Yemya (IE Naming Language)

A forum for all topics related to constructed languages
Post Reply
User avatar
spanick
roman
roman
Posts: 1336
Joined: 11 May 2017 01:47
Location: California

Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by spanick »

Yemya is a naming language I derived from PIE. While it wasn’t originally intended to be a naming language, it worked out well for its purpose. I had created this con-religion years before I shared it here (viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6911) based on some of the reconstruct bits of PIE religion as presented by Wikipedia. The idea wasn’t to be overly accurate, but just to have a rough starting point. This con-religion was originally developed alongside Dnukta, a conlang l’ve shared elsewhere. However, I never quite liked the way the conlang fit with the religion.

A couple years after that, I started working on a PIE conlang. After going through several iterations, I finally got a sound I liked. Ultimately, I went with a satem language. Some of its features are that PIE voiceless stops became aspirated, voiced stops became voiceless, and voiced aspirated stops became voiced. There are also some consonantal reflexes of laryngeals, especially prominent is h2 which frequently shows up as ś.

While I liked the way it sounded, I didn’t have much grammar nor a name for the language. Later, when I wanted to expand upon and present the religion here I figured this was a good naming language; especially since it’s a PIE derived religion. I just basically treated everything analytically. There’s no plural morphology or any other declension.

The PIE words were mostly taken from Wiktionary and Wikipedia although a few are drawn from piereligion.org. As a naming language, this really just became about finding things that worked out aesthetically. Accuracy wasn’t at the top of my list.

One of my motivations for posting this is actually because I had lost the file that I had all these sound rules worked out in. The rules presented below are reconstructed based off of the evidence. However, there are definitely flaws. I’m unsure what I used as the etymology for certain words, especially śojneg, so some sound laws don’t match up to the the inputs and outputs. Also, when I apply sound changes, I often do them from memory, so there’s also the possibility that I made a mistake. Words which I felt unsure about are in bold.

Some notes about orthography:
/pʰ tʰ kʰ/ ph th kh
/p t k/ p t k
/b d g/ b d g/
/ɕ ʝ/ ś j
/ʋ j/ v y
/m n/ m n
/ɾ/ r

/i e ɑ o u/ i e a o u
/au ai/ au ai


*h₂r̥-tós > śratha ”way, order, law, rite”
*déh₃tōr > tothor “giver”
*Dyḗus > tśau “sky”
*ph₂tḗr > phatar “father”
Spoiler:
/t/ is unaspirated because of a rule which prevents two aspirated stops from occurring in adjacent syllables.
*pl̥th₂-éwih₂ > phutśauya “land, earth”
*Méh₂tēr > matar “mother”
Spoiler:
I don't know why the /t/ isn't aspirated here, it seems like it was a mistake.
*h₁yaǵ-tōr > yaśthor “priest”
*ḱwen-os > śvana “monk”
*h₂ń̥suros > śnasura “nature spirit”
*ǵʰewH-tōr > jauśthor “shaman”
*h₁ógʷʰis+*(s)neg > śojneg “demon serpent”
Spoiler:
The main problem here is that in order to get <ś> word initially, the PIE root should have <h₂> here. It is entirely possible, I just arbitrarily decided to make it <h₂> in order to get the aesthetic I wanted for this name.
*g⁽ʷ⁾iH-tós > gaita “song, poem”
*deyw-teh₂ > taivtha “god, godhood”
*bʰréh₂tēr > brathra “brother”
Spoiler:
This is presumably actually derived from the genitive.
*weh₁i-ro-s > vaira “thread”
*wr̥tras > vrathra “disorder, chaos”
*h₁er-*(ó)-r̥ > horra “creation”
*bʰérǵʰ-o-s > berja “mountain”
*ǵʰl̥h₃en-yó-m > jluśnya “golden”
*weyd-to-s > vaitta “Wisdom”
*wr̥h₂d-tos > vradda “elder, original”
*ḱwen-(é)-yōs > śvenyo “saint”
*proǵénh₁tōr > praśenthor “ancestor”
*yemH-*(é)-ih₂ > yemya “endonym, lit. twin”
*wiHró+*h₂stḗr > vyaraster “proper name, lit. hero-star"
Spoiler:
I don't know why this name has an <e> in it, it likely is a mistake and should be corrected to <Vyarastar>.
Reconstructed Sound Rules
Spoiler:
h₁ > h / #_V
h₁ > Ø
h₂ > ś / _ (C/V)
h₂ > a/ C_(C/#)
eh₂ > a
eh₃ > o
r̥ > ra
l̥ > C_C
p t k > ph th kh
b d g > p t k
bʰ dʰ gʰ > b d g
ḱ ǵ > ś
ǵʰ > j
s, m > O / # _
ē, e, o > a*
w > u / a_
w > v
ty > tś
g > j / i_
i > y / (C/V)_V
Ch > C / ChV_

Vowels with pitch <é ó> resist this rule when they fall within the root of the word unless followed by h₂.

H became whichever laryngeal I wanted for that word.
Last edited by spanick on 15 Dec 2020 18:37, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
eldin raigmore
korean
korean
Posts: 6352
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 19:38
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by eldin raigmore »

I have recently become interested in naming languages.
(Whether this will be an abiding interest or a passing fancy is yet to be seen!)
This post of yours looks promising; I like what you’ve done so far.
Would you like to post more?
Or is there something you’ld like to ask?

Would you like to start a “naming languages” thread, or keep it just to Yemya?
User avatar
spanick
roman
roman
Posts: 1336
Joined: 11 May 2017 01:47
Location: California

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by spanick »

eldin raigmore wrote: 08 Oct 2020 19:39 I have recently become interested in naming languages.
(Whether this will be an abiding interest or a passing fancy is yet to be seen!)
What interests you about naming languages?
This post of yours looks promising; I like what you’ve done so far.
Would you like to post more?
Or is there something you’ld like to ask?
Thanks. I may develop this more or make more names for the religion when I have more time.
Would you like to start a “naming languages” thread, or keep it just to Yemya?
That would be interesting. What would such a thread look like?
User avatar
eldin raigmore
korean
korean
Posts: 6352
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 19:38
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by eldin raigmore »

spanick wrote: 09 Oct 2020 03:04 What interests you about naming languages?
I have been watching a lot of YouTu.be videos about conlanging and worldbuilding during the quarantine.
A handful of them have been about naming, and at least implicitly about naming-languages, and they caught my eye.
Some are about naming people (whether individuals or families); some are about naming ethnic groups or races or species; some about naming tribes or countries or empires; some about naming cities and other settlements; and some about naming areas or geographic features such as mountains, rivers, bodies of water, etc.


Thanks. I may develop this more or make more names for the religion when I have more time.
Do you yet have a name for the whole religion?
Or for every god in the pantheon?
Or do you have more than one pantheon?


That would be interesting. What would such a thread look like?
Well, we could start one and find out!
We could invite other board members who appear to have started their own naming conlangs to submit them if they want to.
And we could maybe divide the posts into toponyms, oronyms, hydronyms, ethnonyms, demonyms, anthroponyms, endonyms, exonyms, and theonyms. And any other groups-by-types of names anyone thinks of.
User avatar
spanick
roman
roman
Posts: 1336
Joined: 11 May 2017 01:47
Location: California

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by spanick »

eldin raigmore wrote: 09 Oct 2020 03:47
spanick wrote: 09 Oct 2020 03:04 What interests you about naming languages?
I have been watching a lot of YouTu.be videos about conlanging and worldbuilding during the quarantine.
A handful of them have been about naming, and at least implicitly about naming-languages, and they caught my eye.
Some are about naming people (whether individuals or families); some are about naming ethnic groups or races or species; some about naming tribes or countries or empires; some about naming cities and other settlements; and some about naming areas or geographic features such as mountains, rivers, bodies of water, etc.

Very cool. I’ve noticed that many people get into conlanging by way of naming languages. I actually started a whole conlang to go with this religion but I ultimately kind of disliked the conlang, but liked the concept for the religion, so that’s why I went simpler and went for the naming language.
Do you yet have a name for the whole religion?
Or for every god in the pantheon?
Or do you have more than one pantheon?
Yeah, so the link in the OP has a more detailed description over everything. The religion is called Śratha Taivtha “the Way of God”. Taivtha itself really means more like “godhead” or “deity” and is the unknowable origin and sustainer of the universe.

Tśau Phatar “Sky Father” and Phutśauya Mather “Earth Mother” serve as the primary deities of worship. They are opposed by malevolent serpent god, Śojneg. There are also a range of lesser spirits called śnasura to which honor and devotion are given.

I haven’t really created different pantheons, but there are different “schools” the jauśthor “shamans”, yaśthor “priests”, and śvana “monks” who all
Have different religious texts they use and emphasize different aspects of the religion.

I’ve recently come up with six new figures. I’m not sure how to classify them. They’re meant to be the children of Tśau Phatar and Phutśauya Mathar, but I don’t think I’d count them as gods. Maybe demi-gods or very powerful śnasura. Their names are Parkuna, Deja, Śausa, Eśva, Yemya, Savlu.

Well, we could start one and find out!
We could invite other board members who appear to have started their own naming conlangs to submit them if they want to.
And we could maybe divide the posts into toponyms, oronyms, hydronyms, ethnonyms, demonyms, anthroponyms, endonyms, exonyms, and theonyms. And any other groups-by-types of names anyone thinks of.
Sounds like it would be really cool. Sometimes, just seeing how people come up with names is as I testing as looking at a really well done grammar.
Iyionaku
mayan
mayan
Posts: 2102
Joined: 25 May 2014 14:17

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by Iyionaku »

Spanick, would you mind if I borrowed some of your words for my Paatherye? A few of them fit perfectly in its phonetic scheme and would make for some nice doublets. In universe, I will call it "an unknown Indo-European substrate language", but out of universe I will reference you of course.
Wipe the glass. This is the usual way to start, even in the days, day and night, only a happy one.
User avatar
spanick
roman
roman
Posts: 1336
Joined: 11 May 2017 01:47
Location: California

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by spanick »

Iyionaku wrote: 12 Oct 2020 09:52 Spanick, would you mind if I borrowed some of your words for my Paatherye? A few of them fit perfectly in its phonetic scheme and would make for some nice doublets. In universe, I will call it "an unknown Indo-European substrate language", but out of universe I will reference you of course.
Wow, sure thing!
User avatar
eldin raigmore
korean
korean
Posts: 6352
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 19:38
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by eldin raigmore »

I just learned about “chrematonyms”; “names of things”.

I think names of houses and perhaps other important buildings might deserve their own category instead of being lumped in with “things”.

But I’m sure most of us have run into naming of inanimate objects other than long-lived or large plants or geographic features (or houses), probably only in fiction or history instead of modern real life.

For instance someone might name their sword or their rifle or their guitar or their automobile.
The engineers on a multi-engine ship might name the individual engines.
I once heard of the mechanic who maintained the machines at several different laundromats, naming each one of them.


Would a system for naming storms be interesting in this thread for a conlanging context?
Last edited by eldin raigmore on 12 Oct 2020 22:47, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
spanick
roman
roman
Posts: 1336
Joined: 11 May 2017 01:47
Location: California

Re: Yemya (IE Naming Language)

Post by spanick »

eldin raigmore wrote: 12 Oct 2020 18:33 I just learned about “chrematonyms”; “names of things”.

I think names of houses and perhaps other important buildings might deserve their own category instead of being lumped in with “things”.

But I’m sure most of us have run into naming of inanimate objects other than long-lived or large plants or geographic features (or houses), probably only in fiction or history instead of modern real life.

For instance someone might name their sword or their rifle or their guitar or their automobile.
The engineers on a multi-engine ship might name the individual engines.
I once heard of the mechanic who maintained the machines at several different laundromats, naming each one of them.


Would a system for naming storms be interesting in this thread fir a conlanging context?
I started a new thread for naming languages, just because I might make this into a sort of scratchpad for developing Yemya further.
Post Reply