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Guess the country/continent/colony/polity by its name in my conlang: names beginning with A (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Erika3sis@hexbear.net to c/main@hexbear.net

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Most of these should be pretty easy but you still may wish to spoiler your answers. Depending on how this goes I might share the B's tomorrow, and C~E the day after that, until I've gone through all the names I've come up with.

Today's list includes:

3 continents
9 UN member countries
1 partially recognized non-UN member country
4 colonies^[Perhaps I'm using this term a bit loosely. I'm thinking of territories that are politically, economically, militarily, and/or diplomatically subordinated to a geographically distant metropole/"mainland".]
1 disputed territory
= 18 names in total

Unsolved names are bolded.

| Name | Hint | |

top 11 comments

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[–] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Without looking anything up, here's what I've got (only two required any knowledge beyond "what English name does this look like"):

spoiler

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Response

O-ho-ho, Lingu-chan my dear, you fell right into my trap! "Aĺamane" certainly looks like it would mean Germany, based on the name of the country in countless languages across the globe……… But notice how the hint I provided was "endonym", meaning the mystery country's name for itself. And Germany's endonym is Deutschland, so "Aĺamane" could not be Germany, then, but instead has to be a different country whose name for itself sounds a bit like "Aĺamane". And that's a bit tougher to solve for, isn't it! I'll give you a hint to focus on the first two letters, and keep in mind that Ĺ is pronounced like /ʎʎ/ and may be a result of an assimilation process.

The actual word for Germany in Manjatian is quite a bit further down in the alphabet, and INCREDIBLY opaque. Even if you did have the context of mid-'80s Yugo-rock you still probably wouldn't recognize it.

I wonder if I straight-up don't know this or if I just can't recall

Given how close "Akrotiri u Dekeliya" is to the English name, you probably just don't know what the place is. So I'll tell you it's a 98 sq mi European colony in West Asia, home to some 18,195 people living under honest to God military rule. It's basically the last remaining rump of a once much bigger colony, carved out as part of that colony's independence process in 1960. Akrotiri u Dekeliya has some amount of military significance to the Palestine conflict due to its location, being regularly used by imperialists to send military aid to the Zionist entity.

If only I could Latin better...

If you're referring to "pars pro toto", that phrase just means "the part for the whole". In this case it means that I took the name of a specific area within the mystery location, and broadened its meaning to refer to the whole place. I was sort of debating myself about whether to go with the Aksá name or something else.

When it comes to the other ones you didn't get: Abya-Yala is a continent, and Apsni is a partially-recognized non-UN member country.

[–] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

spoiler

Ughhhh, I should know better picard

I know what an endonym is, gosh darnit, but I think my excitement at recognizing alemania overrode the hint.

Given how close "Akrotiri u Dekeliya" is to the English name, you probably just don't know what the place is.

...yup, still no idea even after that description. Ditto for Aksá.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

Answers for Akrotiri u Dekeliya and Aksá

They were solved by others as

Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British overseas territory which was carved out of Cyprus by the London and Zürich Agreements that gave the rest of the island independence. The Brits just really didn't want to give up their Middle Eastern military bases. I wonder why!
Al-Quds / Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa is a compound of Islamic religious buildings atop the Temple Mount and is one of the holiest sites in Islam. The compound features very prominently in songs, names, communiques and iconography of the Palestinian resistance and of anti-Zionism more broadly.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

spoiler

Abya-Yala is Turtle Island?

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

Response

Close enough, so I'll just reveal the actual answer now.

To generalize, the name Turtle Island is associated with the seven continent model and is used more by English-speaking Indigenous activists, while Abya Yala is associated with the six continent model and is used more by Spanish-speaking Indigenous activists. Put simply, Turtle Island replaces "North America" and Abya Yala replaces "América" ("the Americas").

The name Abya Yala is from the Kuna language of Panama and means something to the effect of "mature land".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abya_Yala

I did coin a Manjatian calque of Turtle Island as well, that being Bómbyadá; but since I'm using the six continent model here, Turtle Island is seen as more of a region than a continent.

[–] starweasel@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Tap for spoiler

i guessed pretty much the same as AernaLingus for the obvious ones so im not gonna repeat them, and im probably very wrong on my two guesses but Aksá made me think of al Aqsa which is...jerusalem? palestine in general?

Aĺamane made me think of the Alemanni, which would be alsace (alsace-lorraine?? i think its just alsace now) or maybe switzerland?

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Response

Aksá is indeed the Manjatian name of Al-Quds / Jerusalem and does indeed come from the name of al-Aqsa, the compound of Islamic religious buildings atop the Temple Mount. I'd also considered calling the city Alkuc-As̋arífe as a simple transliteration of the Arabic name al-Quds ash-Shareef. I suppose both these names could be in free variation.

Aĺamane has zero etymological relation to the Alemanni. The letter Ĺ in this name comes from a regular assimilation of /lj/.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In that case

Aĺamane is اليمن

And the word for Akrotiri and Dekeliya is fully recognizable as the British military bases on Copper Island.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

congratulations

[–] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Allemagne is the French name for Germany