Re: Ship Naming Convention (off topic Celts etc.)

At 02:16 07/04/98 GMT, you wrote:
>On Mon, 6 Apr 1998 21:49:48 -0500, Thomas Barclay
<Thomas.Barclay@sofkin.ca>
>wrote:
>
>>How could you get the Picts without the Kelts or Celts (depending on 
>>your bent)?  
>
>You'd THINK I'd mention the Celts. However, my understanding is that
"Celt"
>covers a wide range of people that also includes the early Germans and
Gauls
>(but not the Franks, if I remember correctly and I may be wrong). You
make a
>point, though.
>It is Celt. The soft "c" and hard "c" ("k") sound is a weirdness in
English.
>In the 19th century there was a softening of the letter "c" in English
and
>it's followed through. The race are Celts (pronounced Kelts), but the
Glasgow
>soccer team and the Boston basketball team are Celtic (pronounced
Sell-tik).

SNIP
	Celtic properly refers to the language rather than anything else
(so
you get tall blonde Celts, short dark Celts etc.), so it doesn't include
the
Germans but does include Gauls, Galatians, Irish and Picts (more or
less),
Britons (all with numerous splendid tribal names e.g. Volcae Tectosages,
Insubres, Catuvellauni [="Battle experts"!] etc.- as I recall, the
Celtic
and Italic groups are most closely related, with Celto-Italic and
Germanic
being closely related.	Interestingly, according to a fascinating
Channel 4
documentary last month, other members of this language group include the
tartan-wearing inhabitants of the Takla Makan desert in modern China!

Rob

>>One could follow some sort of a heroic naming scheme
>>
>>BB: The MacArthur, the Schwartzkopf, the Powell, the Patton, the 
>>Montgomery, the Rommel, the Eisenhower.
>
>No offense, but I'd hardly put Schwartkopf or Powell in the same group
as
>Patton and Rommel. Also, if using the FT background you'd want to avoid
heroes
>from another region. The NAC wouldn't use Rommel but the NSL would. I
like
>using these names myself, though I like to go for less obvious names:
>Tokugawa, Slim, Wolfe, Augustus Adolphus, Tecumseh. Funny how American
SF
>writers (such as on Babylon 5) are quick to go with WW2 and beyond
names but
>ignore some good ones from the civil war: Jackson, Longstreet, Early,
>Sheridan, Meade, Buford, not to mention Lee, Grant, and Sherman
(Sherman may
>be too "divisive" as might be Sheridan, though both have had tanks
named after
>them; I wouldn't expect to see a Forrest class ship, though).
>
>>CA: The Montcalm, the Wolfe, the Ney, the Bonaparte, the Wellington, 
>>the Adolphus, etc
>
>Whoops. Looks like you cover some of mine. I can supply a bunch of
Japanese
>heroes if anyone wants, along the lines of Tokugawa, Takeda, and
Nobunaga. 
>
>>CL: The Horatio, The Xenophon, the Agrippa, the Augustus, etc.
>>CV: The Nimitz, the Bishop, the Rickenbaker, the Richtoffen, the 
>>Jodl, etc. 
>
>WW1 aces would be good. Historical note: some 25%+ of British aces were
>Canadian. There were a disproportionate number of Australians as well.
>
>You've got Ball, Boelcke, Immelmann, Caldwell, Brown, Nungusser,
Lowenhardt,
>etc.
>
>>I don't think one ever needs run out of fascinating and useful ship 
>>names. The world is so full of wonderful material that there is no 
>>shortage. 
>
>Quite true. I like battle names, myself. My favourite ship name is the
Vimy
>Ridge. I also like some weirdnesses you'd NEVER see in real life. In
the
>GenCon game last year, I had Debacle class ships: The Dieppe, The
Stalingrad,
>and The Somme.
>
>
>Allan Goodall	      agoodall@sympatico.ca
>
>"Once again, the half time score, 
> Alien Overlords: 142,000. Scotland: zip."
>  - This Hour Has 22 Minutes
>
>
"Rob Paul

Dept of Zoology
Oxford University
South Parks Road
Oxford
(01865) 271124
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