One Heartbeat

While there may not be actual evidence on the site, I have just completed Chapter 21. Knowing that the story is only available to you through Chapter 19 (as of 31 May 2009), I plan on exercising my nick-of-time worldbuilding anecdotes to explain something about the names you find in the text. You can use this as your guide to most of the characters who come from Tveshë, but I must warn you that other conventions exist outside of the country.

1. Tveshi Names

Our heroine’s name is Salus Kobsarka-Nitannyi Niksubvya. This is a mouthful, yes, but it contains a host of useful information. From just telling us her name, Salus has given us:

• The name of her maternal family
• Her city of birth (and possibly residence)
• Her formal name to be used in professional correspondence
• A personal name used by family members and those she knows more intimately (friends, lovers, fiancé[e]s)

The first component of her name is Salus, a familiar name given by her parents. The second component of her name—indeed, of any Tveshi child’s name—tells us that she is from Kobsarka, a suburb of Menarka. Her formal name—which, in traditional rules, is hyphenated with her city of birth—is also known as the patrilineal attribution. Salus’s paternal grandmother (or nearest living paternal female relative) was given the honor of giving her that formal name. Niksubvya is her family’s matrilineal name, which is the most important to those wanting to assess her general place. Some family names are more common than others, but combined with her birth location, one can easily trace her maternal history to the first century with only a few gaps. The age of a last name—and Salus’s is actually quite old—denotes how important her family is.

The familiar and formal/patrilineal names are very flexible. For instance, someone with the informal name “Kurannyi” could know a woman whose formal name is “Kurannyi.” It all depends on the preferences of those who name a child. In rare cases, someone may have the same formal and familiar name.

2. Ways to Address People

The most formal way to address someone is to use their entire name. Most people do not do this outside of religious rituals (and then only at important rites of passage, such as birth, marriage, and death). Here are some more common ways (in decreasing levels of formality) Tveshi refer to other people.

A. “Akah” followed by patrilineal name

This is the most formal way most people address others. People trying to be familiar with Salus would call her “Akah Nitannyi.”

B. “Akah” followed by patrilineal nickname

The degree of formality here depends on several factors. If an individual has a very common name (like Karatau), he or she may choose to always go by a patrilineal nickname or always by the unabbreviated name to simplify relations with others. For those with less common names, the patrilineal nickname does seem more familiar. Many women go by the patrilineal nickname professionally simply because 75% of women have formal names ending in -annyi.

Salus’s name here would be “Akah Nita.”

C. Patrilineal [nick]name

Fairly self-explanatory. Salus would be “Nita” or “Nitannyi.” This name would be used by close work professionals or very distant acquaintances, but rarely by close friends or family members. Those who meet someone in a nonformal situation (who are not family members or closely related to friends of the family) SHOULD ALWAYS use this form when first meeting someone because it shows respect. One usually proceeds from this form to the informal-matrilineal form (D) ONLY by permission of the individual in question. (Nurannyi hasn’t given Salus permission yet, unfortunately, to use her informal name. Maybe when they’ve lived together longer?)

D. Informal followed by matrilineal name

Acquaintances (non-work) use this form all the time. It is at once personal and distant, showing that someone knows who you are and where you belong—something very important to Tveshi. Distant friends will also use this. One should NEVER use this form if they have never met someone before, except on first dates. “Salus Niksubvya” is what these people would call our main character.

E. Informal name

This is an individual’s first name. “Salus” is Salus Kobsarka-Nitannyi Niksubvya’s informal name.

If you have given any thought to the gloss on individuals and places, you will notice that Suka doesn’t follow the Tveshi naming structure. The fact is, many people in Narahja just don’t. This annoys many Tveshi because Narahji names don’t provide any useful information, other than assiging a clan to an individual and a personal name. However, as with Suka, some Narahji have nicknames, and these are usually used similarly to informal names.

“Sukalvar tal Bisum” is what is on Suka’s identity cards. “Sukalvar” is a name given to her by someone in her family (but not her mother). “Tal” is a connecting word that pretty much tells you that she inhabits, belongs to, is nested within, the “Bisum” clan. And this is the way things work for most Narahji.