Fic - Upsetting people
Nov. 9th, 2005 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackLet's see who I can be controversial to.
*-nomen
I painted myself into a corner by thinking of a couple of names I liked and then thinking what system could fit them, preferably also:
* Making people be referenced by the same name only
* Showing family ties
* Allowing cool names
* Not being too confusing
I thought "Wow, the linguists will roast me to a crisp for this one" but looking on wikipedia, it seems I've re-invented the roman system, if everyone were in the same clan. That is, people are usually refered to by a cognomen, which is either inherited or adopted, but may also have a praenomen for intimate use and to tell them apart.
Religion
Miracles from gods:
* You can use it as a nice metaphor for miracles from gods or God
* But the whimsical/impotent nature of the god would cast aspersions on God in such a comparison
* Why has Athiest Jack put religion in at all? Because it's cool and I get to explose Issues (TM) :)
* I can use it as an occasional "out" provided it isn't at the end of a story
*-nomen
I painted myself into a corner by thinking of a couple of names I liked and then thinking what system could fit them, preferably also:
* Making people be referenced by the same name only
* Showing family ties
* Allowing cool names
* Not being too confusing
I thought "Wow, the linguists will roast me to a crisp for this one" but looking on wikipedia, it seems I've re-invented the roman system, if everyone were in the same clan. That is, people are usually refered to by a cognomen, which is either inherited or adopted, but may also have a praenomen for intimate use and to tell them apart.
Religion
Miracles from gods:
* You can use it as a nice metaphor for miracles from gods or God
* But the whimsical/impotent nature of the god would cast aspersions on God in such a comparison
* Why has Athiest Jack put religion in at all? Because it's cool and I get to explose Issues (TM) :)
* I can use it as an occasional "out" provided it isn't at the end of a story
no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 11:59 am (UTC)Really, the nomen is the same as a bog standard surname. The praenomen is for use by those you're close too. And the cognomen is the one that actually refers to you as an individual within the state. IYSWIM :)
What do you mean by Making people be referenced by the same name only, by the way?
no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 02:20 pm (UTC)Really, the nomen is the same as a bog standard surname. The praenomen is for use by those you're close too. And the cognomen is the one that actually refers to you as an individual within the state. IYSWIM :)
That's how I interpreted it, apart from the cognomen: wikipedia said it changed in use.
Would my system work?
What do you mean by Making people be referenced by the same name only, by the way?
That as much as possible, in the text, the same parts of someone's name will be used, because it's very confusing if you have Firstname Surname, Duke of Thingy, Bishop of Whatsit, and sometimes he's called Firstname, and sometimes Surname, and sometimes Thingy, and sometimes Whatsit. Obviously that can be useful, and main characters need at least an intimate form of address, but I'll be nice to my readers wrt the minor characters :)