blueoncemoon

The Call Centre ( AO3 ) Pippin, original orc character, Merry, Galadriel; modern AU; comedy; 3k words, one-shot

Where I Live ( AO3 ) Lotho Sackville-Baggins, Lobelia, Camellia, Odovacar Bolger, Vigo Boffin; music AU; slice of life; request; 8.5k words, three-shot

Jazz ( AO3 ) Melkor, Eru, Ainur; extended metaphor regarding the Ainulindalë; 500 words, one-shot

Bob the Cave-troll ( AO3 ) Cave-troll from the Battle of Balin’s Tomb; dark comedy; 945 words; one-shot

Non-LotR works

Elegy ( AO3 ) Historical fiction; Edwardian composers and classical musicians; gen; time travel; 45k words, 11 chapters (slow-updating WIP)

The Jane Clinic ( AO3 ) The Walking Dead; Rick Grimes/OFC; exploration of reproductive choices in the apocalypse; smut; 35k words, 14 chapters (complete)

A Song of Ice and Lions ( AO3 ) Crossover: A Song of Ice and Fire, Song of the Lioness; Jon Snow/Alanna Trebond; rivals to lovers; gender disguise; 18.5k words, 9 chapters (complete)

The Yellow Pagoda Tree ( AO3 ) Firefly: OMC//OMC; pre-canon, worldbuilding, rebellion; in-progress

The Azure Silk Tunic ( AO3 ) Crossover: Pirates of the Caribbean, classical music RPF; Jack Sparrow & cellist Mischa Maisky; 17th century Bologna; 1.3k words, one-shot

Brekekekex-koax-koax ( AO3 ) Mandalorian fandom; season 2 episode 11 fix-it; frog people; worldbuilding; 4k words, one-shot

The Yeti and the Elf ( AO3 ) The Rise of the Guardians fandom; Phil the Yeti & elf; crack comedy; 555 words, one-shot

And several more on AO3!

I'm also unabashedly sorry (contradiction where?) for stealing these from flailingwings' video because it was the only other place I could find video now:

(I usually follow a Pratchett-esque approach to punctuation, but Skinner's performance truly calls for multiple exclamation points!!!)

With an affectionate sigh (due to its extensive etymology and oft-changing names), let’s look to Korea.

The easiest name to explain is Seoul (서울), which is a native Korean word literally translating to “Capital City”. It is believed to be derived from Seorabeol (서라벌) which originally referred to Gyeongju, Korea’s capital during the Silla Dynasty.

Throughout the Joseon Dynasty, Seoul was occasionally referred to as “Gyeongseong” (경성), which is a Sino-Korean word also meaning “Capital City”. This was the name by which Seoul was called during the Japanese occupation, as well, since Gyeongseong was the Korean version of the Japanese name Keijou (京城, “Capital City”).

Bonus Korean capital name: During the Goryeo Dynasty, Pyeongyang was called “Seogyeong” (서경), which means “Western Capital”.(Pyeongyang literally means “flat land” becaaaaause… the area is flat AF! Surprise!)

Now for China. Beijing (北京) and Nanjing (南京) mean “northern capital” and “southern capital” respectively, and the Mandarin name for Tokyo (Dongjing, 东京) means “eastern capital”.

Astana (Астана) in Kazakh means “capital city”. Additionally, very briefly in the early 20th century, Kazakhstan’s capital lay in the south-central region and was called Kzyl-Orda (Қызыл орда), meaning “red capital”.

After gaining independence in 1911, Mongolia’s capital was referred to as Niislel Khüree (Нийслэл Хүрээ, “capital camp”).

During multiple periods in history, Cambodia’s capital was Angkor, which is a vernacular form of the Sanskrit word “nagara” (नगर) which means “capital”.

As for Australia, my understanding is that “Canberra” is an Aboriginal word which translates to “meeting place” and linguistically serves the same purpose as “capital”.

These are just a few of the world’s capitals that are literally named some variant of “capital city” in their native tongues. Many more are named after geographical features, such as Algiers (which references the four islands found off the city’s cape) or Bukhansan (북한산), another historic name for Seoul which means “mountains north of Han (Great) River”.

Turns out, humans tend to be really fucking uncreative when it comes to naming things. Proper nouns—and location names in particular—have historically been descriptive and functional. They sound exotic or unique to us now due to linguistic drift or because they’re in a foreign language, but at one point in time (or to speakers of the language of origin) they were/are quite “boring” and uninventive.

If an author chooses not to create an entirely new language for their fictional world (which is understandable; not all authors are Tolkien, and even he drew heavily from Finnish and Welsh—as well as Greek and Latin—when constructing Quenya and Sindarin... to make no mention of his simply using Old English as a stand-in for Rohirric) it would make perfect sense for many of their new world’s names to be rendered in modern English, as Tolkien did for Westron. In such circumstance, these names would reasonably still bear the mark of their inspiration: whether that be their designation as the capital, or their surrounding geographical features.

And to put a final cap on things with the Tolkien mention, even he wasn’t above some linguistic “laziness”. Take, for example, the name of Théoden, King of the Rohirrim. In Old English, “þeoden” means “chief of a people”, ergo “King Théoden” literally means “King King”!

(It’s doubly adorable when taking into consideration the fact that Tolkien frequently inverted title and name when conveying the Rohirrim’s perspective, and yet even backward “Théoden King” still means “King King”!)