Transcription
A series of Tweets by @Foone, each replying to the last:
Here's the question I always have with universal translators in sci-fi: how do they know when to stop translation? Like say an alien asks about deserts on earth, and the human lists "the sahara desert, gobi desert and kalahari desert" Alien: You just said "desert" six times.
("Sahara" is Arabic for "desert". "Gobi" is Mongolian for "desert", and "Kalahari" is Tswana for "desert")
Man, the aliens are going to think we're so bad at naming. Cause really, aren't we?
Brit: Behold, the beautiful River Avon!
Alien: Ahh, the River River. You humans have such a knack for naming things.
"Here we are in Chad, looking upon the mighty Lake Chad!"
"Ahh yes, the land of Lake, bordering the Lake Lake. Another fine human name. "
"And here's Nyanza Lac, in Burundi. As you can tell by the fact that it's named Lake Lake in Bantu & French, it's a la... actually this one's a city. A city named Lake Lake"
Germany literally has over 40 cities or towns with the name "Neustadt". That's German for "new city".
You find Novi Grad, Nowgorod, and variations all over Slavic Europe, which also means new city.
Nouvelle Village in France. Novaci in Romania as well.
Probably exists in many languages and regions.
and I thought Newcastle was silly
Newcastle happens to also be on the river Ouseburn (which joins the Tyne), which is three consecutive names for running water.
Are we talking upon Tyne or under Lyme?
Newton in English...new town.
In the US we have a river named New River and of course it’s actually one of the oldest in the world.
I think this is why postal codes are a thing.
Same in France with "neuve", also "franche" which indicated a special tax exempt status.
So those usually have something to distinguish them from the others.
Like a river they are sat on or some mountain nearby. One of my favourite such name is Laneuveville-devant-Nancy : TheNewTown-Infrontof-Nancy (Nancy being a bigger city nearby). It has a strong named-by-modern-programmers energy...