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Names and interesting root words:
Oct. 11th, 2006 10:24 pmTrying to avoid spoilers here, so I’m not going to say what series I’m talking about or whom I might be referencing. But…
One of the names in question is written only in katakana “ma-i-ru” this has led some to start calling the character “Miles” or even “Mail”, which considering the crack the writer was no doubt on, I wouldn’t put it past her.
But let’s look at “Miles”. Breaking it into Japanese phonetics it’s roughly “Ma-i-ru-su (or ‘zu’ depending)” now I’m pretty sure the author wasn’t lazy and decided to drop a character here, so I’m gonna say that isn’t quite what we’re looking for.
However, there’s the German version of Miles that has an interesting root name. Milo may (as it is old German, which in part is derived from old Slavic) come from the Slavonic name “Milu”; both names supposedly mean ‘merciful’, a fact that doesn’t seem to mesh well with the character in mind, but does perhaps show a link between the two names.
M-i-l-u; seems like a natural fit right? Well the problem remains that my knowledge of eastern European language is… well nil. In other words, if the name has an ‘ee’ sound instead of an ‘aye’ sound; then the entire point is moot. Considering most Slavic words I’ve heard tend to use the ‘ee’ version; I thought I was at a dead end.
However when discussing this with my mom, who knows more on the pronunciation of such things, her comment at my line about the Russian/Slavic I was; “It would be said Mailu; the ‘I’ doesn’t make an ‘ee’ sound like that in this case, not before an ‘L’ sound.”
So; we might have a match here. And if we do, it’s interesting to not that there’s two characters in the series that either are Slovenian or have Slavic-based names.
Also on a complete side note; for the character that’s getting the most buzz, we know what the first part of his surname refers to; but interestingly enough the urban dictionary says this about the last part:
liet
N. the action of "pet" or "lick"; a sign of affection between two psychotic geniuses
Marice's lieted liet was lieted by Katrice.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=liet
I think that just explains everything really.
Edit: having gotten the book itself, which does have the name in english, it is "Mail"... still said "mairu" but- okay I'm starting to believe the "throw the cat onto the keyboard method of writing" theory.
One of the names in question is written only in katakana “ma-i-ru” this has led some to start calling the character “Miles” or even “Mail”, which considering the crack the writer was no doubt on, I wouldn’t put it past her.
But let’s look at “Miles”. Breaking it into Japanese phonetics it’s roughly “Ma-i-ru-su (or ‘zu’ depending)” now I’m pretty sure the author wasn’t lazy and decided to drop a character here, so I’m gonna say that isn’t quite what we’re looking for.
However, there’s the German version of Miles that has an interesting root name. Milo may (as it is old German, which in part is derived from old Slavic) come from the Slavonic name “Milu”; both names supposedly mean ‘merciful’, a fact that doesn’t seem to mesh well with the character in mind, but does perhaps show a link between the two names.
M-i-l-u; seems like a natural fit right? Well the problem remains that my knowledge of eastern European language is… well nil. In other words, if the name has an ‘ee’ sound instead of an ‘aye’ sound; then the entire point is moot. Considering most Slavic words I’ve heard tend to use the ‘ee’ version; I thought I was at a dead end.
However when discussing this with my mom, who knows more on the pronunciation of such things, her comment at my line about the Russian/Slavic I was; “It would be said Mailu; the ‘I’ doesn’t make an ‘ee’ sound like that in this case, not before an ‘L’ sound.”
So; we might have a match here. And if we do, it’s interesting to not that there’s two characters in the series that either are Slovenian or have Slavic-based names.
Also on a complete side note; for the character that’s getting the most buzz, we know what the first part of his surname refers to; but interestingly enough the urban dictionary says this about the last part:
liet
N. the action of "pet" or "lick"; a sign of affection between two psychotic geniuses
Marice's lieted liet was lieted by Katrice.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=liet
I think that just explains everything really.
Edit: having gotten the book itself, which does have the name in english, it is "Mail"... still said "mairu" but- okay I'm starting to believe the "throw the cat onto the keyboard method of writing" theory.