@TheEdVerse Sorry if this has been asked before. Is the suffix -pur in city names analogous to Greek -pol? What language family is this from? And are there equivalent suffixes for towns, villages, hamlets?
— Observant Oliphaunt (@zoozeki) December 16, 2020
1)
In Thorass (Old Common), “pur” means “great settlement” (=large settlement=city).
In Thorass, a market-moot was the closest term to a town, and had a “-ubel” suffix (which survives in the name of Scornubel). A fast-growing…2)
…settlement of any size might get a “-bor” suffix (as in Iriaebor), and a good harbor’s name might end with “-gaunt” (Selgaunt). However, these suffixes were seldom used, and often vanished when growing places got renamed.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 17, 2020
and Thorass is based on the Italic languages, not Greek(according to the Forgotten Realms Wiki).
When I read this answer, I thought of Triboar, but realized it used “boar”, along with an obvious name origin referencing an event with “Three Boars”. Nope, Thorass isn't based on any real-world language. When I create the Realms, I (gasp) MAKE THINGS UP. ;}#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 17, 2020
Check the references; the language lore is from “Speaking in Tongues” by Thomas Costa, Dragon Annual #4. It offers “similar real world” groups to the Realms languages, e.g., “à la Italic: Latin, Italian, French” for Thorass. These are the usual inspirations for names and things. They may be the usual inspirations, but they've never been mine. Sorry.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 18, 2020
Interestingly, a classmate of mine, years ago at university, tried to "fit" some of my invented Realms words to real-world language groups, and our linguistics prof (not knowing where they came from, BTW) showed him how they didn't "map." Good; I was trying for "new."#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 18, 2020