In yesterday's post, I explored some (random) names for English (and Anglo-Celtic) locations. The main bit of feedback I received was the need to do this kind of job for other cultures and backgrounds. I completely agree with this. But the main issue is that as I move further away from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds, the less familiar I become with the terminology and the rules. That said, I'm going to give French and Norman names a go today.
The rules of French are a little different. Not only do nouns possess gender (unlike English), but the ordering of the noun / adjective can in some cases be the reverse of what it is in English (but not always in place names). This makes creating a random table somewhat harder. For example, should a place be preceded with "Le" or "La" (the French for "The") can be a tough determination to make. Nontheless, I thought I'd give this a good bash. Moreover, due to the first point, there are common elements in both the first two tables (example: Ville- and -ville; this can be both the start and the end of a name!) - hence one needs to keep an eye on this so as not to generate "Villeville" as a name!
As with the previous post, generate two "elements" from the charts below and run them together. The added caveat is that some characters may need to be subtracted (or added) to make them run together better and sound more authentic. I've not included prefixes (Le, La), or suffixes (-sur-Mer) here, as my French knowledge is not that extensive, but one could glean several examples by looking at google maps. Here's the charts.
The rules of French are a little different. Not only do nouns possess gender (unlike English), but the ordering of the noun / adjective can in some cases be the reverse of what it is in English (but not always in place names). This makes creating a random table somewhat harder. For example, should a place be preceded with "Le" or "La" (the French for "The") can be a tough determination to make. Nontheless, I thought I'd give this a good bash. Moreover, due to the first point, there are common elements in both the first two tables (example: Ville- and -ville; this can be both the start and the end of a name!) - hence one needs to keep an eye on this so as not to generate "Villeville" as a name!
As with the previous post, generate two "elements" from the charts below and run them together. The added caveat is that some characters may need to be subtracted (or added) to make them run together better and sound more authentic. I've not included prefixes (Le, La), or suffixes (-sur-Mer) here, as my French knowledge is not that extensive, but one could glean several examples by looking at google maps. Here's the charts.
Element One
|
Element Two
|
Beuz
|
ances
|
Bos
|
ardy
|
Breq
|
bec
|
Bruque
|
beuf
|
Caude
|
bonne
|
Compain
|
boscq
|
Cor
|
châtel
|
Crique
|
clives
|
Cros
|
court
|
Dau
|
dalle
|
Écale
|
elle
|
El
|
eux
|
Étain
|
fleur
|
Har
|
gard
|
Hébé
|
hague
|
Hau
|
ham
|
Mesnil
|
hurs
|
Mont
|
ingy
|
Neuf
|
mesnil
|
Sott
|
nay
|
Tocque
|
ris
|
Toll
|
ron
|
Tonne
|
tot
|
Tour
|
tuit
|
Veules
|
val
|
Vigot
|
ville
|
Ville
|
vy
|
Here's some example resultant names:
Neufcourt
Sott-mesnil
Vigotfleur
Étainelle
Dauboscq
Suitably Normandy sounding, but perhaps needing some smoothing around the edges and some consonant shifts.
[Postscript: in writing this, I had to figure out how to add accents to text on a Mac for the first time - please don't judge me on that! Those looking to do similar for the first time, check this out: http://french.about.com/od/writing/ss/typeaccents_8.htm ]
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