Of Elves and Orcs and Other Naming Conventions

As all languages of Erthas have counterparts in Earth's history (or present in one case), there are certain correspondences between terms in their Earthen form and the way the meaning is different in an Erthaic language.   Chief among these are the words Elf and Orc. In generic fantasy use, Elf refers to a member of a magical, usually immortal, pointy-eared race that dwells in a forest or other natural setting with a reverence for nature while Orc is the anti-thesis: a vile, often sun-fearing, underground race of barbarous barely sapient monsters. On Erthas, these words have different usages.   However, before diving deeper, a word must be given to the Tothic languages. Like all language families on Erthas, the Tothic languages arise from an Earthen proto-language, in this case, Proto-Indo-European (PIE). English is also a descendent of PIE, therefore, a lot of words of Tothic heritage have direct cognates in English.   One such Tothic usage is the word Elf. In Old Tothic, the Hakushu, 伯族, so named for their pale skin, are called alvas which descends from the PIE word *h₂elbʰós meaning "white". This is the root of the English word Elf. However, Hakujin are not magical beings, are not immortal, and do not have pointed ears. They are a group of related Human cultures like any other. They live in a wide variety of climes including mountains, steppes, boreal forests, and tundra. Their language is descended from Japanese (the author's L2), specifically Old Japanese.   In a similar, though not quite parallel manner, the Orcs are a normal group of human cultures. While they are also inhabitants of the north part of the continent, they are more recent arrivals and have adapted to the higher latitudes in a different way: they are gingers. They primarily dwell by rivers and boreal forests and occasionally mountains. They are not particularly war-like and have the same intelligences that human cultures do. They have rich oral histories, songs, and all those things humans are wont to do. The connection with the name Orc is through the Proto-Orcish word uruk from the Proto-Turkic meaning "kin, family".   The other major cultural group are the ʔināši, known as the Dark Elves to the Tothic peoples, despite not being closely related to elven populations. They are an incredibly diverse group of peoples with around twenty five languages, the closest of which to the Tothic steppe is the Alfnehr. They have recently colonized the continent from the south and have much darker skin than the Elves and Orcs with only the northern most being marginally lighter in complexion largely due to admixture with the Orcs before the First Age. The similarity of Alfnehr to alvas and their darker complexion are largely responsible for the conflation.   As far as naming conventions other than those explained above, names are generally given in either Hakugo, Tothic, or the appropriate local language.