While looking at a large wall-map the other day, I was struck by an interesting place name I had never noticed before. Kalaallit Nunaat. According to Wikipedia, in the language Kalaallisut (natives of Greenland), it means "Land of the Greenlanders."
I just love the sound of it Kalaallit Nunaat, Kalaallit Nunaat. As a fantasy writer, I'm always looking for ways to name things that don't exist in our world, so I started to play with this as a place name in The Hidden Land of Gre. Sadly, I didn't think I could get away with using the real thing...
Kaliit Nanuut... Kallalu Niinat... Kaliilu Nanuud... Kaluut Nuunad! That's it! Well, that's it for now. The City of the Crossroads will be called Kaluut Nuunad. The owner of the inn, Hadrosep Bakkar, will say "Tula Kaluut Nuunad" when he greets the children. The translation will be, "Welcome to the land of those who live there." Of course, at this rough stage, everything's likely to change, but I love having little background tidbits like this to flesh out my story.
I wonder if other people are as interested as I am in messing around with words like this?
1 comment:
It is quite an interesting language isn't it? I'm interested in learning more about it as well.
Here's a great site I found in Kalaallisut:
Kalaallisut wiki browser
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