Hi, I'm not sure if this the right sub-forum for this rather random post, but let's give it a go!
I was just thinking yesterday about world-building. Specifically, if I had to create an animal, one that is very common, what would the laypeople of my world call it? I thought a good place to start would be to have a look at the names of really basic, really common animals in the real world.
I jotted down the first ones I could think of.
cat, dog, wolf, cow, horse, bear, boar, goat, pig, bird, fish, deer, fly, sheep, fox, bees, owl, moth, bugs, hawk, rat, mouse
Exception: mosquito
That's a lot of one-syllable words. Granted, this isn't a full list of common animals in the UK; and as soon as you delve deeper into the taxonomy, you quickly get to three-syllable words (kingfisher). Also, the English language is quite enamoured with short words.
So, for fun, I translated them into French, a language that eyes short words with suspicion:
chat, chien, loup, vache, cheval, ours, sanglier, chevre, cochon, oiseau, poisson, daim, mouche, mouton, renard, abeilles, chouette, mite, bestioles, faucon, rat, souris
That's... a lot of short words. Not quite as short as English, but still.
The other lovely thing is, some of the words sound like the animal they describe: wolf, bees -- a singular bee isn't a real bee, owl, fox (have you heard them bark?), even hawk
Exception: mosquito; seeing as bees is already taken, we should totally call them "Splat!", because that's the sound you hear just after someone's been stung.
I'd love to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about (unlike me), but I'm thinking that, maybe, these are very, very old worlds. The essential ones that humans have needed since we decided that rambling about nothing and everything was a good idea. Calling them by their sounds makes a lot of sense. Short words, too: I'd rather yell: "Bear!" rather than "That growling, furry creature that stands on his hind legs is pissed off at me because I stole all the honey made by those buzzing, crowd-loving flying insects in striped uniforms."
I don't know, I just... like those words. It's interesting. And I know when I next have to "create" a common animal, I'll try to find a short name for it.
I was just thinking yesterday about world-building. Specifically, if I had to create an animal, one that is very common, what would the laypeople of my world call it? I thought a good place to start would be to have a look at the names of really basic, really common animals in the real world.
I jotted down the first ones I could think of.
cat, dog, wolf, cow, horse, bear, boar, goat, pig, bird, fish, deer, fly, sheep, fox, bees, owl, moth, bugs, hawk, rat, mouse
Exception: mosquito
That's a lot of one-syllable words. Granted, this isn't a full list of common animals in the UK; and as soon as you delve deeper into the taxonomy, you quickly get to three-syllable words (kingfisher). Also, the English language is quite enamoured with short words.
So, for fun, I translated them into French, a language that eyes short words with suspicion:
chat, chien, loup, vache, cheval, ours, sanglier, chevre, cochon, oiseau, poisson, daim, mouche, mouton, renard, abeilles, chouette, mite, bestioles, faucon, rat, souris
That's... a lot of short words. Not quite as short as English, but still.
The other lovely thing is, some of the words sound like the animal they describe: wolf, bees -- a singular bee isn't a real bee, owl, fox (have you heard them bark?), even hawk
Exception: mosquito; seeing as bees is already taken, we should totally call them "Splat!", because that's the sound you hear just after someone's been stung.
I'd love to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about (unlike me), but I'm thinking that, maybe, these are very, very old worlds. The essential ones that humans have needed since we decided that rambling about nothing and everything was a good idea. Calling them by their sounds makes a lot of sense. Short words, too: I'd rather yell: "Bear!" rather than "That growling, furry creature that stands on his hind legs is pissed off at me because I stole all the honey made by those buzzing, crowd-loving flying insects in striped uniforms."
I don't know, I just... like those words. It's interesting. And I know when I next have to "create" a common animal, I'll try to find a short name for it.
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