more name musings
Feb. 2nd, 2007 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperFurther note on my previous post :
(I wasn't thinking about this when I actually posted, it came up while I was cutting up mushrooms)
Okay, Americans/Red Indians? Famous for the colonials translating their names to their absolute basic meanings. Which I'm convinced became the custom just so they could sneer at them. The Indians who learnt their names were all probably sniggering at what the Europeans' names translated to as well, since very few cultures actually call people by the current basic meaning.
(the sheer amount of Israeli-derivative names that translate to 'beloved of deity' or 'by the grace of' is fricking scary. What, 'shrub' or 'little deer' wasn't good enough for you? Talk about a lack of imagination.)
...Thing is, I'm trying to think of another culture that the Europeans did this to. Africans, no. Asians, no. Australians, no. South Americans, no. Hawaiians, no. Chinese, to a certain extent, but no actual mocking tone. ... Did they do it to the Inuit?
Buggering off to Heathrow to worship at feet of the two supreme geeks of Atlantis; oh, and Ultra Supreme Geek's sister and a couple of Genii. May be some time. :g:
(I wasn't thinking about this when I actually posted, it came up while I was cutting up mushrooms)
Okay, Americans/Red Indians? Famous for the colonials translating their names to their absolute basic meanings. Which I'm convinced became the custom just so they could sneer at them. The Indians who learnt their names were all probably sniggering at what the Europeans' names translated to as well, since very few cultures actually call people by the current basic meaning.
(the sheer amount of Israeli-derivative names that translate to 'beloved of deity' or 'by the grace of' is fricking scary. What, 'shrub' or 'little deer' wasn't good enough for you? Talk about a lack of imagination.)
...Thing is, I'm trying to think of another culture that the Europeans did this to. Africans, no. Asians, no. Australians, no. South Americans, no. Hawaiians, no. Chinese, to a certain extent, but no actual mocking tone. ... Did they do it to the Inuit?
Buggering off to Heathrow to worship at feet of the two supreme geeks of Atlantis; oh, and Ultra Supreme Geek's sister and a couple of Genii. May be some time. :g:
