Thursday, August 19, 2010

Does anyone know a site that i can translate human names into native american names?

I really need to translate my Social Studies classes names into any Native American language like lakota. Aztec e.t.c can someone please give me a site that I can do so???





THANK YOU SO MUCH!


ILU

Does anyone know a site that i can translate human names into native american names?
Native Americans are "human". And you have a very wrong concept of the nature of "names". If you mean change English "John" into the Lakhota equivalent of "John" you will find that it is "John". In Aztec, they will use the Spanish equivalents. The European names that you think can be "translated" are Christian and Jewish in origin and have been changed in European languages as a result of the long history of Bible translation and the Christian and Jewish religions in those countries. So Greek Ioannes becomes Ioannis in Latin, then Johann in German, John in English, Juan in Spanish, Jean in French, Ivan in Russian, Jan in Dutch, etc. When the Bible (and the Christian religion it comes with) finally reached the Americas, the Natives had no such Judeo-Christian names and simply borrowed the European versions: John, Juan, Jean, Jo茫o, etc. So you CANNOT "translate" these names into Lakhota or any other Native American language.





Native Americans used descriptive terms to name their children: Quanah (Parker) is Comanche kwana 'odor' (although modern Comanches will revise this history and tell you it is from kwinaa 'eagle'), Tashunka Witko is Lakhota 'crazy horse', Isatai is Comanche isatta'i 'coyote anus', etc. You will NOT find "equivalents" for John, Elizabeth, George, and Katherine.





Modern Native names are often combinations of European first names and descriptive family names. The following are Native Americans I know or have known during my life: Patti Timbimboo (this means something in Shoshoni, but I can't remember right now what it is), Drusilla Gould (she's Shoshoni, but has two European names), Juanita Landis (she's Timbisha with two European names), Maude Moon (Shoshoni), Cedric Lomaquahu (Hopi, but I don't know what his family name means), Tom Curly (Cherokee), Imogene Steel (Shoshoni), Gloria Bullets (Southern Paiute). These are typical patterns for all Native Americans both in North and South America--an English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese first name and a descriptive or European family name.





Sorry, but your question has no answer because the proposition has no basis in fact.
Reply:"HUMAN" names? You're implying that Native Americans weren't human?


And your little comment about "animal" names--NAs didn't have names like Fred and Joyce (They might now, of course). You can't translate what isn't there.
Reply:Are you under the impression that Native Americans are not human?
Reply:Uh...human to Native would still not be the right term... Try English to a Native language...





I've never seen any such sites, and names in general will not translate. As someone said above, John will still be John. The best you can do it find out what each name supposedly means, then attempt to put that in the words of another language.
Reply:search on yahoo search


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