Workshoping Demonyms

Hey all, this is my first post asking for advice here on this rockin' forum.

So, my question is simple; my fantasy story revolves around a nation known as the Republic/Empire of Castabar (terms used more of less interchangeably). The natural demonym is of course something like Castabari.

I was wondering whether any of you could suggest alternatives? Of course if you like Castabari I'd appreciate you letting me know as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Zal

Oh boy! Linguistics question!

First thing to note about "Castabari" as a word: the "-i" suffix is generally an Indo-European feature. Specifically the "indo" side. Look at this list (under "-i") for examples.

Now, using the "-i" can work for your setting, assuming the culture in Castabar is "not quite Europe-like but similar." But I personally try to avoid the "-i" because it's overused in Fantasy. And even I have trouble avoiding it!

But that's one way to tackle it: Look at the flavor of the culture and decide from there. (As an aside, I'm looking at the word and "Castabar" sounds something vaguely Spanish. Maybe Arabic.)

Second, look at the suffixes on that Wikipedia list-page-thing I linked above. That might give you some inspiration. "Castabaric" sounds way different from "Castabard" or "Castabaran" and kinda implies a different culture.

Third, think about how you might modify the place name to fit the new demonym. Is "-bar" a suffix meaning something like "region" or "kingdom" or "empire"? If so, it's probably best to cut it out. "People of Casta" is easier to handle than "People of the Region of Casta." Reusing those suffixes I used above, that might be "Castic" or "Castaban" or "Castard" (which is pretty clumsy for me as an English-speaker and leans dangerously close to "custard" or "bastard" for my comfort).

Fourth, think about what the suffix means. Does it mean "person who comes from [Castabar]"? "person who identifies with [Castabar]"? How do plurals in the language affect the word? Do you use -i for plurals? -s/-es? -z (which is how we usually pronounce the -s suffix anyway)?

And finally think about what sounds cool to you and (again) what fits the flavor of the culture. "Castazi"? "Castamu"? "Castapela"? "Castog"?

I know it's a lot to think about, but it's this kind of over-thinking that enhances a setting. Good luck.

edited 8th Jan '15 2:26:13 PM by AwSamWeston

Something like "Castabane" would hint at a different language while also being similar enough to familiar demonyms to avoid being too jarring to the audience.

Thanks for the replies!

Thankfully, though I'm not a linguist, I am studying Persian at the moment in Grad School. That's likely where my partiality to 'i' as an adjective marker stems from. In addition, I have a bit of a naming language set up so I'm not just hocking syllables at the metaphorical to see what sounds cool (though obviously there is some of that). Plus, I very much agree that these kind of details are pound-for-pound some of the most potent aspects of a piece.

So, Casta is the word in this language for 'red' and 'bar' means harbor. So Castabar is unsurprisingly something like 'Redport' or 'The Red Harbor'. As such, your comment about divorcing 'Casta' from 'bar' makes a lot of sense for me. Something I've stolen from Persian is a tendency to differentiate between demonymic and adjectival endings. For example, the adjective 'red' would be rendered as 'casti' (when not part of a compound noun).

Following the rubrics I've set in place, the demonym would end up Castani, which actually sounds pretty good to me.

That being said, I'm using Castabar and its territories as the 'home' setting of my work. Although much of the point of my work IS the fact that Castabar is exotic (I'm in part trying to deconstruct the whole 'otherness' of places like Harad in LOTR, Calormen in Narnia, Essos in ASOIAF, and innumerable others). I don't want to compromise its differences with the 'standard fantasy setting' but at the same time I want the readers to empathize with the culture.

So, I'm thinking I'll have to decide between Castani and some others. Castabane is pretty good. I'm going for a North African/near eastern/semi-foreign kind of feel if that helps.

Thanks to Sam and Matt for your help. If anyone else has any input, I'm all ears.

edited 8th Jan '15 2:46:35 PM by ZalDastan

So, I just discovered Broken Plurals and decided that I very much want them in the language of Castabar (Specifically Red Serazine, a dialect of a larger language). As such, I'm low leading towards Carastani. I know it's still got the Indo-euro I at the end which is overplayed.

Perhaps Carastine? I feel like that sounds kind of like a translation convention in action, which is fun, and it has nice synergy with Serazine.

Thoughts?

I find a lot of my demonyms sound less European if I just switch up a couple of syllables or take a syllable out instead of adding one. Although it does help that I tend more towards diphthongs and sharp consonants (thanks, Filipino parents!) instead of the softer, flowing sounds that people tend to do with Fantasy-European languages.

Yay, another person writing for Fantasy-Asia instead of Fantasy Europe! Here's the demonyms of my story to give comparisons:

• People from the Hamshiyar Empire (a group of affiliated tribes) are Hamshi, and they also speak the Hamshi language. I'm starting to use the suffix -yar in prominent place-names, so "Hamshiyar" would probably translate to "Hamshi-land."

• People from the Baksau horse-clans are the Baksau, who speak Bakkang. Pretty self-explanatory: Their land was named after the people, not the reverse. "Bak" is a root word, and "-ang" means "tongue/language."

• The nomads of the Biyazai Desert are the Biyaz tribes, who speak Biyata. Another "land after people" case. "Biya(z)" is the root word, so "Biyazai" means "land of the Biyaz," while "Biyata" means language and just sounds better than "Biyazta."

• The Ninahan people are called Ninaka, and they speak Ninai. "Nina-" is the root, so "Ninaka" means "Nina people" and "Ninahan" is a less clunky version of either "Ninaka-han (land of the Ninaka)" or "Ninai-han (land of the Ninai-speakers)."

I come up with language/place names pretty intuitively, so it takes me a while to figure out what they'd actually mean as a real language.

edited 26th Jan '15 6:16:27 PM by Sharysa

Thanks for the input :D