#linguitics

...is it too live-laugh-love of me to say 'nheulu'? /n̥eili/ (or /n̥eɨlɨ/ if you're gog)

Considering that the Northuldrans are based on the Sami people, the Northuldran characters should have Sami names. They obviously do not. Why is that?

The simplest explanation would be – this particular aspect of the Sami culture was not included in the adaptation.

Another possibility is that the Northuldrans do, in fact, have indigenous names, but only use those amongst themselves, giving the outsiders commonly accepted equivalents, which are easier to pronounce/remember.

Going even further than that – If we operate under the assumption that Arendelle is a Scandinavian state, their Native language is some sort of Scandinavian, and all the characters’ names have been adapted for the benefit of the English-speaking audience, the English dubbing of the movie may not be entirely correct when it comes to pronunciation of names.

Therefore, the Sami equivalents of the Northuldran names could be:

Iduna – Iiddá, Iinná (or she was named after the goddess Iðunn, in which case “Iduna” may have simply been the Northuldran version of Iðunn to begin with)

Honeymaren – Hánna Máren (or she started off as Máren and the “Honey” part was added later in life as a title, something like “Máren the Honey”)

Ryder – Ráidner

Yelana – Heleainná

One of my professors mentioned that there is a test where they give you a document written in a fake language and a few translations. The exam is to take those translation and break down the fake language’s morphology in order to translate the document to English.

"Sorry, I didn't realise you did syntax trees for breakfast. Why don't you add a prepositional phrase?" - my tutor after realising I'd finished the basic syntax tree in the time it had taken him to walk a few steps over to me

"You don't use dark Ls? What accent is that?" - in response to me failing to say 'milk' with a velarised 'l' (In higher registers I sometimes use them)

"[My name] would you please come up and say /spaɪ/ into the microphone?" - pretty self-explanatory really

Un día como hoy (7 de diciembre) en la computación y lingüistica