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Originally posted by Coraxus: I also noticed in some sci-fi like Star Trek, that planets have a suffix word to their names, like Verril Prime, or Cardassia Prime. I have an idea what "prime" is, but I wanna know if anyone else knows the in-depth significance to having "Prime" tagged to the name.
Prime generally means the first, the most significant, etc. Appropriate for a homeworld.
How do you like the name of my planet? Sov. Latifundia, or the name of the city, SC6?. I'll let you guys guess on what kind of a planet it is and the origin of that name hehe, as well as the city.
Sounds quite Russian. I like it.
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Originally posted by Martin Turner: < brilliant post>
Thank you for posting exactly what I was thinking.
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Originally posted by Martin Turner: **Why struggle?
Your planet names are an important part of your TC's atmosphere.
Why not think about the history of your universe. How were the planets settled? The star systems (of course) were largely identified by astronomers on Earth (or wherever your people originated from). Some of them have names, but most of them are just identified either by numbers (like SAO ... or NGC ...) or by a constellation and a Greek letter, eg Delta Capricorn.
However, once people started settling the planets, they would start naming them.
If a group of planets were all settled by the same wave of explorers, they are likely to have similar names. Some of them may be named after the explorer, some after a political figure.
If a single explorer discovered a number of planets, he might choose a set of names - for example, Greek Heroes, or Norse Gods.
If a set of planets were conquered by an empire, they might be named after whatever that empire thought was important - famous kings, values (such as Peace, Justice, or perhaps 'Ironfist' 'Mightisright' etc), the names of important battles or famous soldiers.
If a planet was settled after a particular event or out of a particular historical context, the name might commemorate that - for example, Liberia in North West Africa.
A planet might be named based on its physical characteristics - like Tierra del Fuego or Iceland.
Planets named by an automated scoutship would have automated names - either randomly generated or numbered.
A planet that has changed its government by revolution might decide to rename itself - like the way the Russians renamed cities to Stalingrad and Leningrad.
A planet established by a commercial concern might have a whole branding strategy attached to it.
**
so, to name alien worlds you need to give them a complete history and linguistic character? :frown:
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Let's also not forget that planets may be named after another location, whether a province, or a city, like New Taranto, or New Berlin. However, you can be creative and derive the word "new" into something else, perhaps in a different language. "Neo" would be an example.
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Originally posted by Pod: **so, to name alien worlds you need to give them a complete history and linguistic character?:frown:
That depends on how far you want to go.
However, do you realise that almost the entire world and background of the Lord of the Rings was developed by Tolkien in order to give a background to the linguistics of some of the languages he had invented? The stories - especially the ones that found their way into the Silmarillion and the posthumous books - were narratives which gave explanations for how Sindarian, Eldar, Valinorian, Numenorian etc were related to each other.
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Originally posted by Coraxus: **I also noticed in some sci-fi like Star Trek, that planets have a suffix word to their names, like Verril Prime, or Cardassia Prime. I have an idea what "prime" is, but I wanna know if anyone else knows the in-depth significance to having "Prime" tagged to the name.
This is quite an old SF convention, which goes back at least as far as Frank Herbert (Dune). (Geddi Prime, Salusa Secundus)
It's a variation of simply naming a planet with the name of the star and then the number. Therefore, Earth would be Sol 3, or Sol Tertius. Mercury is Sol Prime, Venus is Sol Secundus. Of course, if you want to you could simply name the first planet to be inhabited as 'Prime', but this would be against the convention.
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **That depends on how far you want to go.
However, do you realise that almost the entire world and background of the Lord of the Rings was developed by Tolkien in order to give a background to the linguistics of some of the languages he had invented? The stories - especially the ones that found their way into the Silmarillion and the posthumous books - were narratives which gave explanations for how Sindarian, Eldar, Valinorian, Numenorian etc were related to each other. **
...or to give a mythological basis for his word origins, as he very quickly came to realize that language, culture and history were all interconnected, and to give his constructed languages verisimilitude, he had to give them history and background.
If you are actually interested in developing even a simple language for naming things, I recommend reading (url="http://"http://www.langmaker.com/ml0102.htm")this article(/url) at Langmaker.com. And yes, when I'm not working on SFA, I work on my own constructed languages.
(This message has been edited by UncleTwitchy (edited 12-30-2003).)
Originally posted by Jonathan Boyd: **Sounds quite Russian. I like it.
Maybe the Sov. part, but Latifundia is not really made up, it's an ancient latin word.
Originally posted by Coraxus: Maybe the Sov. part, but Latifundia is not really made up, it's an ancient latin word.
Gee, I wonder why Sov. sounds Russian...although that only applies to before the 80s...
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Originally posted by orcaloverbri9: **Gee, I wonder why Sov. sounds Russian...although that only applies to before the 80s...
Well, I can guarantee you that it's not Russian origin for sure. It's just a mere abbreviation for a word, a word that is however, not made up, I just made up the abbreviation part of it though.