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The oldest known mention of the name is found in the inscription on the Menhir of Nambara, dated to the 16th century B.E.B., which credits Nambara, then ruler of a petty kingdom along the upper Ilathw, with <blockquote>''engeli lendes nærth Iglethi Gæran-kôrethin''<br/>‘a great victory (or many victories)<ref>In the Ebrinine dialect of Old Olgish, ''engel'' (''jengíl'' in the dialect of Soskilón) could denote either size or quantity, and number was not yet consistently marked on nouns, ''lendes'' ‘battle’ being a singular form (cf. ''lendis'' in Soskilón). The ''-i'' suffix has been interpreted variably as either signifying plural to ''engel'', yielding a meaning closer to ‘many battles’, as an elative suffix, creating ‘a very great battle’, or as actually part of a second word ''ilendes'', then meaning ‘a great slaughter’.</ref> against the Iglethi of the Gæran-heath’</blockquote> The ''Iglethi'' ‘people of thirst’ are thought to refer to the proto-Yamenaen Kattasi settlers who from ca. 1600 B.E.B. had begun to expand into the Geranian Heath and in the process had driven out the native Geranian population; the name ''Gæran'' itself, however, is presumably much older and originates in the [[Common Geranian|common language of the Geranians]]. It most likely derives from a Common Geranian root ''*gyār-'' ‘extension, reach, plain’ (hence Kal. ''kear'' ‘bed, range’ and Haj. ''gor'' ‘plain, field, garden’), either with the Olgish nominalizing suffix ''-an'', or directly from a form ''*gyārhāɲ'' ‘plain of heather’. The extent of the area so denoted is not known, and it can be presumed that the term was applied somewhat loosely to any region north of the Ilathw, or, by extension, north of Elondor. | The oldest known mention of the name is found in the inscription on the Menhir of Nambara, dated to the 16th century B.E.B., which credits Nambara, then ruler of a petty kingdom along the upper Ilathw, with <blockquote>''engeli lendes nærth Iglethi Gæran-kôrethin''<br/>‘a great victory (or many victories)<ref>In the Ebrinine dialect of Old Olgish, ''engel'' (''jengíl'' in the dialect of Soskilón) could denote either size or quantity, and number was not yet consistently marked on nouns, ''lendes'' ‘battle’ being a singular form (cf. ''lendis'' in Soskilón). The ''-i'' suffix has been interpreted variably as either signifying plural to ''engel'', yielding a meaning closer to ‘many battles’, as an elative suffix, creating ‘a very great battle’, or as actually part of a second word ''ilendes'', then meaning ‘a great slaughter’.</ref> against the Iglethi of the Gæran-heath’</blockquote> The ''Iglethi'' ‘people of thirst’ are thought to refer to the proto-Yamenaen Kattasi settlers who from ca. 1600 B.E.B. had begun to expand into the Geranian Heath and in the process had driven out the native Geranian population; the name ''Gæran'' itself, however, is presumably much older and originates in the [[Common Geranian|common language of the Geranians]]. It most likely derives from a Common Geranian root ''*gyār-'' ‘extension, reach, plain’ (hence Kal. ''kear'' ‘bed, range’ and Haj. ''gor'' ‘plain, field, garden’), either with the Olgish nominalizing suffix ''-an'', or directly from a form ''*gyārhāɲ'' ‘plain of heather’. The extent of the area so denoted is not known, and it can be presumed that the term was applied somewhat loosely to any region north of the Ilathw, or, by extension, north of Elondor. | ||
In Olgish, the term is usually rendered as '''Gäran''' or '''Geran''', becoming | In Olgish, the term is usually rendered as '''Gäran''' or '''Geran''', becoming '''Géran''' or '''Géryn''' in Wertian. The Kattasi themselves called the land '''Oṣṣale''' ‘north’, referring to its location north(west) of their ancestral kingdoms in the western Reknaya. After the foundation of Yamenna, this term was applied to the lands even further north and survives as the region of Oshale in southern Aribel. | ||
The Kalparians, dwelling on both sides of the Kalparian Sea and the River Kalpa, do not know a region comparable to Geran; they will use the term '''Keran''', an Olgish loan. They know of a mythical homeland called '''Talunea''', roughly ‘where the swallows are seen’, which is sometimes thought to refer to the southern shore of the Kalparian Sea and the northern Hajalad, but in most written accounts of Kalparian legend located indefinitely further south, potentially in western Belkondíl, or even Nokim. | |||
The Aribelians equate Geran with the | |||
==Geography== | ==Geography== | ||
Geran | Geran | ||