names translations

[Chris Handley <cbmvax!uunet!GANDALF.OTAGO.AC.NZ!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!CHandley>]

This letter was originally intended for the list, but ended up with
Mark instead. It may now be a little out of date.

The task of name translation is fraught with problems. Why are we
doing it in the first place?
1 To identify where we live. This implies that the auditor has at
least some vague knowledge of the geography of the region in
question. I can relate to someone who comes from New York or
California, or even Manhattan or Sacramento, but telling _me_ you
come from West Orange or Tombstone tells me very little. (Would it
convey much to you if I said I live in Mosgiel or Papatowai?)

2 To set the scene for a story (novel incident etc) Much the same
problems as above

3 To identify some place well known to both speaker and auditor -
news broadcast, discussion of a geographical region etc.

For 1 and 2, one can expect that the listener and speaker will share
at least some common background. If one wishes to identify the place
so that it ccan be located (I wish to visit you), then it -has= to
be tha same as appears on a map (which could be in Lojban - a
Russion map would not help me in Moscow) BUT it would need to be
tied to local appearances of the name for identification of street
signs etc. So ultimately it comes back to local usage which (to me)
means try and preserve the sounds.

For 3, a more literal translation may be appropriate.

Some other observations - having come from a bilingual country. In
South Africa, many of the modifiers in names (New, South etc, City,
Town and so on) have been translated between Afrikaans and English
(Cape Town - Kaastad). In general other parts of the names have not
- Mossel Baai is Mossel Bay not Mussel Bay. In most other cases the
spelling has been maintained but the word is pronounced by the rules
of the language. Classic example George is pronounced as X@-ORX
where the X represents the guttural Afrikaans 'g' a bit harder than
the Scots 'ch' in 'loch'. The first time one encounters this in
speech is very disturbing.

Here in New Zealand, many Maori names have been retained, and some
people even try and pronounce them correctly, but not all.

I guess this does not actually shed any light on the subject at all,
good luck to the one who can lick this problem.

Chris Handley                                     chandley@otago.ac.nz
Dept of Computer Science                       Ph     (+64) 3-479-8499
University of Otago                           Fax     (+64) 3-479-8577
Dunedin, NZ