seem to recall Talven being some form of the Finnish word for winter, and I think Talath is the Sindarin word for plain or tundra, so... Wolf of the Wintery Plain, maybe? It's about the only way I can think of to get something translatable out of all that.
In Quenya, I will name you Sapalossë, 'Digging-White'. The old name brock for badgers derives from the fact that it digs out a hole, and of course Stormtroopers wear white.
(More literally, you would be Sapala Canta-Atta-Min, which is a bit of a mouthful.)
In Sindarin, I choose to call you Teithelin, 'Mark of the Stars'. The white flash is apparently the root of the word 'BADGEr', and it looks kind of like a star, plus Star Wars. I've used archaic/poetic forms of both 'mark' (normally taith and 'stars' (normally giliath).
Adunaic is also fairly easy. You are known as Nardurugraba, the Bear-Dog Soldier. This is actually the gender-neutral form of the name; you can choose between masculine Nardurugrabô and feminine Nardurgîrabê, or stick with the original.
Valarin... well, I've been using fire and heat to indicate fighting, so I guess I'll stick with that. You can be Urušphelûnôchâr, 'Fire of the Dwelling Mound'. I don't think I've used 'mound' in a name before now. That's actually quite nice.
Black Speech... well, badgers are black, right? And Stormtroopers are virtually slaves, particularly in Force Awakens. So it's only naturally to name you Búrznaga, the Dark Slave.
And that's why giving me the easy option is a waste of time. ^_^
hS
I am seriously geeking out right now. I didn't really expect anyone to try translating my name, much less succeed, much less succeed five times!
I can't decide between Sapalossë or Teithelin for my favorite, but Nardurugraba is definitely a close third, "the Bear-Dog Soldier" is just awesome.
Seriously, thank you. I am having so much fun with these. One of these days I'm going to have to put a real effort into learning some Star Wars languages so I can return the favor.
-Sapalossë
My name comes from my MLP OC. (of the same name DUH) The basic premise was a hero pony whose talent was dark magic and all the trials and tribulations that would logically follow as Midnight would try to resist any temptation to go down the villainous path like Lord Sombra. Being unfairly persecuted by those who (Rightfully) fear dark magic would also be a thing that Midnight would have to deal with.
Mine came from a screen name I made up for an author avatar of mine (a very minor character) in a semi-fic blip I never quite got around to.
And as for how I came up with it in the first place? I thought it sounded cool.
I don't recognize your username...
July, the month I was born in. Flame, because fire is a very questionable and yet beloved friend of mine.
Since I started using this as a username it's been cut down in all sorts of ways.
When I was still pretty young it was condensed down to 'JF'. From when I was about 11 until 16 or so, roughly.
'July' eventually became the predominant version after I got a bit older, and people eventually stopped using JF entirely for the most part.
More recently others have started calling me 'Ju' as a shorter version.
In all those years I think I've only been called Flame like, once.
-July
Bonus Challenge: Go on, hS, try and Elvish it.
Did you know that Isaac Newton dabbled with creating languages? The information I can find includes a list of intensity prefixes, and a list of state suffixes. It also includes a single noun.
Which just happens to be tor, temperature.
So, hello there, Awtorrt Owtorv, or 'end result of moderate heat/Creator of extreme heat' as I like to call you.
^_^
hS
A mountain, I suppose.
Lairenárel either means 'Flame from Summer' or 'Summer-Flame-Elf/Star'. I'd prefer the first reading. You could also be even more literal and be Nárocermië, 'Flame from July'.
In Sindarin I feel like being a bit more poetic; you can be Laenarthan, 'Summer's Beacon'. Or if you want to be literal again, Nargerveth is just 'Flame of July' again.
Adunaic doesn't have words for either summer or fire, so I've put together Urêlômiphar, 'Gold of the Sunny Night'.
Valarin, on the other hand, is really easy: Ezeluruš means 'Growing-green-Fire', and - astoundingly for Valarin - sounds like an actual name. The use of 'green' here for summer is actually accurate - laire 'summer' in Quenya is closely related to laica 'green'.
The Black Speech... well, we know 'fire'. And summer is no doubt a time of heat and flame in Mordor too. So we'll go all out and call you Ghâshûk, the All-Flame.
And one for luck, because you didn't specify which Elvish... in my very bad Primitive Quendian, I would name you Alaikânra, 'Greenness-flame'.
You're welcome. ^_^
hS
I'm honestly torn on which one I like best of the lot. I suspect it's between Lairenárel or Laenarthan.
I do like how your copout for the Black Speech basically just involves more fire. I certainly approve of this.
-July
This one's slightly easier, because I can cheat. A little.
Gue'kor'vre Fio'gue Shas'kai'rotaa
(Human-Pilot of Earth Month-of-Fire)
...
Okay, I can cheat a lot. Hm. This does seem a bit like a cop-out. The sept I'm keeping, though, and the caste is non-negotiable (Kor is the Air caste, technically, but it's the caste given to Tau naval personnel, so.), so really it's only a question of the personal name aspect. Now, I've been going by the names on the board, but in Tau culture a personal name is adopted after a string of deeds, rather than given at birth. Therefore, allow me to offer:
Gue'kor'vre Fio'gue Por'vattra'yr
(Human-Pilot of Earth Water-fleet-experienced)
Closest I could come to describing naval service in a language from a continuum that doesn't really do wet navy combat. =]
It's apostrophic!
That is a rather interesting naming convention. Even though I do not like Tau. Obnoxious buggers, they are. :>
-July
In that (my reading of it is, YMMV) they are kind of like micro-pauses in a word to demonstrate the different ideas in a compound word. So there's probably going to be a few of them knocking around in any given Tau word or phrase. =]
As for finding them obnoxious, well, you'll be amazed to note I don't agree with you there. I find the Tau to be heroic; spreading out across space in the spirit of co-operation, rather than to purge alien life or eat everything. Yeah, maybe that's naive in the Grim Darkness of the Far Futuuuure, but it also means they're the only dog in this particular fight that I want to succeed.
Of course, GW likes to crush my hopes and dreams, so they're currently big on brainwashing so they "fit in" more with the rest of the 'verse. This is despite the fact that Andy Chambers said in the 3rd ed. rulebook that the Tau were supposed to take a radically different approach to the rest of the factions in the galaxy. But, y'know, GW hates happiness in all its forms. =]
-- Gue'shas'vre Fio'gue J'kles'ro. =]
... did you know there's an alphabet? I transcribed July's names into it:
Based on nothing in particular - mostly the fact that they look block-printed - I've assumed that letters are printed 'joined up'. The transcriptions above are actually over-spaced; I don't think the apostrophes would normally have spaces to mark them, and the actual spaces are too wide.
It does look like a language, doesn't it?
hS
I just suuuuck at image manipulation, so, y'know.
Also, if you want the resource I'm using at present (and a reworking of your name is yours for the asking, if you want it), you can find it here. Hopefully it's as interesting to you as it is to me. =]
I'd also be fascinated to see what you'd come up with as a achievement-based name for me... >:D
hS
So, first things first, the baseline name. Now, Y'eldiserra is a nice sounding name, but the new lexicon informs me I got some of the word parts wrong. This is what I've come up with:-
Gue'por'vre Fio'gue El'anuk'erra
(Human-Magister of Earth Eagle-Shadow)
Which is more literal, if nothing else.
However, if we get onto the achievement based name for you, well... you know how longstanding Tau get more than one achievement name?
Gue'por'vre Fio'gue Elro'shas'ka'yi B'rai'taal
(Human-Magister of Earth Speaker-of-Star-Flowers Shepherd-of-Time-Preservation)
Because, y'know, Sunflower Official and your job as PPC archivist/general-purpose old hand. =]
I love 'Shepherd of Time Preservation'. But I admit I'm also pleased by the fact that El'anuk'erra includes the very Tolkienian El sound.
And given the course of the thread, this was basically inevitable:
Each of my many names gets its most appropriate script - Huinesoron in Tengwar, Aþâradušamanûðân in the Sarati, Dúathoron in the Certhas Daeron, Nâlonarâk in the Angerthas Moria (the common script of the Third Age), Búrzgûl in primitive Cirth, Gue'por'vre Fio'gue El'anuk'erra in Tau script, and Vokunviing in the Dovahzul script.
Dovahzul is the only one I didn't write out myself (I have a cuneiform 'pen' somewhere, but Paint isn't set up for it). And Fhaisorr Amon gets missed out because the Eldar runes are apparently basically untranslatable. Sad, that.
hS
One last thing, as it's you:-
---
"We greet you in the name of the Greater Good, El'ro'ned, Guardian of the Noble Spirit, of the people called in our tongue Fal'bentu'la, or Wise People of the Forests. We hope to be the twelfth member of this Fellowship."
"But our Fellowship is to number but ten, in the manner of the kings of old that first set out to stand against the darkness of Mordor-"
"Yes, and we are the twelfth."
"Gandalf," said Frodo warily while the argument continued in circles, "I'm confused. Is he well? He appears to be, er... blue; has he choked on something?"
"He is well, Frodo, my lad," Gandalf replied. "His people oft talk in riddles, the better to hide their secrets. The elves know them as the Luinincinta, or Bluish-faced, but scholars of ancient mysteries know them as the Tau. And the first of their mysteries is how, if they are so wise, they have only learned to count up to eight."
---
Tau use a base-8 counting system. This is something I felt certain to drive Elrond completely round the twist. Nine shall be the number of your et cetera. =]
I didn't even know this many people existed!
How do we all fit?!
I created my screen name back in 2006 or so. I had just created a writing blog aimed at posting humorous non-fiction articles in the vein of Dave Barry. I decided to make homage to Poor Richard's Almanack by Ben Franklin and called myself Poor Cynic. The blog withered away to nothing, but the name stuck around.
I go by the name of supersonic805 on the LEGO forums. In roman numerals, DCCCV is 805. I chose that because while I still enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog, I no longer wish to be known by a name randomly generated as a suggestion. Besides, DCCCV is longer than three numbers.
Sort of like KittyEden does, only mine was worse. She was a Black Butler (an anime/manga series) Sue, a Fury, which was a species I made up that was like a demon (canon species) but more powerful, with wings made of unbreakable, flexible adamant (a material whose properties I invented as the need arose). Her lust-object was Sebastian (a demon, one of the main canons; the one everyone lusted after) but nobly set her attraction aside to help him and Grell (another canon) get together... Did I mention she was an RP character? She was fond of the phrase, "Your attack misses because I have/can..." Did I mention the people playing Sebastian and Grell had no interest in getting together? She had to dodge a lot of attacks.
Fortunately, I realized how terrible she was after one RP. I then elected to write under her name (Erin Alekto) as a constant reminder to never do that again. (I never wrote much though; I preferred reviewing.) But when I arrived at the PPC, an organization devoted to reminding people not to write like that, I didn't feel like using that name was necessary. But her name was the only username I used at the time. I experimented with combinations of letters, but couldn't find one I liked. It was getting late. All the names I came up with were starting to look the same: like pure gibberish. Out of frustration I paid a visit to the TV Tropes page for names that sound like they were invented by mashing the keys and my eyes lit upon the title: Cat-on-the-Keyboard Names. The rest is history.
I've come to like it a lot. It lends itself really well to cool-sounding nicknames: the snappy, gender-neutral "Key," the cute, punnable, femme-but-in-a-comfortable-way "Cat," and potential for more. Also, I only use it with the PPC, which means i have nothing but positive associations with it.
Reckon we could have an entire thread dedicated to the buggers, eh?
If I've had any, I can't recall them.
I only started writing proper a couple years back, and that was preceded by years of Das Mervin and other various spork-fellows.
I attribute everything I know about writing to them, those magnificent bastards. Including not writing Sues.
I like your name,* Key, but I feel like it might get a bit unwieldy, you know?
Hyphens and whatnot, fingers going all over the keyboard, tumbling over buttons and letters and getting knotted together and all.
Not that I ought to be judging, mine's a mess, but, er, I will.
Judge.
*No, but really. I don't want to seem weird, but it's clever, y'know?
Proper computers remember it and autofill after a letter or two, but my phone doesn't, probably precisely because of the hyphens. It's not that bad to type it out every time, though, and I'm not quite comfortable with machines knowing my personal details, anyway. It makes me feel a bit less in control of my life.
Your judgement is inaccurate.
Terrible Sue OCs you created in the past. That could be interesting; I know I have quite a few doozies.
I have lurked The Board for a while, and my username reflects that.
When I chose it, I thought numbers-as-letters was cool.
My old (oooold) handle was SoulFinder, until I got tired of it and decided I wanted something better. I figure that without all the distracting physical details you basically get people's inner selves online, and I've always tried to be my authentic self besides, so I though just "soul" was appropriate. I went looking around for a cool word with that meaning, and I found this one in a Yiddish-English dictionary in my high school library. I cribbed it, and it stuck.
That's pretty much it.
~Neshomeh
Since we seem to be translating in this thread...
I reckon I could be Indiel (ind- inner thought, meaning, heart + -iel daughter, maid; feminine ending).
In Quenya, it would probably have to be something based on fëa, and I don't wanna sound like Fëanor, so meh. {= /
~Neshomeh
Okay, so Tau and souls don't mix terribly well except during the Mont'au period (roughly analogous to the Terror in French history), but you can just about get there with a bit of linguistic jiggery-pokery. And this is a conlang, after all, so linguistic jiggery-pokery is very much the name of the game. =]
As such, I hope this is to your liking:-
Gue'por'vre Fio'gue Ran'ea'Qim
(Human-Magister of Earth Spirit-of-the-Void-Within)
Ea'Qim has a fairly specific meaning; it refers to a practice and desired internal state for followers of the Greater Good, and the best analogy for a human observer is nirvana. Ran is the closest (and fairly folkloric) approximation of the soul, and thus combining the two to imply an embodiment of a noble soul is about the best I can come up for a name with such a specific meaning.
Also I'm working off a new living Tau'sia lexicon that I literally only found this morning (and the previous ones didn't even name the Tau language as Tau'sia, which goes to show what a jump it is) so I'll probably end up redoing some other ones as well. =]
inda is also a word in Quenya ('mood, mind'), but there's also enda, meaning 'centre' and denoting both the mind and the soul. Endawen, then? But I don't like the sound of that.
Hmm... you're married, so you're not technically a wende anyway (it literally means 'unmarried woman of any age'). How do you feel about Amillendë, 'Mother of the Soul'? Or if that sounds a bit odd to you, Nissendë, 'Woman of Heart'?
In Adunaic now I have to be a bit creative. So, religiously-speaking, the soul was given by Iluvatar as a gift; the other part of the Gift of Men is their yearning for something beyond the world, so how about Yôzâira, 'Gift of Longing'?
Valarin... okay, so the Eldarin soul is like a fire in their body, hence so many of them practically bursting into flame on death. So how about Phelûnuruš, 'Hearthfire'? I suggest putting the stress on the 'nu'.
And keeping the fire theme: in the Black Speech, let's call the soul the Ruling Fire: Ghâshdurbat, literally 'Fire to Rule'. Because seriously, there's only a handful of words in the Black Speech, I've not got a lot to work with.
hS
And here I thought I wasn't the only one who just threw together a bunch of sounds until it seemed okay... *pouts*
What's a name that means "Nothing", in that case? :P
In Quenya, I name you Únyárë, 'No Tale'. (Or you could simply be Munta, 'nothing', but that's boring.
In Sindarin, Aringath is your name, for you are Without Notions.
In the tongue of Numenor, you are called Bawâbêth, 'the Wind-Speaker', for when we ask your name, we hear only the breeze.
Similarly in Valarin they speak of you as Amanaišalšebeth, the Unmarred Air, for your words do not trouble its stillness.
And in the Black Speech... in the Black Speech they don't care. You are simply Ashgûl, 'that One Wraith'.
None of which are the least bit appropriate for the PPC's most prolific writer - in fact most of them were chosen to be as inappropriate as possible - but hey, you did ask...
hS
If I hadn't been basically ignored by all my peers save for when it "amused" them as a child, I wouldn't have become as invested in stories and writing as I am now. They're all lovely names, but I think I like Únyárë best.
(And I'm not the most prolific yet; I still have five more missions to go before I tie with IndeMaat's old record.)
That "munter" is local slang over my way for an ugly/unattractive person. This also doesn't work for Iximaz, whether in person or in spirit. =]
Hah, and now I'm looking back over the translations I offered for 'Scapegrace'... yes, most of them just mean 'fool'. Fun stuff. ^_^
hS
Considering that my first username was wobblestheclown.
And that I'm an imbecile. =]
Ch-ch; Clem, Grakata!
I made it up a looong time ago, when I was still in High School and first got into Middle-Eart's lore...
What does it mean? Well, I'll let someone more versed than me in those languages, answer that for me!
A lesser god in Greek Mythology, Phobos (fear) and his twin brother Deimos (terror) accompanied their father Ares into battle. I picked up the name from the book "Gates of Fire", which is about the battle of Thermopylae. Phobos is the shield piercer. He breaks defenses better than any spear.
So, why did I pick that name for myself? Because, when I play games (Magic: The Gathering is the big one at the moment), I try to break my opponents defenses in that way. Make them afraid of what my next move might be. Make them afraid of what I might have in my hand or up my sleeve. I play a very mental game and my opponents make mistakes because of it.
If someone were to do a Quenya translation, it probably comes out as something like "Shadow on the Heart/Mind".
-Phobos, the Mind Killer
Starting from "Shadow on the Heart" I get something like...Orelome (Heart Night)? Indolumbe (Heart/Soul Gloom)? Maybe just Caure (Fear)?
I have no idea what I'm doing.
-Phobos, honestly more of a Dwarf
But it's not very poetic, is it?
... this is actually really hard. The darkness words just don't taste very nice.
Okay, I think the best option is Lómindossë, 'night on the heart'. That's quite good.
Over in Beleriand, I'm quite taken by Duinnath, 'darkness on all thoughts'. 'du-INN-ath'.
Taking a swim to Numenor, we come across Adunaic, and the name Ugrazrôn, a fairly condensed name meaning 'Shadow on the Sea'. They see you as the threat of an oncoming storm; the kind that you can tell is on its way, but with no idea when it will hit.
Valarin... well, I think the name Akašândušamanûðân might be blasphemous, since it comes out as 'The One decrees the Marring'. But it certainly gets that unsettling feeling across.
In the Black Speech, you are Burzulûk: 'dark(en) them all'. Sauron doesn't just care about their minds - he's after everything.
And, just for you... a Dwarvish name.
Knhuzdul is a nightmarish language, with almost no words, and I barely understand it. But you could be Zanûn Asalân, 'the Bringer of Shadow'. We know that two-part Khuzdul names are possible: there was a smith named Gamil Zirak back in Nogrod. You could also hyphenate it if you like, or even press the two parts together entirely; the rules are super unclear.
hS
I especially like the sound of Lómindossë and love the feel of Ugrazrôn. It speaks of a darkened horizon. amassing clouds, and wind-driven waves.
Khuzdul! Zanûn Asalân sounds like a name suitable for a stranger who wanders through town a day before the Black Riders show up, or something. I like it.
Thank you for these.
-Ugrazrôn, the Shadow on the Sea
It’s as close to "Anonymous" and as far from "non-descript entity" as I could get, because I won’t tell you who I am, but still want to be recognizable.
HG is an aged, German, genderbent Hermione Granger who actually sports a gray beard.
Now, a little more interestingly - another username I use: EQSkyfall. EQ is sort of an abbreviation for equestrian (fancy word for 'I Ride Horses') and Skyfall is a character's name of mine :)
Let's just say that I took my first name and turn it into the English equivalent of it and use a variation of a somewhat translation of my surname.
I just took my first name and played with the letters.
Oh, you linked to the answer in your email. At least I know I was right (well, my mom was right).
El = either poetic word for star, or (by association with Elda) an Elf
Cal = shine,brightness,light
-ion = son/heir/follower
Taken together, means something like "Bright Elf son" or "Son of the bright star". I prefer the "star" interpretation.
As far as grammar, it's modelled on Eldarion/Ereinion, although not sure if I've gotten the adjective order correct (I guess Calelion would potentially be a viable alternative, but sounds a bit too Kryptonian. Besides, one of the rules of Elvish in-universe is "change the language to make it sound pretty" so I feel justified in going for the more euphonious option).
Calion is half of the Quenya name of Ar-Pharazon 'the Golden'. So El-calion can also be 'Golden Star'.
If I was translating you into Sindarin, I'd probably go with Elengail; it drops the '-ion' (because Sindarin names tend to be shorter than Quenya ones) and just makes you 'bright star'.
And if you feel like speaking Valarin, you can be Tulukharušurûz: He of the Yellow Fire. (Look, there's not a lot of Valarin out there...!)
hS
Hehe, nice work with the Valarin.
I thought 'elen' as star was only a Quenya thing and Sindarin used 'gil' (with the exception of a few translated names such as Elrond etc)? I'm a bit rusty with my HoME-reading so going entirely off memory here. As a Quenya translation, Elengail would fit the 'Exilic' pattern of 'imperfect' translations pretty well.
Back when 'Elcalion' was a fic character I was writing (I've since dropped the idea now I'm using it as a username), I had 'Artalinde' as the father-name and Elcalion as the mother-name; any thoughts about Sindarinising 'Artalinde' (apart from the obvious, but slightly-weird sounding Linrod by analogy with Finrod)? Ar(o)lin(d)?ElcalionTulukharashuruz
It compounds as 'elen-', hence, Elengail. You're right that a native Sindarin speaker would probably use gil instead, making... honestly, I think the best-sounding variant is simply Gil-Gail, you end up with -ln- clusters otherwise. It's also only two syllables; Sindarin names tend to be about that length, though it's not a hard rule (Lu-thi-en Ti-nu-vi-el).
Artalinde, 'noble tune', or poetically 'high air'. I'm highly tempted by simple 'Arlind', but that terminal -nd makes me twitchy. On the other hand, Elrond... yeah, Arlind would probably be Artalinde's translation, unless he got fancy.
For a native speaker, though, you could get fancy and be Glirarth. That's 'Song-Noble' again... but is also only a couple of letters off from the collective plural for 'songs', glíriath. And implied double-meanings are very Tolkienesque.
hS
Glirarth works very nicely, much more euphonious than Arlind.
Come to think of it, terminal -nd does seem to be a Sindarin thing (albeit with time or with casual pronunciation I can see the 'd' disappearing): as well as Elrond and Aglarond and Merethrond, we have Mithlond and Harlond.
Perhaps in colloquial Sindarin in Gondor the pronunciation might have tended to Merethron and Harlon? Same thing could have happened to Elrond if not for the Noldor obsession with lore and accuracy.
In Adunaic, you can be Pharazgimlôn, 'Golden Star'. I suggest putting the stress on the AZ.
In the Black Speech... well, no servant of Sauron would be seen dead talking about bright stars. No, to the servants of evil, you must be Ghâshbúrz, the Dark Fire.
I think that makes you a Balrog.
hS
What's 'Laughing Stock' in Quenyan?
I hope you've checked your study notes, hS.
It's Lálalocasta, pronounced 'Laa-lah-lo-CAST-ah'. ^_~
The verb 'to laugh' is 'lala-'. Adding the suffix -la and lengthening the first vowel turns it into lálala, '[the state of] laughing'. Adding an -o suffix (here replacing the final a) puts it into the genetive case, 'of laughing', or 'laughing's'. 'Casta' means 'cause, reason'. Put it all together, and you get Lálalocasta, 'Laughter's cause'.
And just for fun:
This is why written Quenya often leaves out the three-dot sign for 'a' altogether.
hS
(And it's called 'Quenya'. Unless you consider yourself to speak Americanish Englishan? ~hS)
Would you mind Quenya-ing (or any other language) Richard, 'leader strong' and Gerard, 'spear strong'? I'd ask for Marina too, and these two suits of words 'wise soul', and 'soul serving wisdom' if you don't mind. (If any of these suits of words are to difficult to handle, feel free to chanfge them. Just jeeps the original sense.)
And so this is 25 names.
Richard (strong leader)
Quenya: Hestopolda ('Strong captain')
Sindarin: Turthalion ('dauntless victor')
Adunaic: Pâburôdabâr ('Lord of the Heavy Hand')
Valarin: Mâchanâzuruš ('Authority of Fire')
Black Speech: Durbatum ('dominion')
Gerard (strong spear)
Quenya: Poldehtë ('Strong spear')
Sindarin: Thelavell ('Strong spear')
Adunaic: Narduburôdôn ("Heavy Sword")
Valarin: Igasiniðil ('Heat of the Lily'; okay, yes, it's a distant translation)
Black Speech: Olog ('troll')
Marina
Quenya: Falassópa ('Shoreland Cove')
Sindarin: Carfalas ('House on the Shore')
Adunaic: Azrakadar ("City of the Sea")
Valarin: Phelûnulu ('water's home')
Black Speech: Ronk-ishi ('in a pool', Orkish)
'wise soul'
Quenya: Fëanólë ('soul of lore', and yes, I know who it sounds like)
Sindarin: Faeidhren ('thoughtful soul')
Adunaic: Sapthân ('wise man', aka 'wizard')
Valarin: Mâchanuruš ('Authoritative Fire', suggesting a soul guided by the One)
Black Speech: Ghâshum ('fireness', suggesting a strong soul; wisdom is hardly something Orcs are going to mention)
'soul serving wisdom'
Quenya: Nólendur ('servant of wisdom')
Sindarin: Ingoludur ('heart serving lore')
Adunaic: Sapthânô ('from the wise one')
Valarin: Akašânuruš ('The One says + fire', a soul instructed by the One)
Black Speech: Ghâshum (as for 'wise soul')
hS
Now, I'm half the mind of using one of the ten first as a pseudo someday. It would be a damn interesting thing to do.
(For te 10 last... I would want to write some HF setting someday, and one of the two would be the name for one of the characters. In the 'old language' of said setting of course.'
How do you Elvish-ise "Death Fungus" (which is what "Des Dendle" seems to mean)?
... that there is actually a Quenya word for 'fungus'? :D
It's hwan, and coupling it with the word for 'agonising death' gives us Hwanoqualmë, 'Death from a Mushroom'.
Moving on to Sindarin... would you believe there's also a Sindarin word for 'fungus'? Because there is, and it's 'hwand'. It even appears as 'hwan' in constructs.
So we'll go with Hwanwanath in Sindarin, with the exact same meaning as the Quenya.
Now... would you believe there's an Adunaic word for 'fungus', too? No? Good, 'cause there isn't. You'll have to be Inzilagan, the Death Flower.
In Valarin you have to drift even further from the meaning; we're capturing a concept that the Valar had no understanding of. But you can be Dušamanûðâniniðil, the Marred Flower. It even starts with a D!
Finally, in the Black Speech... well, what does a death-fungus do but bring darkness on its eater? So you get to be Thrakaburz, 'To Bring the Dark'.
hS
The word "generation" (as in a generation of people, not the generation of electricity)?
How do you define a 'generation' when everyone lives forever, so they'll all eventually be adults together? Cross-'generational' marriages certainly happened - Eol was kinsman to Thingol, which makes him of the same generation as Finwe, but he married one of Finwe's granddaughters. Take any random set of elves in peacetime, designate them Generation 1, and after a few hundred years they'll be so tangled up that it's meaningless.
You might be able to argue for it to exist in the sense of 'the third generation from Finwe' (ie, his great-grandchildren), but even there, you're looking at the possibility of remote-cousin intermarriage.
... also neither language has that word and I can't think of a way to gloss it. Just work around it, as indeed Tolkien occasionally did - 'the children of the fathers of the fathers of men'.
hS
How would you say, "she of the Old Hope," or, "warrior of the Old Hope," or, "follower of Eru" in either Quenya or Sindarin? Quadruple points if you can make it begin with "A" or sound somewhat like my screen name.
-Alleb
As I discovered last time with hS's name in the language of the happy-go-lucky space Commies, Tau as a conlang is very, very slipshod and approximate. We don't have much in the way of grammar, but we have words for nuclear reactor, neural feedback (a la Neon Genesis Evangelion), and for some reason spoon. Since the Tau are also not religious, the Old Hope has had to be approximated with a Tau-acceptable variant - the Greater Good, a quasi-spiritual affair in the rigidly caste-based Tau society wherein everyone works for the benefit of everyone else. This in mind, I hope the following name is acceptable:
Gue'shas'vre Fio'gue Sho'Tauva'Vesa
(Human-Hero of Earth Sight-Helper-of-the-Greater-Good)
Tau names are set up thus: caste and rank, sept (homeworld or home system, depending on who you ask), then a personal name. In your case, I tried to incorporate both the "follower of the Old Hope" thing and a reference to a Glimpse - in this case, Sho, meaning sight or lens. I hope it's okay. =]
Signing stuff is gonna be a pain, but I don't care.
I really like the "sight" addition--very nice. The meaning of the name is also awesome. Now I'm gonna have to get an agent from this continuum so I can use this--what's the name of the show/book/movie/media?
-AllebGue'shas'vre Fio'gue Sho'Tauva'Vesa
The Tau are a race of blue aliens from Warhammer 40,000, from whence the term grimdark was formed; a long-running tagline for the game (in its various incarnations) is "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war". It's incredibly self-important and overblown, and there are still people who take it 100% seriously. These people are also generally neo-Nazis. Make of this what you will.
Back when I played it, in 4th Edition, the Tau were a tiny, technologically advanced empire sandwiched between the Imperium of Man (space Nazis, kind of the good guys because almost everyone around them is worse), the Orks (fungus-born space monsters whose ships are literally big rocks powered by belief), and Hive Fleet Kraken of the Tyranids (extragalactic bugs that consume entire biospheres). They were the only empire even remotely tolerable, with their caste-based but largely free society, so of course Games Workshop dialled up the grimdark and made them into hyperzealous space Maoists with a penchant for brainwashing.
I do not consider it canon. =]
I should mention that a Shas'vre is a mid-ranking soldier in the Shas military caste (that's Fire caste in English). If you're wanting a Tau agent to use that, you can either have them be standard infantry, a Pathfinder (forward ops), or a battlesuit pilot. I'd personally go for the third option, since their actual training will likely be useless unless they were in an XV15 or XV25 Stealth Suit, but it's up to you. =]
... so I'll look to Quenya (surprise, surprise).
'Estel' is used in Quenya as well as Sindarin, and is still the best translation for the Old Hope; it pretty much means 'faith', though not purely in a religious sense. Since the Old Hope itself is a Mannish belief, and the only source for it (Andreth) isn't a believer herself, it doesn't have a proper translation. So, in fact, Estelwen works just as well in Quenya as Sindarin.
To drag in the A- names, we need to look at alme, almie, and almare, all words meaning 'blessedness'. Almiel is apparently an attested name, but Almariel, 'maiden of bliss', would work.
For warriors we want 'ohtar', giving us a possibility of Almehtar ('Bliss-Warrior'). And 'mehtar' is another word for warrior anyway. If this name was 'Alamehtar' it would mean 'not a warrior', so it probably carries overtones of 'I wish this fighting was not necessary, but I will do it'.
For 'follower of the One', I'll concur with Elcalion's point: no Elda would use the name of the One in a personal name. The only place I can think of that it was habitually used was in marriage vows, and you remember how utterly permanent those were. Same for the Oath of Feanor.
So... 'Aina' means 'Holy', and is used in one name of the One, Ainatar ('Holy Father'). There's a word tirno, which means 'watcher', so how about Ainatirië? It really needs an n in the middle (Ainantirie) for grammatic reasons, but that's ugly, so I didn't. ^_^
I've also coined the term tirisaina, which means 'holy vigil'. Sounds like the sort of thing a warrior of the Old Hope would carry out.
Now for a quick excursion into less savory tongues.
In the much maligned Valarin, I would call you Aþârarušur, 'Appointed Flame'; the 'appointed' is used of the Sun and of Arda, so works for 'Divinely appointed'; 'fire' is standing in for 'warrior', since while we have the names of the two warrior Valar, Tulukhastâz just means 'yellow-haired', and Arômêz has no inherent meaning (helpful, that). If you want to really pile on the divinity (and syllables), you could be Aþârarušurakašân, literally 'Appointed-fire-the One says', but colloqially 'Chosen Warrior of/by the Word'. A-thar-a-RUS-ur-a-ka-san seems to be the most natural way to say it.
Adunaic makes my head hurt, but has the word 'minul' for 'heaven'. If you wanted to be Minulzir, 'Lover of Heaven', you could be; you could also be Narduminul, 'Heaven's Soldier'. Minulzir sounds like quite a nice name, as Adunaic names go.
And so we come to the Black Speech. Its speakers have no truck with the One: they know only Melkor. And they have no willing followers. You are Burznaga, 'slave of the Dark'.
... which is a tiny rebellion in itself, because the story of the Awakening of Men tells of the quiet voice in the darkness that tried to sway the people away from the Dark Rider they had chosen to follow...
hS
So many names! I've got them all written down, and their meanings, so I can use them later. Thank you so much! :D These are so awesome! I especially like Ainatirië, Aþârarušurakašân, and my new Aduniac names. And Burznaga! I like all of them.
Question: Can you speak Quenya? You specifically, I mean. Because oh my gosh that would be awesome
-Alleb
Mal haryan maurë parmalinya.
Or: I know how to write it. But I need my books.
More precisely, I need Ardalambion and the two wordlists found on there. At one point I could have done it with just the wordlists, but the details of the grammar have faded with lack of use. I still remember the structure of it, though, so it doesn't take too long to put things together.
(I also once wrote an account of the Lay of Leithian in Sindarin. Now that took a long time.)
hS
"Amdir" is hope in the sense of "expectation, optimism" (literally means something like "upward-looking"), while "Estel" is hope in the sense of "trust".
Usual female endings are "-(r)iel" (garlanded-maiden) or "-wen" (woman).
Warrior - there's a couple of variants, some of which are chiefly used for orcs and other "enemies", so the best would be "maethor" (warrior) or "magor" (swordsman), which will mutate into "-vagor" under certain conditions (I'm not 100% with Sindarin lenition).
So "she of the Old Hope" would probably best be "Estelwen" (using the 'Estel' option as best fitting Old Hope) (Esteliel sounds a bit strange to my ear). Alternatively, could go with "Amdiriel" which has the alliterative-'A' bonus, but uses "lesser" hope.
"Warrior of the old hope" would probably be "Estelva(e)thor" or "Estelvagor" [fairly sure that the m would lenit to v, since it did in the similar Menelvagor" (Swordsman of the Sky), the Sindarin name for the constellation Orion].
"Follower of Eru" would be something like "Erudil" or "Erudur", but neither would likely be an "appropriate" Elvish name, as there was quite a strong... well, 'taboo' is probably too strong a word, but 'respectful caution' placed on use of the name of The One, so incorporating it into a personal name would be unlikely.
"Amandil" or "Amandur" (friend/servant/follower of Aman/ - literally the Blessed Realm, but used by Tolkien as 'heaven') are legitimate names (Elendil's father was Amandil) and would probably be the closest that an Elf would get to including Eru in a personal name.
Elcalion, translatory
Man, so many to chose from! :D I like Estelwen, Estelvagor, and Amdiriel particularly. I'm going to write all these down so I have them for when I need a quick Elf name!
Speaking of, I found a Sindarin name generator that seems fairly good, although I'm no expert on the language. What do you think of it?
-Alleb
I feel like a true elf, now.
It fits, too, because I sort of feel like it's the sort of name someone would get the hell bullied out of them for.
I swear I didn't write Quenyan.
I swear.
I'm not even trying to avoid blame, I have no idea that I did that. I don't even know how, the 'n' key is a whole hand away from the 'a' key.
Something mysterious is afoot.
In Sindarin, you could be Celuladhad - 'celu' is 'a spring', and the verb 'gladha-' (to laugh) mutates to 'ladha in compounds, and gains a -d to make it a gerund. So you're 'the wellspring of laughter'.
Valarin remains impossible to do decent translations in, but you could be called Aþarmirubûz, 'he of the festival wine' - ie, you make people happy, but also might be quite foolish yourself.
As for the evil tongues... well, the Orkish corpus consists mostly of one line with two translations, but if we choose the one preferred by Ardalambion, we can name you simply Glob: 'fool'.
Which is exactly the sort of thing Orcs would do.
hS (or Dúathoron, or Aþâradušamanûðân, or Búrzgûl if you like)
-- wait, I forgot Adunaic.
Well, the Adunaic texts aren't too cheerful, but we can take our cue from the Orcs and name you Khibilannîph, 'Fount of Foolishness'. It's actually quite pleasant-sounding, for Adunaic.
~Nâlonarâk
I had forgotten how much fun this is. I've previously handed out names to Edhelistar (and got one back in Dovahzul) and Scapegrace (and got two back in Tau and 40K!Eldar). Languages are fun! (And I'm always happy to collect more!)
~Vokunviing, Y'eldiserra, or Fhaisorr Amon
I've never had so many names in my life.
Like Glob.
I think it fits me.
There was meant to be an exchange?
Er.
Um.
Give me a couple years, I'll go learn French and come back real fast.
Is there a literal quote about 'change the language to make it sound pretty' from somewhere?
I'd love to see it.
Lámatyávë is the Quenya word for 'sound-taste'. It's an important factor in choosing a name.
hS
Somewhere in History of Middle Earth (possibly the Shibboleth of Feanor?) there's a discussion on how the Eldar 'guided' changes in their languages for aesthetic reasons. The Shibboleth itself (use of s- in place of th-) may be an example of this, it's been too long since I've read it.
Elcalion, euphonious
The story of the Shibboleth of Feanor is that the scholars of the Noldor sat down one day hour of the Trees and decided "Y'know what'd be cool? Instead of saying 'th', we could say 's'!"
So they did that, and so did the rest of the Noldor. They wrote the same letter, just changed how it should be said in every word.
Except, slight problem: Feanor's dead mother, who he was a bit obsessive about, was named Miriel Therinde. And Feanor absolutely refused to defame her memory by changing her name posthumously to 'Serinde'.
So even though he was one of the foremost linguistic scholars of Valinor, he refused to change his speech, and taught his children to keep using good old th. So you could always tell whether you were in the presence of a Feanorian, because they thpoke funny.
hS
(Of course, there were already Ses in the language beforehand, so it's not always possible to tell whether one used to be a th... mine did, but hTh looks, um, dumb. Also, I'm not Feanor's biggest fan.)
A couple of sound changes I can think of right away (hS probably has more examples) which are partially 'aesthetic'
Archaic 'Quendya' became Quenya
'Tyelep' (silver) became 'telep, telpe' partially under the influence of Telerin
Huine is 'shadow, twilight', soron is 'eagle'. Hence, Eagleshade. It's not entirely proper Quenya, but it works for me. (And it's pronounced Hween-AY-sore-on, since that always comes up.)
As for why... it was my first email handle, and I got an email address to talk about the release of The Two Towers with a friend over the Christmas holidays. So I pulled out the Silmarillion and looked through the language index... and that's all there is to it.
hS
^^^^^ As for that thing: it's a Latinisation of my Tengwar monogram:
That's a small hyarmen contained in a large silme, so I used small h, large S. Et voila.
hS, owner of the sexiest name, muaha
Good on you for saying the pronunciation - I was going to ask that next. I like it. Rolls charmingly off the tongue, y'know.
Also, a hyarmen sounds sort of like something you'd get removed after an infection. No offence.
So I will never need to be surgically reduced to S.
hS
We need to add this into PPC canon, somehow.
Yeah, the, the fifteenth series of that show got dark. =]
For those unfamiliar with Tengwablocks (or its originator, Alphablocks, the Tengwablocks join hands to spell out words - and then the things they spell appear.
For those unfamiliar with Quenya who need to watch Tengwablocks, the blocks were doing something nice for Ungwe by making a hline, 'cobweb', for her. But then Vala manifested (he does that), replacing Numen, and changing the word to hlive - 'sickness'.
Poor Ungwe.
At least it let them teach the kids the Quenya for 'vaccine'.
hS
... by a rock band, who were very popular in my country, Denmark, and virtually unknown everywhere else.
I don't recall exactly why I started using it; it's a very catchy little song, but nothing extraordinary. But it does have the advantage that no-one else uses it, so whenever I sign up for something it's always available as a username.
I've actually stopped thinking of it as a song and just think of it as my second name.
Techno-Dann has been with me for a very long time - it was my first online handle, and the PPC was one of the first places I used it... thirteen years ago? Gosh, I feel old.
It was... hmm. Superhero name as invented by an idealess (and very pre-social-justice) fifteen year old? "Dann" borrows from the Redwall series, as I'm sure people who've read Marlfox have figured. (First fandom cred!)
More recently, Delta Juliette started life as a name I used to start to get away from the very gendered reading I had of Techno-Dann. It's very much a zero-imagination name: my IRL initials are DJ, and I'm leaning towards a direct transliteration of my name when it changes - Daniel James will become Danielle Juliette. It's also quietly transfeminine - "Delta" being used in math and physics to denote change, and "Juliette" being a very femme name.
Actually, after you made your first post as "Delta Juliette," I wandered around whispering it under my breath for multiple days. It's so pretty.
--Key once again embarrasses herself without regret
For all that I didn't put much thought into it, I rather like it too- there's a rhythm to it that's fun to say.
Makes me think of Juliette by Little Feat, which is a pretty awesome song.
All that symbolism and whatnot!
Fractal metaphors!
Mine is just a dumb pun!
Good heavens.
Anyway, my handle comes from this Yu-Gi-Oh! card. I liked (and still like) the name even though basically everything about the card is crappy.
Criminal mastermind, aren't you?
I enjoy coming up with characters just for the sake of drawing them. Not even writing about them, just coming up with them and leaving them sitting around. Nova was one of my favorites.
She's tall, very lanky, and always wears this patched up cat-eared hoodie that she picked up in a thrift shop once. She has black hair that goes down to the middle of her back and blank, pupil-less silver eyes, because she's a member of a species of dragon shapeshifters that my friend came up with. She's been a personal fave for a while.
that'll be your agent, eh?
Oh, no, don't worry, I'll keep it a secret.
Agent? Agent? What's that mean?
*wink*
I've made an article for it on the wiki, finally.
I picked the name because a) I couldn't think of anything better, and b) The Door Within has always been one of my favorite series. Even if the doctrine is a bit sketchy. It got me through one of those IRL difficulty spikes. Y'know, when you've just done the real life equivalent of leveling up and the new game mechanics are hard to master and the enemies just got a lot tougher.
Interestingly enough, Alleb is not my full screen name. Technically, it's Alleb Knight. But that just sounds pretentious.
Also, I remember being rather impressed by your name when you first arrived--it's a good one, very memorable.
-Alleb KnightAlleb
Especially the esq.
Very professional.
Sounds an interesting series, though that little 'YA' sends shivers down my spine.
Either that or it's the 13 degrees celsius wandering through my house.
I ought to ask, though, if a fellow has dark skin (real dark), what does their Glimpse end up looking like?
Might take a bit of getting used to, is all I'm saying.
Although I seem to remember hearing something about some Glimpses having a slight cast to their skin; I'd check, but I only own the series as audiobooks, so it would take too long.
It is a good series. I heartily recommend the audiobooks--the author himself narrates them, and does a pretty good job of it.
The "YA" part of it is really just the fact that the protagonists are teenagers--there's very little romance, and no love triangles. It's an adventure story first and foremost, I think. You should read them because I NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO ABOUT THEM they're quite good!
-Alleb
I can count the number of people I can discuss LISA with on one finger.
It's one.
It's my bathroom mirror.
He's very nice, though a bit ugly.
I found a forum for it, but it's gone dead--I'm not sure how alive it was to begin with--which almost makes it worse.
What's LISA?
-Alleb
is a series of three games: LISA the First, LISA the Painful, and Painful's rather short DLC sequel and ultimate end to the series: LISA the Joyful.
The First was made ages back, and is pretty much an entirely different type of game - it's only real relevance is backstory for the other games.
Just, er, put it to the side, if you will.
LISA the Painful is about Brad Armstrong: balding, chubby failure of a man trying to rescue last woman alive in a post-genderpocalypse world, who happens to be his adopted daughter.
It gets quite a bit more complex than that, of course, and has got some of the greyest morality I've seen in my life.
It jumps between bizarre (and usually dark) humour, horror, and horrific depression gloriously.
Many a mature topic is tackled, and they're all done with the subtlety and, er, maturity they deserve. It goes on about 'disgust' and 'moral destruction,' but it never really feels awful or mean-spirited, y'know?
Just feels... rough. Real.
It has bloody good music and an amazing ending.
LISA the Joyful is about said adopted daughter: Buddy, who is a wondrous deconstruction of the Chosen One archetype.
It has bloody good-er music and an even more amazing ending.
It's also got one of my favourite protagonists* of all time.
What can I say?
I like my main characters broken and pathetic.
The games are hilarious and they also made me cry.
Seriously, that ending.
Good heavens.
Got a link to the website here.
It's very weird.
*Note that I never said 'hero'
Here we go.
-Alleb
Lovely creatures.
N'awww...
um,
Kitty was originally the name of my terrible OC. and then I took it as my own.
That's about it.
I'm curious again.
Assuming you're willing to share, of course.
When I was, like, 10, I was a fanfic reader and I read this admittedly really terrible Artemis Fowl fic (but I honestly loved it at the time), and at one point the writer, who I remember as being really nice and friendly, asked for some OCs to put into his story. Now, I, as an excited 10-year-old, was basically like "hell yeah!" and I immediately typed out the profile of a kick-ass centaur girl who loved inventing stuff and carried around a water pistol that shot acid. But I didn't have a name for her, so I went, "um....um......" and just threw out 'Kitty Eden' for no particular reason. Fast forward to a few weeks later, and 'Kitty' had made her way into one of my (again, terrible) fanfictions. And at some point I guess I must have adopted the name for my own internet purposes. It seemed to fit, anyway, since my username is 'TheBigCat' on fanfiction.net and a lot of other places. :P
So yeah.
I should probably copy my answer for repeats of this thread, but meh, I like telling the story.
So! I'm a big RPG nerd, be it tabletop or MMORPGs, and the very first MMORPG I ever played was Runescape. This was back in the day when you actually got to choose your username instead of being forced to pick one provided by the game, and I decided there was no way I wanted to be CamelotOrc3327 or whatever the number was (The CamelotOrc bit really stuck in my mind; I don't think I'll ever forget that.), no way, no how. I wanted a name name, dangit!
The only problem was that anything resembling a real name would be caught by the censors and not be allowed, so I played around with some sounds and letters before coming up with Iximaz.
Look, I was twelve, it sounded like a cool name at the time. Stop laughing. :P
Iximaz ended up becoming my online name for just about everything else, and though I ended up abandoning Runescape in favor of World of Warcraft, I kept the name Iximaz as my account name there. Not to mention I named my hunter character that as well, in memory of the first Iximaz, who would spend hours shooting at hill giants from behind the safety of a stalagmite wall they couldn't seem to cross.
Good times, good times...
Sounds a bit like some sort of Pokemon.
I knew a bloke who just called himself 'Batman.'
Nothing else.
'Batman.'
A normal highschool student until he pulled out the PC, then all of a sudden he was Batman.