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aldersprigKotnelbyotke (Kotke)
Age: 15
One of Enrie's two roommates.
Kotke is from the far far North, where a group of Bitrani refugees have been living for hundreds of years. She's got hair so blonde it's almost white, ice-blue eyes, and snow-pale skin. The red, teal, and purple of the Diplomacy and Law uniform makes her look even paler.
She wears her hair in the low-on-the-neck looped braids that are as much a mark of her township as the pale coloration is; ribbons of her House colors are woven through the braids.
She is short, barely over 5' tall, and a little more stocky than Calenyena norm, being built like a small tank, designed to survive the frigid winters and barely-better summers. She's soft-spoken by native habit, and a little lost here at school.
Homesickness plagues Kotke through her year at school. She perseveres, however; she is attending the Academy and majoring in Diplomacy because she knows the remote townships like her own need representation, and thinks that this is the best way to get it. She is not the most brilliant student, but she may be the most devoted.
Ledryainryie (Ledryie)
Age: 15
The other of Enrie's two roommates
Like Taikie, Ledryie has the ethnic Calenyena look. She has a short nose with a bit of an upturn, a very pointed chin, and a high forehead ; she wears two narrow braids looped low on her forehead to differentiate herself from dozens of other girls in her home city who looked much the same.
She's about 5'6 and broad-hipped, broad-shouldered, and slender in between. She has the best-tailored clothes of anyone in her dorm, because she tailors them herself.
Ledryie is a bit vain, in a conscious-about-her-appearance sort of way. She was a scholarship girl from primary into secondary school, and earned money working for the school to pay for clothing to look as nice as the more affluent girls.
She was born Lyedra; the Academy allowed her to change her name to reflect the status she is working towards.
She's a brilliant student, and sometimes forgets to concentrate on her work.
Names in Calenyen culture
(Note to self: cement when Calenyen and when Calenyena. The people are Calenyena. The Language is Calenyen. The country is Calenta. The culture...?
About Lyedra/Ledryainryie - this is mostly a matter of affectation in length. She is doing her best to "pass" as a daughter of affluent parents, merchant princes, if you will, a family of skilled trades. They tend to give their children longer names, where farmers, unskilled laborers, tend to give their children short names. Rin. Noni. Lyedra.
Secondly, nouns with a palatalized first consonant are classified as "not-useful, unskilled, crap." (Ly vs. L.) (NON palatalized first-consonant nouns are "Useful, skilled.")
As others have pointed out, an initial vowel is saved for royalty and the children thereof, Enarienarie, Arinyanka, Edaledalendu (and thus the tendancy for going for very long names. The translation of many of these things is lost in an old variant of Calenyen, where the name might mean something like The-stars-shined-down-brightly-shining. (yes, with the redundancy.)
Age: 15
One of Enrie's two roommates.
Kotke is from the far far North, where a group of Bitrani refugees have been living for hundreds of years. She's got hair so blonde it's almost white, ice-blue eyes, and snow-pale skin. The red, teal, and purple of the Diplomacy and Law uniform makes her look even paler.
She wears her hair in the low-on-the-neck looped braids that are as much a mark of her township as the pale coloration is; ribbons of her House colors are woven through the braids.
She is short, barely over 5' tall, and a little more stocky than Calenyena norm, being built like a small tank, designed to survive the frigid winters and barely-better summers. She's soft-spoken by native habit, and a little lost here at school.
Homesickness plagues Kotke through her year at school. She perseveres, however; she is attending the Academy and majoring in Diplomacy because she knows the remote townships like her own need representation, and thinks that this is the best way to get it. She is not the most brilliant student, but she may be the most devoted.
Ledryainryie (Ledryie)
Age: 15
The other of Enrie's two roommates
Like Taikie, Ledryie has the ethnic Calenyena look. She has a short nose with a bit of an upturn, a very pointed chin, and a high forehead ; she wears two narrow braids looped low on her forehead to differentiate herself from dozens of other girls in her home city who looked much the same.
She's about 5'6 and broad-hipped, broad-shouldered, and slender in between. She has the best-tailored clothes of anyone in her dorm, because she tailors them herself.
Ledryie is a bit vain, in a conscious-about-her-appearance sort of way. She was a scholarship girl from primary into secondary school, and earned money working for the school to pay for clothing to look as nice as the more affluent girls.
She was born Lyedra; the Academy allowed her to change her name to reflect the status she is working towards.
She's a brilliant student, and sometimes forgets to concentrate on her work.
Names in Calenyen culture
(Note to self: cement when Calenyen and when Calenyena. The people are Calenyena. The Language is Calenyen. The country is Calenta. The culture...?
About Lyedra/Ledryainryie - this is mostly a matter of affectation in length. She is doing her best to "pass" as a daughter of affluent parents, merchant princes, if you will, a family of skilled trades. They tend to give their children longer names, where farmers, unskilled laborers, tend to give their children short names. Rin. Noni. Lyedra.
Secondly, nouns with a palatalized first consonant are classified as "not-useful, unskilled, crap." (Ly vs. L.) (NON palatalized first-consonant nouns are "Useful, skilled.")
As others have pointed out, an initial vowel is saved for royalty and the children thereof, Enarienarie, Arinyanka, Edaledalendu (and thus the tendancy for going for very long names. The translation of many of these things is lost in an old variant of Calenyen, where the name might mean something like The-stars-shined-down-brightly-shining. (yes, with the redundancy.)
no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 03:42 am (UTC)How does name reflect status, plz?
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Date: 2013-10-26 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 03:38 pm (UTC)(And I'm not sure I really get the use of "gendered" there.)
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Date: 2013-10-26 08:34 pm (UTC)Or: why would someone name their son Fitzwilliam when Fitz bore a social and historical connotation of "bastard child"?
Gender is a linguistic term (Wikipedia entry on grammatical gender).
Short version: the grammatical gender of a noun dictates the form of other linked words, such as adjectives modifying it, and are usually though not always conceptually connected within a gender.
Gendered European languages are usually classed as "masculine", "feminine" and "neuter", but grammatical gender does not necessarily have anything to do with biological sex. The Wikipedia page may list examples of other grammatical gender categories besides the European systems; I didn't actually read it over.
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Date: 2013-10-26 09:20 pm (UTC)I thought you might mean that, but I wasn't sure. See, I don't remember if you know this, but I AM a linguist as avocation and lifelong profession, so I thought you might mean that. But I had never heard "gender" used for a noun class like that. That doesn't mean it's not a possibility, though. :-)
Respectfully submitted, Dr. Whom: Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
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Date: 2013-10-26 09:22 pm (UTC)In looking up gendered classes, there appeared to be no reason they had to // biological gender, and the Calenyena care a lot more about useful/non-useful than anything else. Thus, the palatalized beginning was born.
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Date: 2013-10-26 10:30 pm (UTC)Though I'm still puzzled about naming a child "useless...". Maybe I'm too sympathetic toward them.
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Date: 2013-10-26 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 10:52 pm (UTC)And no, I didn't know you were a linguist by profession! That's cool.
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Date: 2013-10-27 12:23 am (UTC)This is certainly true, but not all linguists agree on that usage:
“Many authors prefer "noun classes" when none of the inflections in a language relate to sex, such as when an animate–inanimate distinction is made. Note however that the word "gender" derives from Latin genus (also the root of genre) which originally meant "kind", so it does not necessarily have a sexual meaning.” -- Wikipedia
Readers of this blog are not generally trained in linguistics AFAIK, but many of them, ISTM, are interested in issues relating to the social perception and self-perception of sexual identity. Using "gender" here for a linguistic distinction that most English-speakers associate with something like sexual identity, but that in this case is not connected with sexuality at all, is likely to cause confusion. I think you should speak of "noun classes" or "grammatical classes" instead. (Looks back at your note.) “Secondly, nouns with a palatalized first consonant are classified as "not-useful, unskilled, crap." (Ly vs. L.)”
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Date: 2013-10-27 01:17 am (UTC)I apologize for the fact that we are all amateurs with significant holes in our knowledge of linguistics, current or otherwise.
I believe you will have to take up your critique of the use of the term "gender" with the person who is actually using the term in a post. That person is not, in fact, me, the person who you are, in fact, replying to right now. And I would even venture so far as to suggest that this comment section is not the best place to hold such a conversation. :P
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Date: 2013-10-27 01:54 am (UTC)I should have just said something like "I think it might be confusing to say 'gendered' here." Or said nothing.
:´-(
Date: 2013-10-27 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 11:58 pm (UTC)This is a misapprehension. See Wikipedia, Fitz and Talk:Fitz.
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Date: 2013-10-27 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 01:57 am (UTC)I'm sorry.
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Date: 2013-10-27 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 02:56 pm (UTC)Also, it's a lovely icon.
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Date: 2013-10-27 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 03:01 pm (UTC)I don't remember where I got it from.
(this on, otoh, The Inventrix to whom you were speaking drew for me)
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Date: 2013-10-27 03:10 pm (UTC)I was admiring it.
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Date: 2013-10-28 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 01:18 pm (UTC)Still, is that going to throw you off, oh one of my (two, I think) German readers?
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Date: 2013-10-26 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-26 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-27 03:35 am (UTC)