G-Tech Corporation wrote:Newwe Zion wrote:Yeah, I was wondering about that. I couldn't find any good resources on what those proper nouns would be called in this period. Unfortunately there's very little firsthand archeological records from the period. I was also under the impression that, with the ability to understand languages, if the people used a different name then it would sort of transliterate subconsciously into a recognizable form for the author, but if that's now how it works I can totally go back and revise things. But I digress, if you know of any sources for early 3rd millennium Canaan, I'd love to get my hands on them! I'd take anything I can get, really.
Yeah the best principle to run off of translation is essentially that it handles ideas, not specifics. Generally speaking proper nouns won’t cross the barrier (since they’re references, not concepts) and things that don’t have a cognitive equivalent to someone you are talking to won’t make the jump either.
So your Author talking about “New York City” would just be those syllables in English, or an “engine” would come through as a direct loan-word, but discussing the sun or the muddy pathway outside of a village would work just fine.
Regrettably I don’t think we have any good sources for this far back in the region - you’ll likely have do some arbitrary conglang, or idiomatic Ugaritic translation.
I love shoving Akkadian words where they really shouldn't be for these purposes.
