Amusing Language Names

[Whimemsz]

So I realize this may be exceedingly puerile, etc. etc., but whatever. Xwtek's post from the "If Natlangs Were Conlangs" thread a few weeks back:

I don't know who named the lannguage like nasal, geez and anus, but that person must be smartass.

...reminded me that I keep meaning to keep a list of amusing language names, and always always always forget to do so. So, what are your favorite amusing (natlang) language names?

My favorite by far is Small Flowery Miao, which is just...so delightful and adorable. (There is also of course Large Flowery Miao, which is also amusing, but not as good or adorable.) Others that come to mind are:

1. Kickapoo
2. Bats
3. Athabaskan has several languages with at least somewhat amusing names, the best of which is Dogrib (which is a translation of the Cree name for the Dogrib people [Atimospikay, "dog's ribs/ribcage/side of the torso"], but I'm not sure why they called them that), but also Beaver, Slave(y) (which does in fact come from the word "slave," again taken from the Cree name for many northern Athabaskan peoples), and Hare (not in Glottolog as far as I can tell; mutually-intelligible with/a dialect of Slavey).
4. Additionally, some of the varieties of western Cree have slightly amusing names (Moose Cree, Swampy Cree) but nothing too exciting.
5. Kawaiisu would obviously be better without the -su, but it's perhaps still a mildly amusing name.
6. There is apparently also a dialect called Dung.

(The languages Xwtek mentions are Nasal, Geez [Ge'ez], and Anus. Incidentally, it's great that Anus's closest relative aaaalmost sounds like "pudenda.")

((Also while we're on the topic of being puerile about languages, I'm just gonna share this map here, for lack of a better place and time to share it. I realize I'm a 10-year-old boy, sue me. It's funny, and you can't tell me it's not!!!))

[zompist]

Amok is best name.

Ganja, Bum, Meta, Dumbo, Dong, Gros Ventre, Bodega, Foe.

Sounds like it was intended as an auxlang: Telefol

Most out of place: Pinyin (it's Broad Bantu)

The Verdurians would appreciate Emai

For actually cool names, ǂHȍã is good. Fu-yü Gïrgïs, Duke of York, Woiwurrung

[bradrn]

• I managed to find languages called Crow, Creek, Duke, Fang, Pear, Port Sandwich, Pray, Siri. Admittedly, Crow and Creek are fairly well known, Port Sandwich is a place name, and it’s debatable whether Siri is an English word or a brand name, but that still leaves four languages which sound like English words. (Or at least are spelled like English words.)
• Beothuk sounds out of place: it sounds like Old Norse or Old English, but it’s actually Native American. Oʼodham sounds Irish (cf. Ogham), but it’s also Native American.
• The island of Kosrae sounds like it was plucked out of one of those fantasy novels with ridiculous country names. At least the language (Kosraean) sounds marginally better.
• Láá Láá Bwamu, Wagawaga, and Xaasongaxango just have amazing names.

((Also while we're on the topic of being puerile about languages, I'm just gonna share this map here, for lack of a better place and time to share it. I realize I'm a 10-year-old boy, sue me. It's funny, and you can't tell me it's not!!!))

I don’t see anything funny about it… it’s just a map, isn’t it? (Or maybe I have a less puerile sense of humor and am simply missing something obvious.)

For actually cool names, ǂHȍã is good.

All the Khoisan languages with clicks in their names are quite nice as well: Haiǁom, ǂʼAmkoe (not sure how to capitalise that one), ǃXóõ (also has capitalisation problems), ǀXam (I think you get the idea), ǃGãǃnge, Nǁng, Juǀʼhoan, ǂHua…

[Linguoboy]

SSC: I didn’t clue in to the etymology of “Dogrib” and was pronouncing it /‘dow.grihb/ up until about two or three years ago.

I love the fact that “Cherokee” is recognisably derived from “Tsalagi” even though they don’t have a single letter in common. It’s almost the same story with “Osage” and “Wažáže”.

If you like puerile coincidences, it’s hard to beat the native pronunciation of “Cymraeg”.

[Whimemsz]

((Also while we're on the topic of being puerile about languages, I'm just gonna share this map here, for lack of a better place and time to share it. I realize I'm a 10-year-old boy, sue me. It's funny, and you can't tell me it's not!!!))

I don’t see anything funny about it… it’s just a map, isn’t it? (Or maybe I have a less puerile sense of humor and am simply missing something obvious.)

I can't even stand this movie but I feel this clip is the appropriate answer to your question.



On topic... vlad informs me that while the name of the extinct Cuitlatec language isn't funny in English, cuitlatl means "poop" in Nahuatl. And Radius reminds me of Tübatulabal.

Also, if only the language of the Kwakwakwa'wakw people were also called "Kwakwaka'wakw" that would be another great one, but "Kwak'wala" doesn't have the same punch, alas.

[bradrn]

Also, if only the language of the Kwakwakwa'wakw people were also called "Kwakwaka'wakw" that would be another great one, but "Kwak'wala" doesn't have the same punch, alas.

You added an extra ⟨w⟩: Wikipedia informs me that it’s actually Kwakwakaʼwakw (or Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw if you’re being pedantic). Still, that’s a pretty impressive name.

[Whimemsz]

Oh, whoops. (Well, I added it the first time but not the second time.....)

[Nortaneous]

[*] The island of Kosrae sounds like it was plucked out of one of those fantasy novels with ridiculous country names. At least the language (Kosraean) sounds marginally better.

Micronesia also has the island of Yap, and the Yapese language.

[Pabappa]

all i can add is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_language right now. Small Flowery Miao is my overall favorite too, and as Whim implies its part of a series ..... e.g. there's another group called the Short Skirt Miao, but Im not sure each of the groups has a distinct language of their own.

edit: oh, i thought of two more while i was in the shower:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nambas_language <--- to me this is funny by itself, but it supposedly refers to the very long penis gourds worn by the male speakers of that tribe; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namba_(clothing) . And yes, there is also a "Small Nambas", but I suspect theyre not quite as eager to be listed as such in a catalog.

[Qwynegold]

all i can add is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_language right now.

IIRC that language belongs to the Lolo-Burmese branch.

[Whimemsz]

I forgot to mention that one dialect of Beaver is Halfway River Beaver.

A number of Salishan languages have amusing names, but my favorite are Nooksack and a dialect of Southern Puget Sound Salish, Muckleshoot.

There's also a dialect of Tlingit called Tongass, and another extremely great entry is the Tibetan language Dongwang. (h/t Cev and dhok)

[Vijay]

all i can add is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_language right now.

IIRC that language belongs to the Lolo-Burmese branch.

Nope, it's from the kooky chin branch.

EDIT: Also: Pataxó Hã-Ha-Hãe.

[mèþru]

Dogrib and Slavey sound more xenophobic than amusing IMO

[Whimemsz]

Well "slave" was certainly not a friendly appellation when Crees first applied it to Athabaskans, although the Slaveys did refer to themselves in English with that term for quite a while, and it's still in wide use in academia. (But I think now the trend among the people themselves is to use their endonym in English as well.)

On the other hand, while I'm not positive if "Dogrib" had any sort of malice or xenophobia behind it, I don't think it did. When I was double-checking the etymology yesterday in the Handbook of North American Indians I missed this part: "Possibly the epithet stemmed from Cree knowledge of the widely shared Athapaskan legend of tribal creation by the mating of a woman with a dog." (Wikipedia similarly says "The name Dogrib is an English adaptation of their own name, Tłı̨chǫ Done (or Thlingchadinne) - “Dog-Flank People”, referring to their fabled descent from a supernatural dog-man," though of course without citing a source; Tłı̨chǫ Done does seem to mean "dog-flank people" but apparently there's basically no evidence that it was used by the Dogribs as an endonym until fairly recently, and it's actually a translation of the exonym others applied to them. Before that time they presumably just called themselves Done "the people," like most Athabaskans do, and indeed like a huge number of groups around the world did or do.)

[Nortaneous]

Austroasiatic has a lot of these:
- Pear
- Car
- War
- So
- Bit
- Hre
- Jeh
- Jah Hut
- Muak Sa-aak
- Man Met
- Jru'
- Mang
- U
- Bo
- Wa
- Oy

[Travis B.]

For some reason I am not inclined to jump on the "all exonyms are bad" bandwagon myself...

[bradrn]

For some reason I am not inclined to jump on the "all exonyms are bad" bandwagon myself...

This seems like a non sequitur to me, unless there was some discussion of exonyms earlier which I missed. Do you think you could elaborate on how this is related to the previous discussion?

[Travis B.]

For some reason I am not inclined to jump on the "all exonyms are bad" bandwagon myself...

This seems like a non sequitur to me, unless there was some discussion of exonyms earlier which I missed. Do you think you could elaborate on how this is related to the previous discussion?

Whim and mèþru were in part commenting on endonyms versus exonyms in that Slavey is an exonym and Dogrib is a likely exonym.

[Whimemsz]

But...no one said or insinuated "all exonyms are bad" at any point...? Mèþru's post addressed specifically pejorative/xenophobic exonyms, and my post was just an expansion on the etymologies and usages of the -nyms they mentioned.

[Travis B.]

But...no one said or insinuated "all exonyms are bad" at any point...? Mèþru's post addressed specifically pejorative/xenophobic exonyms, and my post was just an expansion on the etymologies and usages of the -nyms they mentioned.

Yes, but allegedly many exonyms are pejorative/xenophobic in etymology (and conversely many endonyms are egocentric in origin). Even ones that should not be considered as such are still sometimes deprecated (e.g. the official Iranian deprecation of Persia in favor of Iran despite Persia strictly speaking not being pejorative or xenophobic).