I don’t have much this week, but I do have any idea about making up European-sounding city names.
- Split the names of European capital cities up into syllables (Am Ster Dam etc)
- Some syllables are empty, some are spaces.*
- Plug those syllables into awkwords
- Use the syllable structure AB(C(D(E(F(G(H(I)))))))
The result (with 0s and extraneous spaces deleted)
Saga, Bergreb, Stocklo, Warti, Helchana, Belra, Stockgari, Pragrade, Madthens, Baletta Kiholm, Colincan, Ascow, Podlin, Vatcha, Dubgreb, Aholm, Bulinma, Mosdor, Aslin, Cograde, Numeri, Wartire
Compare these to names generated with the same method using the capitals of American states
Sanmond, Little Di, Dolalakerou, Richlumins City, Denta, Oklen Luge, Saclym, Cheylymburg, Provles, Saltlen, Juncord, Toper, Phoelym, Saint Boscordlu, Saltlym, Frankno, Tendi, Cheyfort, Saltmarkhasma, Ana
And African capitals
Nipo, Pornedi, Kinta, Buoun, Albu, Lubu, Porcra, Banak, Lusadi, Hagiersra, Gamé, Bandoko, Libresouk, Ratotone, Liborkry, Mbahoekvi, Adis Nata, Anbreville, Lodoni, Kisama, Moro, Acmé, Bisaki, Mama, Caigiersi, Djipo
I think it works pretty well, although there are a few names that are too obviously derived from real cities. Any ideas on how I can fix that?
(in reply to earnest-peer)
It is a problem that syllables also often end up being morphemes (like “tam”=dam and “ljub”=love). But the only thing smaller than syllables is phonemes, and if I string random phonemes together, I just get gibberish.
One solution might be to keep the phonemes of English, but use the phonotactics of a given capital-city name to generate a new one with the “rhythm” of the old. For example “amsterdam” (pronounced with an American accent) is Vowel-Nasal-Fricative-Stop-Vowel-Approximant/glide-Stop-Vowel-Nasal. Plugging in that pattern, I get “Umsdelkam.” In the same way, Andorra la Vella => Amcollu ri Surri, Athens => Iphens, Belgrade => Porprip, etc.
The problem with these words is that they don’t look “European” but they do look like the name they derive from.
Or do they? Let’s see. Can you guys guess where I got these three large cities?
Hogiko
Tyugo
Futhia
(in reply to possessivesuffix)
This time, rather than split Amsterdam into three boxes (Am Ster Dam), I split it into three syllable plus three coda boxes (A m Ste r Da m).
When I let codas either appear or not (A(B)C(D)(E(F)(G(H)))), I got:
Prabdo, Paho, Vati, Saer, Osnma
Not very European sounding, but at least not unpronouncable garbage.
When I simply made each box less likely than the previous (AB(C(D(E(F(G(H(I)))))))) I get:
Bussgo, Bun, Reckmen, Vilsa, Skonma, Dukb, Brat, A, Du, Maykya, Bakki, Ljuscora
Some of which have the aesthetic I’m going for (Ljuscora is particularly nice) , while others are bullshit (Du??)
Not sure where to go from here.