Endonyms and Exonyms

[Travis B.]

The conlang I am currently working on is currently known in English by its endonym, Carinnaha. Etymologically this is a nominal stem car which refers to the ethnic group which speaks the language (but which is typically not used by itself) combined with the adjectivizer inn (commonly translated in this use as -ic/-ian/-ish/-ese but is more widely used than said morphemes in English), a nominalizer a, a feminine marker h (languages in Carinnaha are feminine), and a case marker, a in the nominative and i in the oblique. I have tried to come up with an anglicization of this name, which results in "Charic", "Charian", "Charish", or "Charese", but I do not like any of these names. I like slightly better similar names where English-speakers have failed to realize that inn already means something like -ic/-ian/-ish/-ese, resulting in "Charinnic", "Charinnian", "Charinnish", or "Charinnese". I am wondering whether I should just create an exonym that has no direct relation to the language's endonym, but I am having a hard time coming up with an exonym I actually like and does not sound like a conlang name. Any ideas?

[Koko]

Is there an established state the "car" people inhabit? If so, you could derive an exonym for the state name and then add an English suffix to form the language exonym. This is how I derived Isyan (partly because there is no one word for the Isyan language in Isyan, you either say mebeya isyo "the language of Isya," or simply the name "isya" when it's clear you're referring to the language).

If this doesn't work, try using just the name of the people. This is what's done for many if not most Aboriginal languages (but this time, you actually get to use the endonym* instead of making up a root).

* "Char" which sounds pretty good in English, probly because it's an English word

[Pabappa]

Im confused. Are you saying English is spoken alongside Carinnish? Im just curious. I use endonyms when I can, but most of my conlangs end up changing so much while I work on them that the endonym becomes false and effectively can only be explained as an exonym. e..g Andanese

[Travis B.]

Im confused. Are you saying English is spoken alongside Carinnish? Im just curious. I use endonyms when I can, but most of my conlangs end up changing so much while I work on them that the endonym becomes false and effectively can only be explained as an exonym. e..g Andanese

No, English is not spoken alongside Carinnaha as far as I have worked things out (which is not very far from a conworlding perspective), even though I do have a Carinnaha name for English (not in-world but for the purposes of the conlang fluency thread), anglinnaha. I may have implied it when referring to inn potentially not getting translated in English, but that was just my seeking a means of justifying retaining the inn in the name despite the result then meaning "Charishish".

I am tending towards either creating a name for it gotten from another language (which may be originally derived from carinnaha or a similar form in older versions of the same language or related languages) or creating a name in English that refers to a geographic feature near where they live or originally lived.

[Travis B.]

I am going to go for Charinnish, for an endonym, or Rgyap, an exonym derived from a neighboring language's name for the area where they live ([ɻəɟap̚]), or Twelve Lakes, a boring English name referring to the same geographical feature as Rgyap.

[clawgrip]

Lakespeech

[Salmoneus]

I am going to go for Charinnish, for an endonym, or Rgyap, an exonym derived from a neighboring language's name for the area where they live ([ɻəɟap̚]), or Twelve Lakes, a boring English name referring to the same geographical feature as Rgyap.

Why not just 'Charinn'? Or if you like the idea of reanalysis, 'Charine'.
Better yet: why not 'Carinnaha'? I mean, it's not like that's more alien than 'Rgyap'. Or 'Charinnaha'.

In real english, languages (other than English, Polish, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Spanish, and maybe a few others) don't get the -ish suffix. -ese is the old suffix for them, and -ian is probably more common now, particularly if the language is named after a nation state, while -ic is also a possibility. But really, most languages in English are known by (if necessary, a phonologically anglicised version of) an endonym (sometimes of a group rather than of the language). Tagalog, Kannada, Swahili, Urdu, Dutch, Czech, Ojibwe/Chippewa. Or an exonym given by a group contacted first, in a few cases (Navajo, Samoyed). If tomorrow we discovered a portal to your world and encounted your language, we would just call it Charinnaha.

[Travis B.]

I am going to just stick with Carinnaha because I can't find any names I like better than it.

[mèþru]

To other commenters: if you check the thread on Carinnaha, you'll see that it is pronounced [tɕʼarinnaχa], and therefore <ch> is the most likely first element of an English name.
I'm assuming Carinnaha is spoken on another world. In that case, Charinnaha sounds like the reasonable English name for the language.
If it is a language that the Old English had contact with, it is Charish or Charse. After Old English, names like Charese, Charican, Charian are more likely. The -inn suffix existed in Old Norse, so it is unlikely that Old English speakers would be unable to analyse it properly. If Carinnaha is a recently discovered language, then I would go with Charinnaha. Rgyap is more likely to be written in English as Regyap, Rigyap, Rigap, Regyap or Riyap. Twelve Lakes does not sound like a language or an ethnonym.
Carinnaha would be pronounced by English speakers as [karinnaha]