Re: On Translating geographical names

["Raphael Higino" <raphaelh uai com br>]

> >> The pronunciation is something like this: it sounds like the name of
the
> >> country "Paraguay" but without the 'P', with "na" in the end, and the
'y' is
> >> tonic.
> >
> > "tonic"?
>
> I believe it means "voiced", "pronounced" or "loud".  I.e. you can
> hear it being said.  (I don't know if it's Latin or something, but it
> certainly sounds familiar to me; OTOH, I may be talking utter crap ;-)

I didn't know what word should be used to show the idea. I mean the 'y' is
the stronger syllable in the word (please tell me how I say this in
English).

The name of the city doesn't come from Latin. I comes from Tupi Guarani,
which is the original language of most of the indian people that lived on
the territory that now is Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and other countries in
South America. This language has influenced so much Portuguese language that
made it a lot different here in Brazil from that one spoken in Portugal.
That's why we have Portuguese (Portugal) and Brazilian Portuguese.

Now Tupi Guarani is almost dead but it's already taught at some indian
schools and communities. With the government willing to adopt free software
in all public schools, I think there would be some people wanting to
translate GNOME and other free softwares to Tupi Guarani. I was just
wondering, is it possible, even not having enough amount of literature in
Tupi Guarani?

Raphael Higino