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beccaelizabethA thing that bugs me about names: In SF you get a ton of names made of ($&£*' or just with the funny spelling. Gean and Tari and stuff. And, okay, names are often made of interesting symbols - in writing. If you just step through the gate to another world and someone says "Hi, I'm Gean!" then how exactly are you hearing that? You'd here Gene or Jean, or maybe Ji-An. And Teal'c has some punctuation going on, but he sounds like Tealk to me. The k or c thing is another thing. If someone is speaking their name at you, it isn't going to look funny.
ETA: Have been informed about the glottal stop. So, okay, Teal'c is accurate. /ETA
I've read fic where Daniel is called Dan-yel throughout, because Abydos. But you know how that's usually written in English? Danielle. They're calling him a girl name. It's funny. Or turns into story, depending who is writing. If all you've got is what you hear, you don't hear the funny looking version.
It's a point of view problem, of course. They all know how their names are written. But their names are written in squiggle, mostly, or block, or pointy. How they get transliterated is a whole other thing.
In Stargate the one doing the writing down is likely Daniel Jackson, and he knows all the proper linguist squiggles, and can write it exactly like he hears it. Or use a standard transliteration. Or whatever. These are not new problems. He would have a system.
But no, we are in Weird SF World, so everyone has Weird SF Name, that you would say exactly the same as a common useage US name.
Which makes no sense. Cause you're just going to hear the other one.
/rant
Actually now, I've been reading a bunch of Atlantis fic, and if I was any good at all at international naming (tried and failed, *complicated* area), there's interesting to be had where everyone has a different grab bag of common names and hears local words filtered through them. If Radek is involved in the naming of things they come out labelled somewhat different than Rodney would do.
... Atlantis in my head is really interesting. International intergalactic colony! I keep thinking I should get around to watching it. Then I remember, I did watch the first season, I just can't remember it. So, probably not in fact that interesting. Sad.
I like science fiction that puts some work into naming systems. Figuring out which sounds go with which mouth parts, sort of thing.
I do not like the Silly Words school of Make Things Different. It only needs a new word if it's a new thing. If it's doing the same job it's just the same old thing with new packaging. Making it read like some marketing dude got hold of it does not an exotic milieu make. No more than calling it Syfy helps.
... oh dear, by my logic, a stranger would hear syfy where we know sci fi goes.
now I have have to either annoy myself or disagree with myself. :-p
No, wait, sci fi is the familiar phrase name, it's not just sounds, it's correlation with existing symbol set. I can agree with me after all. And still say it's sci fi.
ANYway: Names. Back away from the keyboard mashing and just write what they sound like pls.
ETA: Have been informed about the glottal stop. So, okay, Teal'c is accurate. /ETA
I've read fic where Daniel is called Dan-yel throughout, because Abydos. But you know how that's usually written in English? Danielle. They're calling him a girl name. It's funny. Or turns into story, depending who is writing. If all you've got is what you hear, you don't hear the funny looking version.
It's a point of view problem, of course. They all know how their names are written. But their names are written in squiggle, mostly, or block, or pointy. How they get transliterated is a whole other thing.
In Stargate the one doing the writing down is likely Daniel Jackson, and he knows all the proper linguist squiggles, and can write it exactly like he hears it. Or use a standard transliteration. Or whatever. These are not new problems. He would have a system.
But no, we are in Weird SF World, so everyone has Weird SF Name, that you would say exactly the same as a common useage US name.
Which makes no sense. Cause you're just going to hear the other one.
/rant
Actually now, I've been reading a bunch of Atlantis fic, and if I was any good at all at international naming (tried and failed, *complicated* area), there's interesting to be had where everyone has a different grab bag of common names and hears local words filtered through them. If Radek is involved in the naming of things they come out labelled somewhat different than Rodney would do.
... Atlantis in my head is really interesting. International intergalactic colony! I keep thinking I should get around to watching it. Then I remember, I did watch the first season, I just can't remember it. So, probably not in fact that interesting. Sad.
I like science fiction that puts some work into naming systems. Figuring out which sounds go with which mouth parts, sort of thing.
I do not like the Silly Words school of Make Things Different. It only needs a new word if it's a new thing. If it's doing the same job it's just the same old thing with new packaging. Making it read like some marketing dude got hold of it does not an exotic milieu make. No more than calling it Syfy helps.
... oh dear, by my logic, a stranger would hear syfy where we know sci fi goes.
now I have have to either annoy myself or disagree with myself. :-p
No, wait, sci fi is the familiar phrase name, it's not just sounds, it's correlation with existing symbol set. I can agree with me after all. And still say it's sci fi.
ANYway: Names. Back away from the keyboard mashing and just write what they sound like pls.