Lexember 2023

[Iyionaku]

Lexember 17 - Yélian

matayarat [ˌmaːtɐˈʃaːrɐt] - compliment
pèsmatyarta [ˌpɛsmɐtˈʃaɾtɐ] - to compliment so.

Etymology I: from matay "word" + fairat "good"
Etymology II: from pès "to, towards" + matayarat

Rat yibicet pi alaró celetareltetbai, èpabetál ciniscitbai vigo yainut bat matayarat ùn atoniʻal.
1SG.OBL PST-say-3SG that in_every_way unbelievable-fast-COP.1SG, and_then NEG-sure-COP.1SG if PST-signify-INV.3SG.INAN as compliment XOR insult
She told me that I'm incredibly fast in every aspect, and now I'm unsure if that was meant as a compliment or an insult.

[zyma]

Day 17

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Hannaito (Entry 17):

bënuq /bɪnuʔ/ [ˈbə.nʊʔ]
Verb (Transitive):
1. to greet
2. to meet, to encounter, to come across
3. to introduce, to debut, to premier
4. to experience for the first time
5. to announce, to proclaim, to decree, to declare
6. to shout, to cry, to yell, to call out, to exclaim

Etymology
From Proto-Hannaitoan *binug "to shout, to introduce, to greet". Cognates include Gampyo binū "to call out to, to meet" and Fiigarazg bünə "to explain, to decree, to introduce".

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Now that we're beginning Week 4 of Lexember, I've taken some time to read through and comment on what other participants have posted so far for Week 3. I won't necessarily comment on every single entry, but hopefully I haven't accidentally missed anyone's work entirely. Following qwed117's example from three years ago, I'm going to try to do this after every week.

lurker:

Spoiler:

The name of a god, perhaps? My apologies if you've explained this elsewhere.

A title, but not a name. The Bright Way is very insistent that the Creator has no name, as that would imply there are more than one of its kind that would need to be distinguished with names. Even giving it descriptive titles is acknowledged as a necessary evil required by the limitations of mortal language and thought. To describe is to limit.

Ah, that makes sense. I appreciate the clarification.

Fascinating! Also, I believe this is my first time encountering the word "sophont(s)", so thank you for that.

I learned the word on this very forum. Now I see it everywhere. The Commonthroat word for sophont literally means "one who asks".

Cool!

sJKrnq Literally means paw-choose and means the same as the phrase Vote with one's feet. Freedom of movement and residence is considered an inalienable right in most schools of yinrih political philosophy. In fact, it's considered more fundamental than actual voting. You can find any and all political systems throughout Focus. Hearthside has popular nominations for most political positions, but the ruling clerics have the final say, and they do use that power regularly. The Allied Worlds alone has absolute monarchies, representative democracies, even direct democracies on very small lunar and orbital colonies.

The yinrih take the phrase "If you don't like it, move somewhere else" literally, to the point that countries are expected to help finance both immigrant and emigrant expenses. The idea is that, if you want to live under an absolute monarchy, you're more than welcome to move to one that already exists rather than try to overthrow the government you currently live under. The system of immigrant exchange assistance makes that reachable for even the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.

One of the reasons that the Partisans are considered evil is that they deny this right.

Fascinating! I absolutely adore this.

OK, so it's not morning, but that's not going to stop me from using the Majora's Mask reference.

I must admit that I've never actually played the game myself, but I suspect that it might be easier if each cycle lasted thirty-one in-game days instead of just three, haha.

<rDsGKqmg> is intended to sound less harsh than "apostate" would suggest, hence why I translate it as "wanderer" when worldbuilding. Think Dante in Canto I of Inferno lost in the dark wood before finding Virgil.

Ooh, that's a great example!

Yinrih have a weaker sense of taste than humans. This is a tradeoff for having a stupidly strong sense of smell. From an evolutionary perspective this makes sense. You've already determined whether something is edible by smell, so the info you gain from tasting it is largely redundant. This has lead more epicurean yinrih to find other ways of enhancing the flavor of foods. The use of menthol and capsaicin (or analogous compounds) is nearly ubiquitous.

In addition, there is an entire clade of small creatures filling rodent-like niches that have evolved the ability to store an electric charge in capacitor-like organs below their eyes. They can discharge these organs into any would-be predator attempting to eat them. These critters are called <sdFrdFg>, which (very loosely) translates to "zap rats". Zap rats have even developed aposematic coloration, bearing mostly bright yellow fur with white, black, red, or blue accents being present in varying degrees depending on species. Unfortunately for the zap rats, the yinrih LOVE the mild shock they get from eating them. It's like sticking a 9-volt battery on your tongue. They're either eaten live or, if you don't want to risk them going off in your gut instead of your mouth, you can quickly kill them by holding the animal between your inner and outer thumb and puncturing their dorsal nerve cord with your writing claw.

There are frequent population booms, necessitating regular cullings, with hunting being the preferred method. The zap rats' bright yellow fur makes them trivial to spot.

Very interesting!

Yinrih have a prodigious sense of smell, and they produce a wide variety of pheromones that indicate emotional state. Much of the information humans convey through facial expressions is indicated via odors by the yinrih. In fact, the same word is used for "to smell like" and "to feel an emotion", <rMP>. And just like humans, smells just as often trigger emotions as they indicate them. The word <qMqnq> literally means "an odor that evokes nostalgia".

Yinrih are just as empathic with humans as they are with each other, although they have to learn what all our emotions smell like first.

The comparison to human facial expressions has made me wonder if the yinrih have any degree of control over the pheromones they emit.

All these words are verbs describe actions performed with the tail. Much like the words "punch" and "kick", they imply the use of a specific body part. <rC> is an action similar to a horse flicking away a fly. When performed on oneself, it can mean "don't bother me", or "Don't concern yourself with that" depending on context. The word <rC-HG-g>, literally "an act of flicking with the tail", can also mean something like "handwave" in the sense of brushing off someone's concern. Flicking someone else is a very offensive gesture that implies the flickee is a nuisance but is easily "dealt with".

It's fun to have a rude gesture that, despite not bearing much resemblance to the act of giving the middle finger, can also be described as "flicking someone off".

Arayaz:

Spoiler:

Ruykkarraber (kayg-)nedsku "bridge"

In Ruykkarras kuy aydig nesak nedskun nedir. "I crossed the bridge over the edge of Ruykkarra."
1sg.1 Ruykkarra-3 INALIENABLE.REVERSE edge-4 over bridge-2 cross-PST

• Etymologically "valley-crosser," but usually abbreviated to simply "crosser."
• The word kay "valley" can also refer to an interpersonal rift or disagreement, so kayg-nedsku can also refer to something that bridges a gap between two people, or a connection despite a difficulty in general.

I like this a lot!

Ruykkarraber abridbesekska "ground and fermented"

[…]

• This is a style of prepairing grains and other plants: ground finely and left to ferment. It can also be used as a threat.

Fantastic.

• human juice is blood.

Ruykkarraber tedusseni “honey”

Sunnasarbus tedussenig kestau anrad. “A raincloud never takes honey.”
raincloud-3 honey-4 take never

I really like this example, as well as the word itself.

Ruykkarraber tedussenyadur “honeyed fruit”

Tekes-sasak tedussenyadur nuyn andis, nayeg Duynaknayat-nesak rubares ik ban. “I like Tek’s honeyed fruit, but her village is on the other side of Duynaknayat.”
Tek-3-make-PART honey-fruit 1sg.2 please / 3sg.4 Duynaknayat-across village-3 at but

• Honeyed fruit is a very popular dish, since it historically took effort to acquire and doesn’t anymore with the advent of large-scale farming and trade, making it a symbol of status except not really anymore.
• The people who could get it in the past too didn’t want to give up that symbol of status, so artisinal honeyed fruit with complicated designs, fruit with tree-syrup (turseni) instead of honey, exotic fruit imported from elsewhere, and so on became more and more common, essentially an arms race of sugary fruit dishes: the best kind of arms race.

[…]

Ruykkarraber reysadur “root vegetable”

Agx, reysaduri nuyg andisen ag. “Eugh, I don’t like root vegetables.”
ugh, root.vegetable-PL 1sg.4 please-2 not

• It literally means “fruit of the ground.” Sound familiar?
• Root vegetables are considered bland, and are usually roasted and eaten as a snack, not with anything else.
• It is common for underground tunnels to be dug so that one can grow perrenial root vegetables on the ground above and harvest parts of their roots that grow into the cave below.

Interesting!

Flavia:

Spoiler:

I don't think I have even written anything here about Abaniscen. It is used by small, winged humanoids native to an extraterrestrial world. About 900 years from now, after an apocalyptic event, they were reached by missionaries of a Christianity-derived religion in their aetheric machines.

Whoa! To clarify, did this apocalyptic event take place on their planet or on ours?

Abaniscen — Lescembel i vareh

innovatio [ʔʲĩnːɔváːtʲijɔ] innovation, to innovate.

Abaniscen — Lescembel i chanare

vienaymia [vʲɛ̃náːjmʲija] innovation, to innovate. From viena path, way, method and mia new, young, innovative.

I really like this pair of words.

Abaniscen — Lescembel i liare

corrien [kóːrʲɛ̃n] tool, device; useful.

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Abaniscen — Lescembel i tiare

novi [nóːvʲi] to hear, to witness, to perceive, to feel, to sense.

Abaniscen — Lescembel i sitiarer

tehli [téːɬʲi] to taste; taste.

I'm fond of how these words look and sound as well.

Abaniscen — Lescembel i maytiarer

unio [ʔṹːnʲɔ] colour; colourful

Abaniscen — Lescembel i nentiarer

unia [ʔṹːnʲa] to be of colour x, or colour pertaining to x. Ex.
machina i naynuy unia
machine 3s.GEN sky colour
a blue car.

Cool!

Shemtov:

Spoiler:

Are hono and koŋ cognates?

False Cognates, certainly. Hanese and Waanic are not related as far as I know. Besides, the PWaanic form of Hono is *saunau.
Also, since Hanese is inspired by Sino-Tibetan, and Waanic by Austronesian mixed with Mayan, I have incorporated a lot of words from the IRL inspiration, they are as cognate as :zho: <港> ( /kɔːŋ˧˥/) and Hawaiian <Hono> are IRL, as the words in the conlangs are nods to the IRL words!

Ah, got it! I appreciate the explanation.

Day 11:
La'
/laʔ/
[lɐʔ]
Noun. "Chili Pepper"

This is probably my favorite out of the words you've posted for this week.

Knox Adjacent:

Spoiler:

Day 11
-wuy- vt. touch (make physical contact with); feel (sense by touch)
-yat̪a adj. sweet
-yaluŋ adj. bitter; sour
-curu adj. fit to eat; edible; ripe; cooked
-punup adj. savory; umami-flavored

I quite like all of these.

Day 12
-makutu adj. itchy (feeling a need to be scratched)
-mimamakutu adj. restless (unable to be still) "leg-itchy"

I think that -mimamakutu is a wonderful-sounding word, especially for what it means.

Day 13
-muya- v.t. (PST -muyaca) boil (cook in boiling water)
-ɳay- v.t. (PST -ɳayca) bake; roast (cook on an oven or over an open fire)
-ɻaya- v.t. (PST -ɻayiya) fry (cook in hot fat)

wa-ʈuŋku n. fat; grease; oil (for cooking)

I'm intrigued by the apparent difference in how the past tense is formed between the first two verbs and the third.

_Just_A_Sketch:

Spoiler:

Thank you for all the compliments :D It's been really fun pushing myself to make less "Englishy" words and I'm glad its paid off.

Hεlcεso
saqal /saqal/
Adjective - hungry, poor

Etymology - from saq "food" and -ol, a suffix showing a lack of something, like "-less" in English.

This is another lovely word, though I admit I'm probably biased towards /q/!

(for anyone who's noticed the lack of Tsjàta and 'ai'u, Ive been shifting most of my focus to Hεlcεso lately. I'm trying to get it to a point where Im ready for a full showcase, hopefully by the end of the month!)

Oh, best of luck!

I cant believe we're already a third of the way (ish) through Lexember. Good luck to all of yall :)

Thank you! I know what you mean. I can't believe that we're over halfway done by now.

Ælfwine:

Spoiler:

(NB: Thanks Shimo!)

This is mostly catchup at this point. I've been playing with a bunch of funky sound changes that while diverge from the Crimean Gothic corpus are pretty cool. I may justify these changes as all happening past the 16th century. I can give the more conservative and schwaful 16th century forms if anyone wants. I've given the words below in a romanized form, followed by their cyrillic form, Xsampa and a gloss.

I'd be interested in seeing the older forms, if it's not too much trouble.

šliepn шлѥпн /'SLEpn/ "to sleep"

iezr ѥзр /'jEzr/ "iron"

oag оаг /'wAG/ "eye"

stuols стуолс /'stuols/ "chair"

kor кор /'kOr/ "grain"

šnos шнос /'SnOs/ "bride"

muš муш /'mUS/ "bridegroom" (loanword from Russian)

Wonderful!

Solarius:

Spoiler:

Thanks for the kind words, though I fear the definite may be less fun that you hoped; it's just s- with the succeeding vowel inserted after it if it would break phonotactics.

Ah, I appreciate the clarification! Even so, I still like s(V)-.

Apologies for some of the lower effort entries; been busy with work.

No apologies necessary! I know how things can be.

To answer your question, it is set in our world!

Cool!

oənya [oə.'nja] adj. - "sweet"

from adjectivizer oə- + nia [ni.'a] "honey" -- originally meaning "honey-like." The shift of [ni.'a] to [nja] means that the etymology is not transparent for native speakers.

oənya is not used for very sweet or sugary items, like candies. There one uses orugem [o.ru.'gem], a itself derived from a meaning of "to sting (as in after an injury)."

comate [t͡ɕo.ma.'te] (n.) - tomato, ears (colloquial)

Originally from Nahuatl tomatl, via Spanish and Chetanka (where it perplexingly acquired the affricate, perhaps on analogy with Chetanka chussu "apple."

tay [taj] (n.) - heart, symbolic center of cognition, emotion. A common dialectal variation is tiai.

Okoko tay elefam.
knock heart elephant
"The elephant's heart is beating."

Je binyan ər nəstiai yowon.
there.is rain LOC COM-DEF-heart 1p.SG
"There is rain in my heart." (an idiom meaning "I'm feeling grief, I'm sad")

Very interesting!

Iyionaku:

Spoiler:

prir [pɾid̟] - luke-warm, undrinkable
Etymology: new root, possibly related to prær "sh*t"

USAGE NOTES: prir can only be used with drinks that aren't supposed to be luke-warm and therefore aren't really enjoyable anymore at these temperatures, such as tea or coffee that's too cold, or any cold beverage that has become too warm. The neutral word for luke-warm, for things or food that is supposed to be at these temperatures, the word pulmend is used instead.

resifprir [ˈɾeːsɨpɾɨd̟] - an exclamation after you've tasted a drink that is prir, independent of which drink it is.
Etymology: resif "water" + prir
USAGE NOTES: It's used in a very similar manner to English Yuck!, but it's usage is confined to drinks you had expected to enjoy.

Fantastic!

ceválts [kəˈʋalt͡s] - tasteless; unseen, concealed; unremarkable; "invisible" (for persons; a person who is so unremarkable that people won't take notice of them even if they stand right next to them)

Etymology: negative classifier ce- + vala "to see" + adjectivizer -ts, with the unstressed a being dropped. There is also cevalats, which translates to "unseeing, oblivious" instead.

USAGE NOTES: If the word denotes persons, it only signifies if someone is figuratively invisible, as in, not taken notice of. The word for factual invisibility is aubu.

Vat piytasce renim ilvoré yibet! Un'alæsconvitani ti yiceváltsbul viyd talar, un'apárcamay yiceváltsbut, èpa an'élonor yifadcombet reo barcamé cet yiquadceváltsvælai!
[vɐ‿pa̯iːˈtaskə ˈɾeːnɨm ɨlvɔ̈ˈɾeː ˈɕiːbət | ʉnɐˈlœskɔ̈nˌviːtɐnɨ ti ɕɨkəˈʋalt͡sbʉl va̯iːd‿ˈaːlɐd̟, ʉnɐˈpaɾkɐmɐʃ ɕɨkəˈʋalt͡sbʉt, ˈɛpɐ ɐˈneːlɔ̈nɔ̈d̟ ɕɨɸɐˈdombət ˈɾeː.ɔ̈ ˌbaɾkɐˈmeː kət ɕɨkɐdəˈvalt͡svœlaɪ̯]
DEM dead_time 1PLEX.POSS day_trip PST-COP.3SG.PST | DEF.INAN=statue-famous-PL-ENUM three PST-concealed-COP.3PL owing_to fog, DEF.INAN=lunch PST-tasteless-COP.3SG.INAN, and DEF.ANIM=guide PST-ignore-3SG 1SG.POSS question-COL like PST-seem-invisible-COP.COND.1SG
What a waste this outing was! The famous Three Statues were concealed by the thick fog, the lunch was tasteless, and the tour guide ignored all my questions as if I wasn't even there!

Oh, very cool! I like the use of color in your example to highlight where this word is used.

mosóc [mɔ̈ˈso:k] - recipe; shopping list; instruction list; pseudocode
Etymology: semantic extension: The word so far only meant "recipe". The word itself is a very old CBB loanword from 2014, deriving from Lao Kou's Gearthnuns: ümösöküjaths [ˌymøˌsøkyˈdʒaθs] n. recipe --> u'mosocats --> u'mosóc (the initial <ü> in Gearthnuns was reanalyzed as a definite article in Yélian)

Barcai tyædéi espan è tecam pas mosóc?
[ˈbaɾkaɪ̯ t͡ʃəˈdɛɪ̯ ˈespɐn ɛ ˈteːkɐm pɐs mɔ̈ˈsoːk]
ask-1SG POT-add-2SG egg-PL and bread on shopping_list
Could you add eggs and bread to the shopping list?

Nice! I like the range of meanings, as well as the bit about reanalysis.

asolif [ɐˈsoːlɨ] - caramel
Etymology: asol "sugar" + resif "water", literally "sugar water"

asʻin [ˈasʔɨn] - rum
Etymology: semantic extension; asʻin so far only meant "poltergeist"

degamó [ˌdexɐˈmoː] - pudding
Etymology: from degam "chocolate" + collective suffix -ó

éldelan [ˈeldəlɐn] - margarine
Etymology: from ela "plant" + delan "cream", literally "plant cream"

I really like all of these words. I may have said this before at some point, but I think I'm particularly fond of Yélian words, like asʻin, with [-Cʔ-] clusters. The use of "poltergeist" for "rum" is excellent as well.

penkól [pəŋˈkoːl] - mustard
Etymology: isolated, new morpheme pen- + sokól "nut"

sorge [soɾgə] - semolina, grit
Etymology: new root

sórgerit [ˈsoɾgəɾɨt] - couscous
Etymology: sorge + salad suffix -rit

I'm quite fond of these words as well, along with the idea of a "salad suffix".

æy [œʃ] - ketchup
Etymology: from Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the Pokémon series. Incidentally, the word for tomato is likewise cetyæm.

Fun!

mæla [ˈmœːla] - to knit
Etymology: from the root *mlr, cognates include mælros "wool" or emler "sheepskin"

Reo carla pès rat yimælet ǽʻiypulquetem.
[ˈɾeː.ɔ̈ ˈkaɾlɐ pɛs ɾat ɕɨˈmœːlət ˈœ̈ʔa̯iːpʉlˌkeːtəm]
1SG.POSS grandmother DAT 1SG.OBL PST-knit-3SG sock-new-DU
My grandmother has knitted a new pair of socks for me.

I like this word as well!

prora [ˈpɾoːɾɐ] - to stink (smell bad), Northern Standard
Etymology: from the root *prn, cognates include prir "disgustingly luke-warm" and prær "sh*t"

totʻa [totʔɐ] - to stink (smell bad), Southern Standard
Etymology: from tot "smoke"

USAGE NOTES: Both words are understood and used in the entire Yéliosphere, but each is more prevalent in the respective region as described above.

Reo brovalta ciyifadvalet u'dinun o'respul on'igatyan desiý yipertoivest. Carat tyaniscitmadyiʻvem otokil totʻet renim pîya!
[ˈɾeː.ɔ̈ bɾɔ̈ˈʋaltɐ kɨɕɨɸɐdˈvaːlət ʉˈdiːnʉn ɔ̈ˈɾespʉl ɔ̈nɨˈxat͡ʃɐn dəˈsa̯iː ɕɨpəɾˈtoʊ̯ʋəst | ˈkaːɾɐt t͡ʃɐˌniskɨtmɐdˈʃiːʔvəm ɔ̈ˈtoːkɨl ˈtotʔət ˈɾeːnɨm ˈpiːɕɐ]
1SG.POSS husband NEG-PST-dispose-3SG DEF.INAN=rest DEF.GEN=soup DEF.GEN=fish.PL before PST-go_on_vacation-1PLEX | now POT-surely-imagine-COND.2SG how-terrible smell-3SG 1PLEX.POSS kitchen
My husband did not dispose of the fish soup's leftovers before we went on vacation. You can surely imagine how terrible our kitchen smells now!

I like how your entries for Day 10 and Day 16 both reference prær. I'm almost positive that I've expressed my love for the word "Yéliosphere" before, but I'll say it again here.

Bonus word:

Yinše
pææške /pæːʃke/ n. “sheep” Sheep is a staple for the Yinše whose semi-nomadic pastoral lifestyle is largely centered around the grazing and raising of their sheep.

pæyke [ˈpœʃkə] - mutton

Thanks for this great word!

Pabappa:

Spoiler:

For now, all I have to share is Play putaši "spice", from MRCA pum twohil "fire in small bits" (though likely not a set phrase at the time).

I like this a lot.

I typically consider the classifier suffixes of Play to be free-standing because most of them are mergers.

A note on sound changes: I've been listing Play words as deriving directly from MRCA (so called because it's the "most recent common ancestor" of my major projects), which was spoken about 4,500 years earlier. I've memorized nearly the entire list of relevant sound changes by now, and can just put them together in my head, so that leaves a lot of room for analogy, and for those words that derive from compounds of three or more MRCA words, the component words were most often not added at the same time. The sound changes thus often appear wildly irregular ... for example, in the word above, Play's /t/ is not the reflex of the original word's /t/, but of the /mb/, and the original /t/ was almost certainly lost from the first word before the compound was created.

Ah, that makes sense!

Also, I've been using the letter č to denote a Play /š/ sound that derives from earlier /k/, but behaves differently in the grammar from the more common /š/. Thus this word is a phonetic anagram of the word above ... /tašipu/ instead of /putaši/.

Cool!

pāptubataba, a poetic word for candy. The /pāptu/ part comes from a MRCA phrase wom ka ndwu, which came to mean pine sap, though as with many other examples here it wasn't a set phrase in the parent language and the word order requires the third word to have been added much later than the first two. wom was an MRCA word describing sweet things, and many other Play words for similar concepts, including metaphors, begin with /pa/ or /pā/.

The middle part of the word, -bata-, means "played with", from the Play word pata "play" which formed many other words for concepts important to their society. The final suffix indicates a handheld object.

However this is a poetic word. It's most likely the speakers would communicate the same concept without the infix, so the word would be pāptuba, since the handheld object suffix by itself makes it clear that the speaker is not describing pine sap in the raw, but something obtained or made from it.

Very interesting!

ŋamba "clam", from MRCA ŋa ŋe
ŋāmba "mussel", from MRCA ŋuŋi

In the sea these would have the -pa classifier suffix, but it becomes -ba (handheld) once inside the kitchen.

Despite the resemblance in form and meaning, these aren't cognates and I have no plans to make them into cognates because there are no convenient sound changes, even in the very oldest stages, that could tie them together. If anything it's the meanings that might change ... perhaps one of the words meant something different early on, but changed in meaning as Play matured because of the similarity to the other word.

Oh, that's fun!

spanick:

Spoiler:

Yemya
phavra /pʰɑʋrɑ/ n. “fire, hearth, stove” from *péh₂wr̥ “fire”

Yinše
caaporoš /t͡saːpóroʃ/ n. “onion” specifically refers to a small, cultivated onion the bulbs of which are rather small by our standards (24-40mm). From caa “wild onion” and poro “to be round” plus the nominalizer -š.

Yemya
votra /ʋotrɑ/ n. “water” from PIE *wódr̥.

Yinše
pææške /pæːʃke/ n. “sheep” Sheep is a staple for the Yinše whose semi-nomadic pastoral lifestyle is largely centered around the grazing and raising of their sheep.

There's just something about the shift from *-r̥ to -ra in phavra and votra that really appeals to me. I agree with Iyionaku about pææške being a great word, and I'm quite fond of caaporoš as well.

I don't know if you've ever posted an overview of the sound changes between PIE & Yemya anywhere, but I find it interesting to try working out what some of them may be based on the etymologies you include. I'm particularly intrigued by the apparent correspondence between *h₂ and /ɕ/.

I have posted about Yemya before. The very first post which you can access here viewtopic.php?p=304498&hilit=Yemya#top includes the sound correspondences. The major hiccup is that I originally made Yemya in like 2018-2019 and it was originally only used for a language to give names to things within a con-religion I was developing so I didn't make a comprehensive list of sound changes. They were more ad hoc. Then I lost that list so I had to reconstruct what the sound changes were when I posted about Yemya as a language in 2020. Basically, this is a quite lazy and inconsistent PIE derived conlang, but I like the vibe.

Ah, thank you! I'll have to find some time to check that thread out. For whatever it's worth, natural languages aren't 100% consistent when it comes to their historical developments either, so while you may feel like it's "lazy", I think this kind of adds to what makes Yemya unique/special. In any case, I also like its vibe.

I may have said something like this last year, but I quite enjoy seeing the (Middle) Chinese loanwords in Yemya.

I believe that you did. It's a nice out for when I'm struggling to come up with a word lol

Haha, I'd imagine so!

Yemya
yuya /jujɑ/ n. “millet; grain” from PIE *yuyéh₂s. The Yemya live in and around the very arid Junggar Basin (north of the Tarim Basin where the Tocharians lived). Because of the climate, agriculture is difficult and the main cereal crop that they grow is the drought tolerant millet.

Yinše
c'iina /͡ts’iːna/ n. “rice” refers to any of the varieties of zizania what is often called wild rice. It does not refer to oryza sativa (Asian Rice), which is unknown to Yinše speakers.

I really like these words, too! If I might ask, what is your "source" for *yuyéh₂s? I tried Googling it, but the only result was this thread, haha.

I realized that I made some mistakes in my previous posts on Yemya and so I have gone back and corrected those. I am also posting the corrections here. In short, I misunderstood my own notes and was satemizing the labial velars, which is incorrect. Instead, the labial velars will loose their labialization and resist satemization just like plain velars but unlike plain velars, they will not become aspirated. They will however round any vowels that follow them (i e a > u o o). So, the results of the PIE to Yemya stop consonants looks like this:

p t k > pʰ tʰ kʰ
b d g > p t k
bʰ dʰ gʰ > b d g
ḱ ǵ > ś
ǵʰ > j
kʷ gʷ gʷʰ > k k g

Lexember 1: nott /notː/ n. “night, nighttime” from PIE *nókʷts. NB: assimilation as occurred here as well.

Lexember 3: kogla /koglɑ/ n. “wheel” from *kʷékʷlos

Lexember 11: graimna /graimnɑ/ n. “butter” from PIE *gʰrey- “to smear” plus *mn̥

Lexember 13: pak /pɑk/ v. “to cook” from PIE *pekʷ

kogla is probably my favorite of these "updated" words. It's interesting that the reflex of *kʷ is unaspirated.

KaiTheHomoSapien:

Spoiler:

11th

htépēr - /ˈxte.peːr/ spoon, scoop, spoonful

gen. hteprés

12th

wétkanan - cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, various Brassica plants.

gen. wetkánaša

There's not much differentiation between these in Lihmelinyan and this word seems to be an umbrella term for all of these similar-looking and related plants, as well as the vegetables obtained from them. Note the usual accent shift in the genitive. Accents are never further back than the antepenultimate.

Nice! I like how these words look and sound.

13th

I could do all nouns all day, but I guess I'll go ahead and create a verb for once:

fúhtami - /'fux.ta.mi/ - I cook, prepare [food]

aor. éfutan perf. fefúhtaher

fúhtus - a cook, chef

Oh look, I created a noun too.

I'm fond of these words as well. Also, I feel like I'm the same way when it comes to nouns vs. verbs, for whatever reason. If I might ask, is the absence of <h> /x/ before <t> /t/ in the aorist regular?

VaptuantaDoi:

Spoiler:

Nothing against what I've seen of UIL thus far, but I am quite a fan of Fabbule. Based on what I remember from your Week 1 etymological notes, is UIL descended from Old Latin?

Yeah, I basically wanted to do a romlang that didn't have to be realistic and could have some vowel-length changes, but I'm not super happy with it. I need to decide how to order stress and length shifts. I might keep UIL in at the rate of one word a week so I can concentrate on it more.

Ah, that makes sense. I've toyed with the idea of trying to derive something from Proto-Italic before, but somehow Old Latin never occurred to me as a potential starting point. I'm sorry to hear you're not happy with it currently. Best of luck!

The reinterpretation of the ending is fun. I also like the symbols you're using for the unstressed vowels in your phonemic transcriptions.

Thanks! Here's a key to the symbols:

• /ᴇ ɪ ᴜ/ are all [ə] when wholly unstressed.
• /ᴇ/ surfaces as [i​] when under secondary stress and does not trigger metaphony of any kind (also only appears word-finally in roots).
• /ɪ/ also surfaces as [i​] and triggers both /ɛ ɔ/ → /iə̯ uə̯/ and /a/ → /ɛ/ metaphony.
• /ᴜ/ surfaces as [u​] and only triggers /ɛ ɔ/ → /iə̯ uə̯/ metaphony.
• /ᴀ/ surfaces as [a] in all positions and does not trigger metaphony.

Ah, thank you! It's been a while since I last looked at the thread, so I appreciate the refresher.

5ᵐᵒ Dek. kerajoshave (variant spelling trechave) (Standard) /kəˌɹatʃˈʃav/, /kɹatʃˈʃav/, /tɹəˈtʃav/ (SCV) /trətʃˈʃav/, (Southey) /kəɹatʃəˈʃav/ feminine noun pl. kerajoshaves, part. kerajoshavar /kəɹatʃʃaˈvaɹ/ or kerajoshevar /kəɹatʃʃəˈvaɹ/ Plane (woodworking tool used to remove thin layers of wood for various purposes, primarily flattening unever surfaces or shaping components to fit); also by extension a carpenter (although the similar compound shavekerajos is often preferred). Etymology: Another compound, the first part being kerajo 'carriage', a calque of Old French cariage, with the meaning being influenced by the English to include various non-wheeled frames; this is a regular derivation from pe kerar 'to carry'. The second part is another Old English borrowing; the Old Vissard term sȝaua comes from Old English sċeafa which referred to any kind of shaving tool (spoke-shaves, paring knives, etc.). Pronunciation notes: Many niche terms have undergone irregular simplification, and often show influence from non-standard dialects. Amongst carpenters it is considered a mark of greenness to say /kəˌɹatʃˈʃav/, which may be considered a spelling pronunciation. /tɹəˈtʃav/ may also be written trechave and considered a separate word. Some claims have been made that kerajoshave is a folk etymology, although I made the language and I can assure you it's not. Historical/cultural note: During the height of the Spanish Vissey in the 16th century, almost the entire of Southey's industry was dedicated to ship-building, and contemporary sources claim that the Southard shipyards built fully-equipped merchant ships at the rate of one every twelve hours.

Fantastic! Your pronunciation notes here have made me think of words like forecastle. "Some claims have been made that kerajoshave is a folk etymology, although I made the language and I can assure you it's not" is a great line.

6ᵐᵒ Dek. plombre (Standard) /ˈplõb/, (SCV) /ˈpjõb/, /ˈkjõb/, /ˈt͡ɕõb/, /ˈd͡ʑõb/ (Southey) /ˈplõb/ masculine noun nom.sg. plombres, obl.pl. plombres, nom.pl. plombre, part. plombrour Lead (the metal). Etymology: The range of Old Vissard words for 'lead' is quite impressive; they range from simple reflexes of Latin PLUMBUM (plonbo, plom) through varying degrees of slight change — attested forms include blom, bolon, molon, moulbo, momble, bomble, blomble and blombre. Ultimately it seems to have come from a conflation of Latin PLUMBUM and Greek μόλυβδος; perhaps the latter entered the language as semi-learnèd borrowing and was thought to be the same word as native plom. Later the Latin influence caused initial devoicing, although the final rhotic remained. The other forms are fairly often seen in place names and surnames with the suffix -ais or -our, e.g. Bloupais, Molonais, Moulbais, Mongeour. Pronunciation notes: The voiced consonant is retained in some South-Central and extreme Southern dialects.

That's quite an impressive range indeed! I always love and am impressed by how you take into account the possibility of "irregular" developments like conflation, contamination, semi-learned borrowings, etc. I'm also fond of having certain forms of a word survive only in names.

Historical/cultural note: Much like you and I, Vissard people use computers to do many things.

Imagine that…

8ᵐᵒ Dek. kalendais (Standard) /kalə̃ˈdeː/, (SCV) /kalẽˈdeː/, (Southey) /kaleˈdeː/ masculine noun sg. and pl. forms identical, part. kalendaisour /kalə̃deˈtuɹ/ or (now rare) kalendaio /kalə̃ˈdaç/) Calendar. Etymology: Semi-learnèd descendant of Latin CALENDĀRIUM. Note the shift the suffix -ĀRIUM to Old Vissard -aio (obl.), -aios, -ais (nom.), the latter being taken as an oblique stem due to the high frequency of this often agentive suffix in a nominative role.

Sorry if you've addressed this somewhere already, but what's the etymology of the partitive suffix? It reminds me of words like this in Old French.

9ᵐᵒ Dek. moune (Standard) /ˈmun/, (SCV) /ˈmũn/, (Southey) /ˈmon/ feminine noun pl. mounes, part. mounar The moon. Etymology: Old Vissard, borrowed from Old English mōna.

Do any reflexes of LŪNAM survive in Vissard?

10ᵐᵒ Dek. buçnour (Standard) /bysˈnuɹ/, (SCV) /bysˈnuɹ/, /bysˈnũɹ/ (Southey) /bytˈnuɹ/ masculine noun nom.sg. buçnours, obl.pl. buçnours, nom.pl. buçnour, no partitive. Buçnour (a Vissard dish consisting of shellfish boiled in water and butter, often seasoned with sea greens). Etymology: The partitive of buçno /ˈbyst/ 'whelk', from Latin BŪCINUM 'trumpet call, shellfish' (cf. Fr semi-learnèd buccin). This root provided the name for four other shellfish; the periwhinkle (bustele /byˈtɛl/ < *BŪCINELLAM), a type of sea snail (bocan perhaps < Greek βυκάνη) and a type of clam (buçon taking the suffix < -ŌNEM) Pronunciation notes: buçno shows a regular but very rare shift of final *t͡snə → /st/; cf. CIRCINŌS → cherçno /ˈt͡ʃeɹst/ 'tree ring, age', DŪRACINUS → duraçno /dyˈɹast/ 'damson', RICINUM → liçto /ˈlist/ 'ladybird', although the nasal is preserved in intervocalic position in CIRCINĀRE → cheçnar /t͡ʃəsˈnaɹ/ 'to encircle', a doublet of cherçtar /t͡ʃəsˈtaɹ/ 'to age'.

Excellent! I'm a big fan of "regular but very rare" shifts.

conlang-creature:

Spoiler:

Vanet - To seem, appear (may be)

Nero go nqora rvet vanen.
nero go ngora rvet* vane-n
wolf for moon sing seem-3SG
The wolf seems to be singing for the moon.

*another new word

I like the look of this language! Is "moon" nqora or ngora, if I might ask? Is the <r-> in rvet syllabic?

Also, welcome to the board!

qwed117:

Spoiler:

ba2dak1 n. fish
thikw1 n. soup, stew
sős3 n. fried food, a 'fry'
së1rëc1 adj. burnt, overcooked,
cin4tang2 v to spoil (of food)
túng2 n. vegetables (low-fructose plant parts)

The words for "fish" and "burnt, overcooked" are probably my favorites this time around, although I like all of these. I also enjoy & appreciate the description of vegetables as "low-fructose plant parts". I'm not sure if this was your intention, but I feel like it's a nice way of explaining the difference between "fruits" and "vegetables".

Khemehekis:

Spoiler:

khakib
(T) to barbecue

Khaku kan Dad khakib khida.
grill on Dad barbecue vegetable
Dad barbecued vegetables on the grill.

Bonus word: khaku: barbecue, grill

I like khakib & khaku, which I assume are related.

Also, is "Dad" a name here? I initially assumed it was referring to someone's father, but seeing "Dad" in the Shaleyan sentence itself, not just in the gloss and English translation, has made me second-guess myself.

zudush
jam, jelly, preserves

Yin kan yay khisamu lomo zudush lay?
rice on one spread can jam Q
Can one spread jam on rice?

I suppose that one can try!

shuku
(T) to stir

[…]

Bonus words: zazud: thorough

dañehano
recipe
dañe (to cook) + hano (guide)

zoba
spice (literally or figuratively)

benid
stale

I quite like how all of these words look & sound as well.

[Pabappa]

Thanks for the comments, as always. I should be able to participate more fully this week.

Play

The name of any language in Play can be formed by suffixing a noun with the speech noun classifier suffix -be. Thus the name of the Play language can be Patabe, as the primary Play word for play is pata. This follows a cultural tradition of naming languages after political parties rather than tribal names; this means, however, that the name of a language often frequently changes. In legal documents, therefore, it was always more common to see the expression šūipubupe, "the language we speak", from the Play word šeube "language", the verb bu "speak", and the required inflections.

šeube is from MRCA hindu li and bu is from MRCA gihu; both of these morphemes appear in other words relating to the throat and mouth. Neither the lips nor the tongue provided a metonymical word for language in Play.

[VaptuantaDoi]

Fantastic! Your pronunciation notes here have made me think of words like forecastle.

That's exactly what I was going for! Actually what I was thinking was "rabbet" vs. "rebate", but on closer inspection those are actually false cognates, so your example is better.

Sorry if you've addressed this somewhere already, but what's the etymology of the partitive suffix? It reminds me of words like this in Old French.

It is indeed cognate. My justification for the systematic retention thereof in Vissard is that a) it occurs in some (semi-)learnèd words in Gallo-Romance anyway, b) Vissard is a peripheral romlang so it's weird, and c) the endings generally have enough meat on them to not be completely eroded like most of the other endings. Most masculine words take -our, most feminine words -ar, and then some other words have irregular disphixal forms like pache, pais, pa /pat͡ʃ peː pa/ "peace obl.sg./nom.sg./part.", or other alternations like IŪDICEM, IŪDEX, IŪDICUM → jucho, jois, juco /d͡ʒyt͡ʃ d͡ʒwiː d͡ʒyk/ (cf. Old Spanish Fuero Juzgo for the latter). Old Vissard also had the occasional semi-learned -if form from influence of the dative/ablative like COMITEM, COMES, COMITIBUS → komto, koms, komtif /ˈkɔ̃mptə ˈkɔ̃mps kɔ̃mpˈtif/ which survived lexicalised in some isolated words probably.

9ᵐᵒ Dek. moune (Standard) /ˈmun/, (SCV) /ˈmũn/, (Southey) /ˈmon/ feminine noun pl. mounes, part. mounar The moon. Etymology: Old Vissard, borrowed from Old English mōna.

Do any reflexes of LŪNAM survive in Vissard?

Not directly, but here's one I just came up with:

LŪNĀTICUM → lunajo /lyˈnat͡ʃ/ "sleep-walking" (cognate to lunatic, but also cf. Romanian lunatic "sleep-walker").

[lurker]

The comparison to human facial expressions has made me wonder if the yinrih have any degree of control over the pheromones they emit.

There is an as-yet-unrealized word that means "bland-smelling" or "lacking odor" that figuratively means "poker-faced".

It's possible humans have the same level of control, like how people can fool polygraph tests. We're just not used to communicating emotion via odor rather than body language.

The yinrih do have some facial expressions that communicate emotion, but not to the extent that humans do.

[conlang-creature]

I like the look of this language! Is "moon" nqora or ngora, if I might ask? Is the <r-> in rvet syllabic?

Thanks! I'll try and answer these questions, but I'm on my phone, so apologies for any mistakes.

Is "moon" nqora or ngora, if I might ask?

Nqora, technically. I mistyped it.
In this case, it doesn't really matter. The sound is ŋ,
but to avoid caps, double letters, and diacritics (not that I'm opposed to diacritics, I just didn't prioritize finding a keyboard layout with them), I transcribed ŋ as q (I think this one came from some joke somewhere tbh). I have a feeling that's not intuitive to pronounce, so I've been attempting to transcribe it as nq on this forum.

Is the <r-> in rvet syllabic?

If I've got the definition right, no. Verlonqa just has decently sized consonant clusters. (C)CV(C)

[lurker]

Dawn of the Seventeenth Day. 325 Hours Remain
spm-rGk

[yip, short falling strong grunt, chuff, late rising strengthening growl]

Etymology
spm (odor, emotion) + rGk (plain, unremarkable, bland)

Noun
1. a plain odor
2. a stoic person
3. an emotionless person
4. someone good at concealing their feelings

[KaiTheHomoSapien]

I'm fond of these words as well. Also, I feel like I'm the same way when it comes to nouns vs. verbs, for whatever reason. If I might ask, is the absence of <h> /x/ before <t> /t/ in the aorist regular?

Always appreciate your commentary and feedback, shimo. That's part of why I enjoy Lexember.

And yes, it is regular, although it's actually a matter of it following the vowel rather than preceding the /t/ (it could be any consonant). /ax/, /ux/, /ex/, /ix/ lose the "laryngeal" in the aorist. In Arculese, these vowel + /x/ combinations appear as long vowels, with the vowel shortening in the aorist.

And now it's time to do some catching up:

14th

réku - salt

gen. rkués /r̩.ˈkʷes/

I like the genitive form because of the syllabic /r/.

15th

Another verb:

sískrami - I grind, mill, crush [grain, grapes, other food items]

aor. éskran perf. séskraher

This verb has reduplication in the present stem. So the imperfect form would be esískran "I was grinding". Note the augment is usually unaccented in the imperfect but accented in the aorist.

16th

lákants - wheat, emmer

gen. lakntés /la.kn̩.ˈtes/

This word refers to slightly different grains in different areas. It is usually translated as "wheat". It can also refer to flour rather than the plant itself. Note that /l/, /r/, and /n/ can all be syllabic in Lihmelinyan.

17th

hraíkami - to yell, call, shout /'xrai̯.ka.mi/

aor. ehríkan perf. hehraíkaher

Note that verbal stems in Lihmelinyan never begin with vowels. Though the Arculese cognate stem of this verb is simply reik- "to shout". The initial laryngeal consonant is lost.

[spanick]

Lexember 16

Yemya
phaskh /pʰɑskʰ/ n. “bread” exact origins unknown but apparently cognate to Armenian հաց and therefore ultimately from PIE *peh₂-

Yinše
k’uuko /kʼuːko/ n. “chicken, gallus domesticus” inspired by the Cuccos from Zelda.

Lexember 17

Yemya
tujva /tuʝʋɑ/ n. “language” from PIE *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s

Yinše
sewæyinše /sewæjinʃe/ n. “poem; poetry” literally “beautiful speech” from sewæ “beautiful” and yinše “speech, language”. Yinše itself from yiin “to speak” plus -še “resultative noun”.

sewæyiin /sewæjiːn/ v.tr. “to recite poetry”

[Arayaz]

Sunday, Lexember 17

Theme: Speaking, Speech, Speech Acts, Verbal Communication, Spoken Language, Vocalization

Ruykkarraber asauandis “to compliment, to please by speaking”

In nayen asauandisir. “I said something nice to him.”
1sg.1 2sg.FRM.2 speak-please-PST

• This is a compound of asau “to speak” and andis “to please,” referring to the intersection of the actions.
• Asauandis can refer to any speech that pleases someone: good news, a compliment, etc. It could also be used in a compliment itself: serre nuyn asauandis “I like it when you talk.”

[conlang-creature]

Nanarbolfeja - Seventeenth Day

Nanarsejfejloqa - Word of the 16th Day

Spoiler:

njes - sweet

Henpoffor njeser fer bhonq
henpoffo-r njes-er fe-r bho-nq
child-PL sweet-PL one-PL hold-3PL
Children love/covet sweet things.

Nanarbolfejloqa nes (saxrat) - Not the Word of the 17th Day (I didn't realize the themes had switched)

Spoiler:

sjeho/a - bitter

Brelo sjeho per nes xolvo* saxran
brelo sjeh-o per nes xolv-o saxra-n
brelo** bitter-M and not poisonous-M be-3SG
Brelo is bitter, but not poisonous.

*Bonus word: brelo/a - poisonous
**Brelo is an edible weed and the classic "vegetable children hate" of the conworld.

Nanarbolfejloqa - Word of the 17th Day

Spoiler:

kejget - to ask

"Sapoffo xaves?" kejge.
s-a-poffo xave-s kejge
2-F-leg wound-2SG ask[1SG]
"Did you injure your leg?" I asked.

[Iyionaku]

Iyionaku:

Thank you again for all your kind words!

Lexember 17 - Yélian

cepale [kəˈpaːlə] - "no contact", a state of strictly and purposefully ignoring each other
Etymology: from ce-
USAGE NOTES: The word is denoted for when two persons (lovers or otherwise) who have before had a close relationship stopped talking to one another entirely (or only in court, if it has become really bad). In a way it's similar to the colloquial English phrase "to go no contact"

pèscepala [ˌpɛskəˈpaːlɐ] - to ghost someone
Etymology: from pès "to, towards" + cepale

Barcai ciréi o'Kimberley èn Ash? Yòiadodayʻi liyd tyiyfan o'cleze, èpabetál cepalebul. Yaiarobut nat yanái ciyt piytaleʻi fecun cenʻit.
[ˈbaɾkaɪ̯ kɨˈɾɛɪ̯ ɔ̈ˈkimbəɾli ɛn aʃ? ʃɔʊ̯ˌ.aːdɔ̈ˈdaʃʔɨ la̯iːd ˈt͡ʃa̯iːɸɐn ɔ̈ˈkleːɟə, ˌɛpɐbəˈtaːl kəˈpaːləbʉl | ʃɐˈɪ̯aːɾɔ̈bʉt nat ʃɐˈnaɪ̯ ka̯iː‿pa̯iːtɐˈleːʔɨ ˈɸeːkʉn ˈkenʔɨt]
ask-1SG NEG-hear-2SG DEF.GEN=PROP and PROP | PST-severe-argue-3PL because_of ticket-PL DEF.GEN=concert, and_then no_contact-COP.3PL | very-awkward-COP.3SG.INAN when undertake_some_activity-2SG something at_the_same_time with 3PL.OBL
Haven't you heard about Kimberly and Ash? They had a very bad fight over some concert tickets, and now they've gone strictly no contact. It's really awkward going out with them both at the same time now.

[zyma]

Day 18

---

Hannaito (Entry 18):

sarra /sarra/ [ˈsar.ra]
Verb (Transitive):
1. to count, to enumerate, to tally
2. to list
3. to record
4. to calculate
5. to compose (music or poetry)

Etymology
From Proto-Hannaitoan *sarra "to mark, to tally". Cognates include Gampyo hara "to calculate, to count" and Fiigarazg sajj "to recount, to remember, to record".

[Pabappa]

Play

bapapupa a treaty, a document of alliance. This refers to a tangible object; if the agreement is verbal it is a bapapupe.

First, a note on phonetics ... Play, like many other languages in its family, features bilabial consonants as the most frequent by far in its small inventory. And unlike some other related languages, there are no significant sound changes involving dissimilation by place of articulation. Thus, compounding is free and words like this do not change to forms such as *batapupe.

This is one of the simpler compounds, being made of two transparent elements, bapa "protect (through obligation)" and pupa, a book or other large document. The second word is underlyingly pup + ba, where the -ba is a handheld object classifier.

The semantic scope of this word is very different from the English. First, there is no word for "agree" such as beu in this compound. A bapapupa treaty can be imposed by a single party rather than requiring consent. Also, there is no word for "peace" (a concept I find difficult to translate), so a bapapupa can begin a war as well as ending one. Thirdly, it's not restricted to the military ... corporations and schools can sign bapapupa documents agreeing to cooperate with each other, either against a common enemy in the market, or to achieve a local monopoly. Lastly, there is no word indicating a group movement .... even two people can sign a bapapupa with each other, though formalizing it is uncommon as courts in most nations relinquish the authority to enforce contracts between private parties ... when agreements like this do happen, it is generally between two leaders who are each in charge of a large number of other people.

The Play word bapa means to protect, with the implication that one is obliged to do so. The unrelated Play word šapa means to love and care for someone, even if that person is more powerful. A šapapupa may be signed by a person on the receiving end of a bapapupa, meaning that they will do favors for the stronger party in return for the protection they get from outside enemies. Thus, the Play word for a surrender treaty would often be šapapupa. But this is not limited to such asymmetrical situations, as one may love and care for someone freely, without coercion, and yet still desire to write a legally enforceable contract to assure the receiving party that the carer's love is genuine.

[lurker]

Dawn of the Eighteenth Day. 305 Hours Remain

mp

[short rising strong grunt]

Particle
Indicates yes/no questions

Code: Select all

mp qLPq sFq.
mp        0       qLPq sFq?
QUESTION  [you]   hear tidings
Did you hear the news?

rnL qLPqK. sFqBD?
rnL qLPq-K.    sFq-BD?
not hear-DOG.  tidings-INTERROGATIVE?
No I haven't heard. What news?

rHqPp fCqsfsf C cdqmg!
h  rHqP-g             fCq-sfsf C      h  cdq-m-g!
PL missionary-3.DIST  find-MIR other  PL ask-CUSTOMARY-3.INDEF
some missionaries have found other sophonts!

[Knox Adjacent]

Day 17
-yanumpi- v.t. (PST -yanumpica) ask (request information or an answer) (monotransitive, so the object is the askee and the theme is unstated.)

-ta-t̪a-yanumpi- v.t. ask about (with antipassive and applicative prefixes to make the theme the object)

-ci-yanumpi- v.i. wonder (ponder; feel doubt and curiosity) (via reflexive prefix)
-ta-ci-yanumpi- v.t. wonder about

[Arayaz]

Arayaz:

Spoiler:

Ruykkarraber (kayg-)nedsku "bridge"

In Ruykkarras kuy aydig nesak nedskun nedir. "I crossed the bridge over the edge of Ruykkarra."
1sg.1 Ruykkarra-3 INALIENABLE.REVERSE edge-4 over bridge-2 cross-PST

• Etymologically "valley-crosser," but usually abbreviated to simply "crosser."
• The word kay "valley" can also refer to an interpersonal rift or disagreement, so kayg-nedsku can also refer to something that bridges a gap between two people, or a connection despite a difficulty in general.

I like this a lot!

Ruykkarraber abridbesekska "ground and fermented"

[…]

• This is a style of prepairing grains and other plants: ground finely and left to ferment. It can also be used as a threat.

Fantastic.

• human juice is blood.

Ruykkarraber tedusseni “honey”

Sunnasarbus tedussenig kestau anrad. “A raincloud never takes honey.”
raincloud-3 honey-4 take never

I really like this example, as well as the word itself.

Ruykkarraber tedussenyadur “honeyed fruit”

Tekes-sasak tedussenyadur nuyn andis, nayeg Duynaknayat-nesak rubares ik ban. “I like Tek’s honeyed fruit, but her village is on the other side of Duynaknayat.”
Tek-3-make-PART honey-fruit 1sg.2 please / 3sg.4 Duynaknayat-across village-3 at but

• Honeyed fruit is a very popular dish, since it historically took effort to acquire and doesn’t anymore with the advent of large-scale farming and trade, making it a symbol of status except not really anymore.
• The people who could get it in the past too didn’t want to give up that symbol of status, so artisinal honeyed fruit with complicated designs, fruit with tree-syrup (turseni) instead of honey, exotic fruit imported from elsewhere, and so on became more and more common, essentially an arms race of sugary fruit dishes: the best kind of arms race.

[…]

Ruykkarraber reysadur “root vegetable”

Agx, reysaduri nuyg andisen ag. “Eugh, I don’t like root vegetables.”
ugh, root.vegetable-PL 1sg.4 please-2 not

• It literally means “fruit of the ground.” Sound familiar?
• Root vegetables are considered bland, and are usually roasted and eaten as a snack, not with anything else.
• It is common for underground tunnels to be dug so that one can grow perrenial root vegetables on the ground above and harvest parts of their roots that grow into the cave below.

Interesting!

Thank you for your kind words! "A raincloud never takes honey" is, of course, a Winnie the Pooh reference.

[spanick]

Lexember 18

Yemya
1. vaga /ʋɑgɑ/ n. “oath, vow” from PIE *h₁wegʷʰ- plus *(o)-éh2

2. vag /ʋɑg/ v. “to swear an oath, to vow” from PIE *h₁wegʷʰ-

Yinše
yaa'a /jaːɁa/ v.itr. “to yell” onomatopoeic. Transitive forms require applicatives: mayaa’a “to yell at someone”, ʼiiyaa’a “to yell for someone; to cheer"

Spoiler:

There's just something about the shift from *-r̥ to -ra in phavra and votra that really appeals to me. I agree with Iyionaku about pææške being a great word, and I'm quite fond of caaporoš as well.

Thanks. I really like caaporoš too. I'm glad you both like pææške.

Ah, thank you! I'll have to find some time to check that thread out. For whatever it's worth, natural languages aren't 100% consistent when it comes to their historical developments either, so while you may feel like it's "lazy", I think this kind of adds to what makes Yemya unique/special. In any case, I also like its vibe.

haha thanks! Yeah, unlike some of my other conlangs and a lot of the other PIE conlangs I've seen, Yemya is like 100% about the vibes. I'm ok with that.

Yemya
yuya /jujɑ/ n. “millet; grain” from PIE *yuyéh₂s. The Yemya live in and around the very arid Junggar Basin (north of the Tarim Basin where the Tocharians lived). Because of the climate, agriculture is difficult and the main cereal crop that they grow is the drought tolerant millet.

Yinše
c'iina /͡ts’iːna/ n. “rice” refers to any of the varieties of zizania what is often called wild rice. It does not refer to oryza sativa (Asian Rice), which is unknown to Yinše speakers.

I really like these words, too! If I might ask, what is your "source" for *yuyéh₂s? I tried Googling it, but the only result was this thread, haha.

My bad, the actual entry in Wiktionary is *yéwos but I'm using one of the other formations. It was originally written with hyphens so I took them out. Link here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstr ... y%C3%A9wos

Spoiler:

pæyke [ˈpœʃkə] - mutton

Thanks for this great word!

You're welcome! Love the adaptation.

[Shemtov]

Day 17:

Zab'ad
/θaɓad/
[θaɓað]
Noun. "Word"

Day 18..
B'eŋxab'ad
/ɓɛŋʐaɓad/
[ɓɛŋʐaɓað]
Noun.
1. "Syllable"
2. "Rhyme [Linguistic sense]
Note: Historically a compound word; B'eŋxa "To split; To Fracture" + Zab'ad "Word"; Thus, "Split Word" or Fractured Word". When distinguishing between the two definitions, Definition 1 may be modified with the adjective for "Big", and definition 2, with the adjective for "Small"

[Iyionaku]

Lexember 19 - Yélian

prodaureal [ˈpɾoːdaʊ̯ˈɾeː.ɐl] - interview
prodaurea [ˈpɾoːdaʊ̯ˈɾeː.ɐ] - to interview so.

Etymology: from prodar "cross" + tureal "conversation, discussion", literally "cross-talk"

Ulalá! Cidiysraulégrisein pe a'rabin bicet o'dasaumapeli væ prodaurealʻaiet o'»Prigiys«, u'tendprodaretaléna on'Uzad Yélian!
[ʉlɐˈlaː | kɨda̯iːsɾaʊ̯ˈleːgɾɨsɛɪ̯n pe ɐˈɾaːbɨn ˈbiːkət ɔ̈ˌdaːsaʊ̯mɐˈpeːlɨ və ˌpɾoːdaʊ̯ˈɾeː.ɐlˌʔa.ɪ̯ət ɔ̈ˈpɾiːga̯iːs, ʉtənˈdɾoːdɐɾətɐˈleːnɐ ɔ̈ˈnuːɟɐd ˈʃeːlɪ̯ɐn]
wow | never-FUT-guess_correctly-2PL what.OBL DEF.ANIM=prince say-3SG DEF.GEN=royal_family in interview-wide DEF.GEN=PROP, DEF.INAN=tabloid-SUP-famous-COMP DEF.GEN=city Yélian
Spicy! You will never guess how the prince talks about the royal family in the great interview in the "Magnifying Glass", Shellian City's most famous tabloid!

Bonus words for the translation challenge (strangely enough, this time there were quite a few. I guess I need to create more texts from this genre):

ulalá [ʉlɐˈlaː] - woah / wicked / spicy / wow / oh my (generic exclamation of surprise, very colloquial)
Etymology: from French oh là là.

alégrisa [ɐˈlegɾiːsɐ] - to guess correctly, to succeed in guessing, to judge correctly
Etymology: from alé "right" + grisa "to guess"

dasaumapeli [ˈdaːsaʊ̯mɐˌpeːlɨ] - royal family
Etymology: from dasau "the people" + mapeli "family", literally "the family of the people"
USAGE NOTES: The term has become the de-facto standard in official statements to emphasize that the Yélian royal family serves its people. Colloquially, the term mapelibravil (literally "royal family") is also used.

tendprodar [tənˈdɾoːdɐd̟] - tabloid
Etymology: from tenda "to print" + prodar "pistol; small gun"; due to the idea that tabloids "fire" news faster than other newspapers and with less regard to accuracy.