Ayla's Name

[kamrom]

I think it odd that Ayla would, without context, name the being Lavos. So, does her name mean "<something> Fire"?

[utunnels]

Name Origin
Ayla is possibly named after a character in the book series "Clan of the Cave Bear" by Jean M. Auel. The character is a Cro-Magnon girl taken in by Neanderthals. She learns to hunt and becomes a great leader, but is exiled after a resentful man becomes chief.

That's probably the origin of her name. But your theory also sounds interesting.

[Manly Man]

Considering how some of their language may work, for all we know her name may translate to something like 'Wind-Fire,' since 'Ay-' resembles air. She moves like the wind, her strikes are as painful as fire.

This gives me an interesting idea. Considering how we only have two words in her entire language, perhaps we could make it a project of our own to make a fanon language for the prehistoric era.

[Licawolf]

In Chrono Cross we are told by Leah the meaning of the name :

Ayla is the proposed name of Leah's future child. This begs the question of whether Leah is her mother. The actual name is revealed to mean "new song of land."

probably just made up by SE for CC, but that's the canonical meaning of the game in-universe   I really think Ayla was named after Jean M. Auel's Ayla in reality. But yours was an interesting idea, nonetheless.


EDIT: Totally irrelevant to the CT's Ayla, probably, but as a curious note (courtesy of wikipedia):

"Ayla" a Hebrew name meaning "oak tree" and a modern Turkish name meaning "Circle or crystalic light around the moon and in some cases the sun."

[TheMage]

I think La-vos big fire if I remember correctly doesnt come from Ayla's own personal language but the language of her people. It would be interesting to give them a language hmmm Is Ayla's Name Ayla in the japanese version? If thats different but Lavos is the same that might explain why her name doesnt include fire in the description. (shrug)

[Licawolf]

or maybe her name is a contraction of the phrase, not the phrase exactly.

I'm thinking something like in the book Watership Down, the fictional lapine language. There's a character called "El-ahrairah", the name is a contraction of a phrase:  "Elil-Hrair-Rah", translated as "prince with a thousand enemies" (literally Elil=enemy; Hrair=thousand or many; Rah=prince)

Instead of Ayla meaning literally "new song of land", maybe it's a contraction of the words "new", "song" and "land".



....I'm rambling, just some ideas of how a prehistoric fanon language may work....



 

[Thought]

I think it odd that Ayla would, without context, name the being Lavos. So, does her name mean "<something> Fire"?

Interesting idea. As others have noted, we are told that Ayla is supposed to mean new song of the land; however, although it is implied that Leah is Ayla's mother, Leah's Ayla might not be our Ayla but just a random nod to her. For example, I have a friend named Jesus. He was born in Mexico, migrated to the United States when he was 15, and has been quite successful academically. Curiously, he has never been to the middle east, has no disciples, and has never claimed to have performed a miracle. He is named Jesus, but he isn't THE Jesus. Similarly, Leah's daughter could be named Ayla while not being THE Ayla.

It is also possible that their language is tonal. That is, while the "la" in Ayla and the "la" in lavos are spelled the same, they might be pronounced differently and as such have different meanings.

That being said, considering how fiery Ayla is, I would not be surprised in the least if her name, within the context of the Chronoverse, does have something to do with Fire.

[Licawolf]

Leah's Ayla might not be our Ayla but just a random nod to her. For example, I have a friend named Jesus. He was born in Mexico, migrated to the United States when he was 15, and has been quite successful academically. Curiously, he has never been to the middle east, has no disciples, and has never claimed to have performed a miracle. He is named Jesus, but he isn't THE Jesus. Similarly, Leah's daughter could be named Ayla while not being THE Ayla.

Even then I assure you the name of your friend Jesus means the same as the one of the JESUS ("He saves", If I remember correctly). Even if they are two different persons they share the same name with the same etymology (in Mexico we would call them "Tocayos"  he he). Even if Leah's daughter and CT Ayla are not the same person, possibly they share the same name with the same meaning.

[Manly Man]

Someone needs to contact Kato and ask him to write down how Ayla's old language works.

[Licawolf]

I really don't think Kato gave it much thought  he probably just gave "Ayla" and "Lavos" cool meanings, without worriyng for linguistics.

But it's fun to think about it, anyway 

[Thought]

Even then I assure you the name of your friend Jesus means the same as the one of the JESUS ("He saves", If I remember correctly).

Well to use a non-personal example then, Ender. In the book, Ender's Game, it is a shortened and altered form of Andrew. It is also a Turkish name, meaning "extremely rare." Same name, two different meanings. This isn't to say that this IS the case with our Ayla and Leah's Ayla, just that it is possible for the same name to have two different meanings.

[Licawolf]

Well to use a non-personal example then, Ender. In the book, Ender's Game, it is a shortened and altered form of Andrew. It is also a Turkish name, meaning "extremely rare." Same name, two different meanings. This isn't to say that this IS the case with our Ayla and Leah's Ayla, just that it is possible for the same name to have two different meanings.

Agreed. And I just say that if the game developers were kind enough to give us a possible meaning for the name "Ayla" we shouldn't dismiss it so easily    

If we're making fan-meanings for the purpouse of creating a fanon language, why not use all the words we know from prehistory while we're at it? we know some: Kino, Laruba (could the "La" in Laruba be related too to the "La" in "Lavos" or "Ayla"?), Ioka, Leah...

[Manly Man]

Well, let's look at Lavos. 'La-' is fire, and when making words it seems, the noun is at the beginning, and any sort of adjectives are done afterward, like many other languages. In this case, they're all strung into one word, so the position can give it a couple different meanings. Lavos: 'La-' = fire, '-Vos' = big. If one were to translate it to decent English, one does not say 'fire big' to describe something unless they're trying to talk like cavemen, which I know we're translating 'to' here, but bear with me please. Now, if this were the case, '-La' being a suffix would describe the base of the word, which happens to be 'Ay-' in this little bit here, would describe whatever 'Ay-' is as 'fiery,' 'fire-like' or 'aflame,' or something to that effect.

[Mr Bekkler]

I propose Ay means heart or strength.