Amusing Language Names

[Tropylium]

Mari is also an Upper Markham language, except when it's Uralic.

… or an Eblaite citystate.

Mande is a family in western Africa; Manda is Dravidian; Mandaic is a variety of Aramean.

[bradrn]

Mari is also an Upper Markham language, except when it's Uralic.

… or an Eblaite citystate.

Mande is a family in western Africa; Manda is Dravidian; Mandaic is a variety of Aramean.

Aramean or Aramaic? (Or Syriac?)

[Tropylium]

Maybe we can cut the difference and go with Aramoid (not to be confused with Oromoid).

[Richard W]

Maybe we can cut the difference and go with Aramoid (not to be confused with Oromoid).

But doesn't it cause confusion with Aramoid, which is dialects that are like Aramaic but are not Aramaic?

[Pabappa]

There was that one tribe in southwestern Alaska that spread out so much that they came to have different names for their groups. The government set up a conference of all the tribal leaders. They debated for hours but they couldnt agree on which name should take precedence over the others. At the end of the meeting the transcriber opened the door and asked, "So, I need to write down the official tribal name. What have you decided to call yourselves?" But the eldest tribal leader informed the man that they still could not agree on a name, and then said "oh, I dont know .... you pick."

[Kuchigakatai]

That's a pretty good joke.

[Pabappa]

found one more: Gimme my prize!

And it apparently has a dialect known as Youtubo.

[bradrn]

I found an amazing website with a bunch of freely accessible linguistics books, including a number of grammars. But I got a shock when I found a book called The Ik language: Dictionary and grammar sketch! At first I thought it was a conlang, but amazingly enough the language turns out to be real — it’s a Kuliak language from Uganda. Anyway, I found the name quite amusing, even if it isn’t terribly notable in the scheme of things.

[bradrn]

I don’t believe anyone’s mentioned the Car language yet.

[Pabappa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubi_language , the language of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubi_people . Though the alternate spelling with final -e instead may actually be closer to the original etymology. Both Bubi and Bube are exonyms. The Bubi people live in the same country as the Fang.

http://enwp.org/Mombum

[Qwynegold]

I don’t believe anyone’s mentioned the Car language yet.

Hmm, judging by that article, it's spelled Car, but pronounced like poo.

[Raphael]

A car poo[l]?

[bradrn]

Bobongko has a pretty interesting name.

[Pabappa]

Hehe

[bradrn]

Hehe

I really hope that you didn’t just accidentally give away the solution to your recent challenge…

[bradrn]

Ever since I first saw it, I’ve always thought that Gaahmg is quite an astonishing name…

[Qwynegold]

Hehe

Huh, there's a language associated with that place. In Europa Universalis IV there's an achievement called "laughing stock", which you get if you conquer the three provinces of Haha, Hehe and Lolland.

[bradrn]

Nungish

[Nachtswalbe]

Rotokas because it should be pronounced as <Dotokat>

[Nortaneous]

Rotokas because it should be pronounced as <Dotokat>

it's /doto/ 'red mud' + /kati/ "burn, build a fire" (i.e. "paint-cookers"), a recent coinage (calqued from some coastal language) replacing the earlier endonym /asigoao/ - not sure about allophony in Rotokas but the related Konua has /ti/ > [s̩] / _#