Thursday, August 12, 2010

What's in a name?

Sikh Akali
- chaps who will not allow liberties to be taken

I approached Mr. John Cunningham with an order for some of his sepoys. Not only did he email me back very promptly, discuss the pros and cons of sepoys various, send me some pictures of plates in his collection and generally provided top quality service - he sent me a complete set of the figures themselves, so that I could see the chaps in the lead before making up my mind.

He also included a set of Sikh Akali. I had toyed with the idea of including some of these fierce looking fellows in the army of my fictional Rajahship (this is apparently the term for the state ruled by a Rajah, I think I may use the word Kingdom myself), but seeing them made up my mind for me.

This of course, puts me on the horns of another dilemma - which sepoys should I purchase?

In other news -

Mrs. Kinch continues well and is doing a little gentle work on the Wii fit in addition to ruling our domestic arrangements with her usual iron hand.

Sadly, some dastardly (and presumably French) swine has bought the house we had our eye on. As a result we've been wearing out a certain amount of shoe leather trying to find another. We saw three houses yesterday (making a total of 18 viewed so far) and have two definite nos and one distinct possibility.

My quest for a name for my Indian state continues, but I do have a short list. I had originally thought that I'd use something in Urdu, but a little reading has suggested that Urdu while perfectly good if you like that sort of thing is a bit of a Johnny come lately in the language stakes and if you really want to cut a dash as an Ancient Lost Kingdom in the sub continent it must be Sanskrit. No doubt my fictional subjects will use Urdu for everyday wear, going shopping, walking the dog and plotting the doom of the enemies of Sredni Vashtar and so forth - but Sanskrit is what you put on the brass plate by the door.

I shall be calling my fictional state Black Pool as I hail from there and I suspect it made its name in much the same way as my home town did - a jolly blackhearted type of place that made its mark in the slave trade and continued much as it began.

Thus far my options are...

Black Pool
Kaala Saras
Zyaama Akhaata
Niila hRda
Krsna

Combinations thereof...

Kaalasara
Kala Akhaata
Kaalahrda

Zyaama Saras
Zyaama Akhaata
ZyaamahRda

Niila Saras
Niila Akhaata
NiilahRda

Krsna Saras
Krsna Akhaata
KrsnahRda

I'll let these rattle around for a while and see which fits.



5 comments:

  1. Firstly, I am happy to hear of Mrs. Kinch's improving health.

    Question, sir. . . . which one of the names did you find typed most comfortably?

    You should at least be able to winnow the list a fair amount by eliminating those that don't type comfortably . . . because you will have to type it many times.

    Also consider which names seem to roll off of your tongue with ease . . . and discard those that don't.

    Personally, Kaala Saras was my choice.


    -- Jeff

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  2. Good to hear the Mem-Sahib is on the mend!

    I like any of this group:
    Kaalasara
    Kala Akhaata
    Kaalahrda
    (Maybe it's because I'm from California, so the Kaala part sounds familiar...) :)

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  3. Jeff certainly speaks sooth, and to that I would suggest you also speak them out loud - some of them look like they'd need the assistance of super glue to keep your dentures fixed while attempting their utterance... :o)

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  4. Another thing to consider when deciding on place names is the adjectival form. What to call the inhabitants thereof?
    (I've learned this from experience. I have yet to come up with an adjectival from for my Soweiter League that readily "trips off the tongue".)

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