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Re: I disagree...
J'vonte has an etymology; it's just a recent etymology. It is an African-American blended name form typical of the late 20th century. It IS a name, whether you like it or not. Just because something has been created recently doesn't mean it has no "linguistic significance." It is of great significance in telling us how language is being used at the present time, and that is part of linguistics. Also, its creation is very far from being "random". It follows the sound patterns and spellings that are popular in urban African-American culture. There are certain syllables which are popular at certain times in the creation of new names in that community, with the great majority of the newly invented names following the present sound fashions and so being far from "random" in their origin.

This message was edited 3/11/2006, 4:22 PM

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Well, unless you consider the so called Ebonics a language, urban African-Americans speak English. With that random (yes, random!) apostrophe J'vonte goes against the general spelling rules of English; the beginning "jv" sound combination is also not found in English. Admittedly, English is my second language, but I cannot see what English word or element J'vonte is derived from. So, I stand by my words -- J'vonte is a group of random sounds with no etymologic or liguistic significance. Maybe it has a sociologic or phychologic or some other significance, but that's another topic.~ Ivayla,
skillfully disguised as a responsible adult
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Names like J'vonte and Condoleezza are pretty tame compared to etymological gems such as OrangeJello, LemonJello (pronounced o-RON-juh-lo and le-MON-juh-lo, respectively) and even Shithead (pronounced shutEED), which are discussed in the book "Freakonomics" by Stephen Levitt.
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I'm agreeI cannot speak for English language, obviously, but in Spanish, Catalan, French, Occitan, Basque... all languages with a language academy that gives the rules (spelling, syntax, etc.), a "name" (or a word, or a text) which brokes the rules... is not a Spanish/Catalan/French/Occitan/Basque... name, perhaps a misspelling, perhaps a name in another language... but not a Spanish/etc. name.So, for example, Yuridys, Yessica, Marbellys, Gustabo, Alfonzo, Jiomar... are not (and they can not be) Spanish names (they break the rules of Spanish language). Perhaps "names" used by Spanish speaking people, but "names" that indicate ignorance of Spanish rules (and in Spanish, misspellings are cosiderated illiteracy signs, not creativeness signs).Note 1: the rules of RAE (Real Academia Española de la Lengua) are mandatory for ALL Spanish speaking people (in Spain, in America, in Morocco, in the Moon...).Note 2: I choosed the Spanish example, and not a Catalan or Basque example, because the misspellings and made-up names are more usual and it can be more clear for most of you.Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
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