Jonathan Palfrey
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
More about names in the World of the Five Gods: I live in Catalonia, and it seems to me that various names in Chalion have a kind of pseudo-Catalan feel to them, without actually being Catalan. But Foix is a Catalan place name, pronounced Fosh, and also a southern-French name, pronounced Fwa. You're not J. R. R. Tolkien, so you probably haven't created complete languages to fill up your world. Is there any rationale?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sort of. A quick-and-dirty method for making up a bunch of names that sound as if they come from the same place/language is to take a real-world map or other name-source, chop the place names into syllables, and reassemble them in whatever ways seem pleasing. It is well to have some slight awareness that such names may themselves be the product of several languages layered in over time. (As in the Iberian peninsula.) I often, when booting up ideas for a tale, generate a page or two of possible names to do quick picks from so that I don't get stalled for hours/days every time a new person or place arrives on stage. I occasionally swap names around, if I find I've made a non-optimum assignment, and want the better, more fitting name to go with something that appears more often.
I (and Foix) pronounce his name to rhyme with toy.
Other places on the map helped generate names in other regions of the world of the five gods, some perhaps less obvious than others. For the Weald, I tried to get as many names as possible in standard English, to subliminally indicate that these people have been on their ground for a long time, with less "Torpenhowe Hill" effect. (Which, if you don't know it, is a place in England that back-translates "Hillhillhill Hill".)
The problems of coming up with short, pronounceable names, each different enough visually from every other one used to be readily distinguishable, that aren't accidentally an unfortunate word in another language (or, indeed, one's own) are non-trivial.
Ta, L.
Sort of. A quick-and-dirty method for making up a bunch of names that sound as if they come from the same place/language is to take a real-world map or other name-source, chop the place names into syllables, and reassemble them in whatever ways seem pleasing. It is well to have some slight awareness that such names may themselves be the product of several languages layered in over time. (As in the Iberian peninsula.) I often, when booting up ideas for a tale, generate a page or two of possible names to do quick picks from so that I don't get stalled for hours/days every time a new person or place arrives on stage. I occasionally swap names around, if I find I've made a non-optimum assignment, and want the better, more fitting name to go with something that appears more often.
I (and Foix) pronounce his name to rhyme with toy.
Other places on the map helped generate names in other regions of the world of the five gods, some perhaps less obvious than others. For the Weald, I tried to get as many names as possible in standard English, to subliminally indicate that these people have been on their ground for a long time, with less "Torpenhowe Hill" effect. (Which, if you don't know it, is a place in England that back-translates "Hillhillhill Hill".)
The problems of coming up with short, pronounceable names, each different enough visually from every other one used to be readily distinguishable, that aren't accidentally an unfortunate word in another language (or, indeed, one's own) are non-trivial.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Margaret Coleman
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Lois, given that you are done with the saga of Miles, Cordelia, and all the other wonderful characters whose lives (we imagine) continue, would you ever consider passing the baton (or the pen/keyboard) to another writer? Giving the characters and their offspring the opportunity to continue and those of us who enjoy them the opportunity to witness what they become?
GG 109
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Are you familiar with this news about researchers discovering "cockroach milk" (term used loosely) as a potential "superfood"? Link: https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/this-gross-creature-may-create-the-superfood-of-the-future? Reminded me of bug butter from the Vorkosigan Saga!
Talli Ruksas
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Would you have to add to Dag and Fawn's tale to win your third series Hugo?
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