[ANSTHRLD] Don't use these books

tmcd at jump.net tmcd at jump.net
Thu Jun 27 09:17:36 PDT 2002


Borek <Brent.Ryder at compucom.com>, anent Appendix F,
> While I agree that these tomes should not be used as documentation,
> some of them can start you on the road to finding real documentation
> by giving the possible language(s), location(s), and/or origin(s) a
> particular name might have come. I would not recommend this method
> for anyone who has not been doing Onomastics for a while

That last is the kicker, "as you know, Bob".  There's McDaniel's
Second Law: "If you don't know whether you can get away with breaking
the rules, you can't".  Those with sufficient onomastic experience
pretty much already know that Hanks&Hodges or Yonge are OK as
*starting points* for research in totally unknown names (the "I've
been using this name for N years" types of "stunt documentation") but
then know that they need to find real dated sources in the languages
of interest.  Magnus's original advice, to flee these things and
abjure the Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender (I paraphrase slightly),
is a good general rule.  Certainly Hanks&Hodges or Yonge or anything
should not appear in the documentation block of a form or in an ILoI
except with an apology

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
"To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting everything
up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)



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