On Sun, Feb 11, 2007 at 06:23:08PM -0800, Judy Ryder wrote: > What's your opinion on names for your horse? Must his barn name be > Icelandic?
no, most americans can't pronounce icelandic names properly anyway, and it's silly to have to "correct" people all the time about what to call your horse. (or "correct" yourself, if icelandic happens not to be something you find easy or euphonious to pronounce.) i call stjarni (in order of frequency) "love", "stjarni", "ponykins", "slitrublesi" (also an icelandic word, but a nickname), and "petunia" when i'm talking to him. (i also don't see why a horse should have only one barn name or nickname :) most of my students and the barn owner call him "star", and i use both "stjarni" and "star" when talking to them about him. (i do explain about "stjarna" being icelandic for "star", and "stjarni" being icelandic for "with a star", but that's just because linguistics is my delight :) > Apparently there are Europeans who are offended that my horses are called by > American names. eh, there are americans who are offended by how i use a fork. the heck with 'em; they should take up basketweaving and make better use of their time on earth :) --vicka
