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ArchivesRe: Names with several origins?
in reply to a message by Rene
The problem with using spellings is that they do not avoid the problem except for western names. Names of Indian origin often have multiple spellings without them being considered different: the pronunciations are also somewhat varied.
Actually things are really complicated in India. Different parts use different scripts (most of either Brahmi or Arabic origin, but that is beside the point), so it is not clear how to use the spelling definition of name identity straightforwardly. To complicate matters, they are usually pronounced differently, and though the spellings in most of the north Indian Brahmi origin scripts are related, the spellings in some scripts like Tamil are different. Yet, there is a very definite concept of the name being the same name or not defined partly by the etymology and partly whether they follow the regular correspondence rules between the sounds in the different languages: etymology wins when etymology is clear and well-known.
I like going by the predominant pronunciation because they can be compared across languages, whereas spelling often can't.
Actually things are really complicated in India. Different parts use different scripts (most of either Brahmi or Arabic origin, but that is beside the point), so it is not clear how to use the spelling definition of name identity straightforwardly. To complicate matters, they are usually pronounced differently, and though the spellings in most of the north Indian Brahmi origin scripts are related, the spellings in some scripts like Tamil are different. Yet, there is a very definite concept of the name being the same name or not defined partly by the etymology and partly whether they follow the regular correspondence rules between the sounds in the different languages: etymology wins when etymology is clear and well-known.
I like going by the predominant pronunciation because they can be compared across languages, whereas spelling often can't.
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