Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Icelandic names for different shapes and colours of Northern lights

It is common belief that people living in the Arctic region have quite a few names for snow and other phenomena that are characteristic of a cold climate, but I wonder about the possible existence of words and expressions denoting different shapes of northern lights. Many names, not rarely poetic ones, exist for a great variety of fire-works (Roman candle, Catherine wheel,ect.) Could there be a hyperborean language up there in the far north that has similar names for one of nature's most spectacular phenomenon? I would be glad to find out, but for the moment I will try out a few myself.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Names of Rivers


The Brahmaputra, the highest of the major rivers in the world (English Wikipedia, Brahmaputra). Apart from 'Þakelfur (Roof-river), another possible name of the river is "Gnáfljót" (dominating (height) river)
The largest river of South Africa (Ilbláland, from 'il' (heel) and 'Bláland' (Ethiopia, but also the continent of Africa in General))
The Congo river is the deepest river in the world. The name of the country could be Djúpárland.
The river Po was called "Padus" in Latin and the herefrom derived form 'Pfad' still exists in German. The Icelandic abbot "Nikulás frá Munkaþverá" just used the Latin "Padus" in his itinerary. Personally, I find "Pað-" the most appropriate adaptation of first part of the Icelandicized toponym. Also because it is the same initial syllable as in the Old Icelandic toponym "Paðreimur" (the "Hippodromos" in Constantinopel), which has, from an etymological point of view, nothing in common with the higher-mentioned Latin name of the river, but it is always convenient, when creating neoexonyms, to strife for sound-similarities with existing Old Icelandic toponyms, provided that it doesn't lead to inconvenient connotations, which is not the case in the example Paðelfur - Paðreimur.

The kuskokwim basin is well-known for its rich gold deposits, hence the name 'gold river', the term 'Andeldland' means alaska and is composed of 'and-' (opposite) and 'Eldland' (the Icelandic name of Tierra del Fuego). If you follow the mountain back-bone of the America's from Tierra del Fuego up north, you end up in Alaska.
The only river in the world that so nicely parallels a 45° latitude, the middle region of a hemisphere.
The river-name Órun was mentioned in the Þulur and has an uncertain origin. It can be used as an adaptation of 'Orinoco'.Icelandic adaptation of the Old Greek name Jaxartes. The river was named after Alexander McKenzie. The name means ‘son of coinneach’. This Scottish masculine personal name is better known in its anglicized form Kenneth and occurs in Old Icelandic literature as Kinað(u)r (Íslensk orðsifjabók). An example of an Icelandicized construction of Scottish family names beginning with ‘mac-‘ is Magbjóður (MacBeth, see Keltar á Íslandi, Hermann Pálsson). The initial ‘mac’ in the icelandicized name is the stem of ‘mögur’, which means ‘son’ an is related with the Gaelic word. On the analogy of Magbjóður it is possible to perfectly adapt the family name McKenzie: Magkinaður (Magkinaðs- in compounds). So the Icelandic version of the river-name is Magkinaðsfljót.)Yukon means 'great river' in Gwich'in. This idea is expressed by making the word sound like Jötunn (giant), while derived from 'jaki', icicle (of which 'jökull' (glacier) is a derivation) which refers to the subpolar climate and the frozen river in the winter.

The name Axlá (shoulder-river) refers to the Yukons being sitated at one of the "shoulders of the world), the western shoulder in this case. Because the Yukon is the largest river of Alaska and there's no river of significant lenght at the Siberian eastern shoulder, The expression 'shoulder-river' applies the most to the Yukon river.



The delta of the mississippi is right on the 90° meridian and the course of the river doesn't deviate mush from this meridian. Just google 'chief river of the Midwest and you'll see that 'Miðvesturelfur' is a very transparent designation of the Mississippi river..

Thursday, December 16, 2010

zero point

vetki (nothing) is the true Icelandic word for 'zero'. It is declined as follows: vetki, vetki, vettugi, vettergis. The derivation 'zeroth' could be 'vettugasti'.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Purely Icelandic geographical names

The term "Horn of Africa" designates the region containing the following countries: Erithrea (Rauðströnd), Djibouti (Sundbláland), Ethiopia (Bláland) and Somalia (Hornströnd). Somalia really lies at the horn, while it has the longest coast-line, more so than the other three countries and has the longest coast-line. Add to this the fact that many names of African countries contained the toponymic element 'coast', like 'Gold coast' (Ghana), Peppercoast (Liberia, Fríbláland, Fríströnd), and of course 'Ivory coast')
Somalia: Hornströnd
Somalian: hornstrandar-, Hornstrandarmaður
Somalian language: Hornstrenska, Hornstrandarmál

The Íslenska orðsifjabók mentions 'jafi, javi' and 'jafa, java' in the meaning of 'loosely-woven fabric'. The word originates from Danish 'java', which is identical to the name of the Indonesian island, where the fabric originated from. This example shows that we could use the consonant 'f' instead of 'v' in the Icelandic adaptation of the island's name, which would give the name a less international and as a consequence a more distinct Icelandic appearance. Because we're dealing with an island it is also possible to make the name end on -ey, which is by no means an overadaptation as the Sanskrit name for the Iceland was "yāvaka dvīpa" (dvīpa = island). The hyperpurist adaptation of the island's name becomes Jafey (jafeyskur, jafeyingur). It's still a loan-word, but so sufficiently cannibalized that any hyperpurist could live with it.
The epithet of Switzerland is 'roof of Europe', Gnáfylkin, Gnáfylkjamaður, Gnáfylkja-The driest country in the world. Libia has the least amount of oases of all desert-countries.
Indá (Indus river, the word is mentioned in the ritmálssafn orðabókar háskólans). Pakistan is 'the land of the Indus river'. Bolivia is the greatest producer of tin in the world.The terms Georgia and Georgians appeared in Western Europe in numerous early medieval annals. The French chronicler Jacques de Vitry and the English traveler Sir John Mandeville wrote that Georgians are called Georgian because they especially revere Saint George. Notably, in January 2004 the country adopted the five-cross flag, featuring the Saint George's Cross; it has been argued that the flag was used in Georgia from the 5th century throughout the Middle Ages. (source: wikipedia). The Old Icelandic form of the masculine personal name George is 'Gyrgir' (Gyrgis- in compounds). The only Old Icelandic name that designates a West Slavic people is Vindur (Wends), who lived between the Elbe and the Oder, the area which is also called Pommerania. The name Vindur can be used as a marker to locate other West-Slavic people. An alternative name for Slovakia can be coined by utilizing a cross-section technique: The combination of the Old Icelandic name for the Carpathian mountains (Harfaðafjöll, Harfaða-), because the Slowaks are the only West-Slavic people living in the Carpathians and 'Vindland': the land of the Carpathian West-Slavs. Derivations are: Harfaðavindverskur (Carpathian Wendish, Slovak). Old Icelandic name of Armenia. The adjective is 'ermskur', hence the name of the language is 'ermska'.

The first element 'brís-' occurs in the 19th century brúnbrís (brazil-wood) and is a corruption of the Norwegian loan-word 'brissel' or Old Danish bresilie (brazil-wood), which are derived from Latin brasilium. (Brísaland - Bríslenskur - Bríslendingur)
The first element Sáðungar, Sáðunga- in compounds, is composed of an icelandification of the royal family name Saudi: Sáði and the ending -ungur, which is found in Old Icelandic names designating families.
The 'dwarf-state at the rhine, this can only be LiechtensteinnThe island was named after Saint Dominic, which has the Irish-Icelandic equivalent Dofnakur (see: Keltar á Íslandi, Hermann Pálsson), The adjective derived from Dofnakr is Dofneskur: Dofneska lýðveldið. The Icelandic name of the Capital Santo domingo is Dofnaksborg.