vcmw (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} vcmw) wrote,@ 2008-08-16 12:40:00 |
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Reverse Etymologies of Fake Words
I've been spending the last two days playing with the Online Etymology Dictionary trying to first-draft level improve the made up names of my races and languages so that the names I'm applying don't clash quite so badly with any etymological associations people better informed than I about language would bring to the text.
Right about now I wish I'd studied some Northern European languages and maybe, I dunno, Arabic.
Because Latin and French and Greek is all very nice, but not when you want root words that sound as if they're NOT derived from Latin or Greek. And my German isn't helping me a whole lot. Stupid limited language skills.
*whine* Reverse engineering language is *hard*.
I've been spending the last two days playing with the Online Etymology Dictionary trying to first-draft level improve the made up names of my races and languages so that the names I'm applying don't clash quite so badly with any etymological associations people better informed than I about language would bring to the text.
Right about now I wish I'd studied some Northern European languages and maybe, I dunno, Arabic.
Because Latin and French and Greek is all very nice, but not when you want root words that sound as if they're NOT derived from Latin or Greek. And my German isn't helping me a whole lot. Stupid limited language skills.
*whine* Reverse engineering language is *hard*.
