Talk:Gallenfeld

Hm. Any way we can get a name that ends with a consonant rather than a vowel. Strange request, I realize. I like the other two names a lot. Vowel endings, especially -i, are associated strongly with the Ubrekti family of languages, of which the Fresian group is not. I don't get too much into conlang, really, but I figure where I've actually given it some thought. . . -gm

I took the name from an actual place from southeast Prussia eons ago. Just was following orders. See the mention here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galindians#Eastern_Galindians. Maybe Galindis? But you can name it whatever you wanna, I was just trying to meet your specs. Could be named anything-- I've just been looking through Prussian language dictionaries and history all day so let me know if that's not the best way to do this. -Mattie

All day? What a wasted day. ;) its fine, its fine. *waves hands *-gm

It appears it's actually a baltic rus name, not germanic, but I can sense your frustration with my niggling. ;) -gm

The frustration is more one of someone who tried his best but still failed without understanding how to avoid it in the future. When you say "Prussian" do you really mean German? Or do you mean Old Prussian (like I thought) or something else? In Old Prussian, the --AI suffix was actually common, so I guess you don't mean that? No hand waving allowed :) give me some better guidelines so I can pick better themed names. If German is better, then that's super easy to do. I'm going to be making these right and left so I'd like them to have the right feel. -Mattie

In case it helps you to feel better, I always think of these sorts of mistakes as Jones' failure, not mine. It's always better to blame someone else than yourself! :) --Msallen

Ahh, well, you're doing fine! It's actually my fault for just saying "go vaguely Prussian) when "Prussia" is kind of a weird place historically. Even in my own naming schema, I rarely go beyond vague hand waving. But, yeah, I can see how it would be frustrating even if I'm trying to be rather tongue and cheek. I assure you, despite being a good post-modern logomancer at heart, I'm not stressing over language nearly so much has history. After all, historical analysis I'm good at and linguistic analysis is... well, that's Trav's degree, not mine. So, I get a lot more stressed about history than I do about language. As we go on, I'm going to have a lighter and lesser hand in what you make, so try not to feel to constrained by my early input. I know you like to be In Charge, and I'm a piss-poor manager, so I'm going to try to keep it light (in tone and in quantity) for the sake of us not clashing all the time. :D

But, by request, My Rules Of Thumb! *waves hands*

Is it Gnomish? Make it long, and don't skimp on "g"s and "n"s! Feel free to give places non-gnomish "alternate" names.

Is it Odessan? Make it just left of conventional. Boooring.

Is it Ubrekti? Latin that shit up! -i, -ae, -us, etc make great endings here.

Is it Fresian? -berg or -burg are always good, if predictable, suffixes for major towns. This would be a good place to put those Z's you've been holding on to. Austrian, Polish, & Germanic flavored names all work well here, but careful not to stray too far into the Slavic.

Is it Petaran? Persian and Turkish traditions are good places to start.

Is it Bedowyld? No, of course not, because they don't have cities! But, they still name stuff, and when they do it's an Arab/Mongol mashup.

Is it Flannari? Frenchify that shit! I try to focus on the fruity endings: -aux, -ailles, etc.

Is it Celstian? Gaelic mashup! The mountainy parts are more Scottish flavored, while the lowland and foresty parts are more Irish themed. I do believe the Gaelic language likes consonants.

Is it Alexian? Hardly matters, since it's a polyglot culture. I suppose you could do worse than looking at the Ancient Greek cities.

Is it Hakni? Iberian works well here, though I suppose Portuguese is probably better than Spanish when push comes to shove.

Is it Dwarven? Uhhh. I've just been naming them after Dwarves from LotR (Port Turin) or just making stuff up whole cloth (Draglet).

Is it Sidhe? Probably not, so I just try not to worry about that.

• FWiW, those languages whose adjective forms use the -i construction (Ubrekti, Hakani, Flannari) are descended from Old Ubrekti. (Celesti is a unique case, but is generally classified in the Ubrekti family as well). Those with more conventional adjective forms (Odessan, Fresian, Petaran) are not. (Monotypic?)

Now, anything named after something else (Arabelle, for example) can totally ignore all linguistic conventions. Hopefully this helps? To add to your frustration, I'll probably comment on just about everything - remember that all of my input is not equally weighted , and unless it's bleeding through into Major History And Stuff, I'm more or less just giving thoughts not commands when I comment. Wheeee! -gm