Lexember 2020

zyma · Post by **zyma** » 29 Nov 2020 15:28

Happy December, everyone!

Well, an early "Happy December", that is. I'm posting this two days early (in my time zone) not only because I look forward to Lexember as the one time of year I'm able to consistently work on conlanging, but also because there are a few things I'd like to clarify for prospective participants, especially first-time participants, before the start of the month.

Welcome to Lexember, a monthlong "game" that challenges participants to create at least one new word in one of their conlangs daily from the 1st through the 31st of December, and to post it here in this thread. This is the 9th year of the Lexember "tradition", I believe, and its 8th year here on the CBB!

Commenting on the words others have made is always encouraged, as is taking inspiration from them! Even if you're not participating yourself, you're still welcome to leave comments here in the thread, if you'd like. It's been mentioned in previous years that communities of conlangers on various social media platforms also participate in Lexember (in fact, I believe it was started on Twitter), so if you're active elsewhere, you might consider posting your words there, too. However, if you'd like to participate in the challenge, but would prefer not to post the words you come up with anywhere online, that's perfectly fine as well, of course.

Now more than ever, I want to emphasize that there is no single "correct" way to participate in Lexember. This has been a strange and difficult year for so many of us, and I don't want anyone who might be interested in Lexember to be discouraged from participating just because they feel that they might not be able to participate every single day or make their posts as detailed as they would like, or that none of their conlangs are "ready" enough. I've tried to address these potential concerns under the spoiler:

Spoiler:

Additionally, participants have the option of challenging themselves to learn a new word in a natural language they're studying each day, and to include it with their Lexember entries. Credit for this idea, as far as I'm aware, goes to qwed117, who did this last year with Sardinian.

In 2018 and 2019, I updated the thread's OP at the start of every week to suggest various "themes" that people might take inspiration from. I'd like to do something similar again this year, but instead of suggesting a new theme every week, I'd like to suggest themes for all five weeks at the start of the month. I have a few reasons for wanting to make this change. First, my time zone is UTC−05:00, so by the time I'd get around to posting the theme for a given week, that week would have already started for a good portion of the world. Additionally, anyone who'd like to follow the suggested themes will now have access to all of them from the start, making it easier for them to "plan ahead", if they'd like. I've tried to explain why I chose these particular themes below the spoiler here:

Spoiler:

Naturally, no one is ever required to follow these themes at all, let alone throughout the entire month, and players who do choose to follow them should feel free to interpret them however they'd like. If anyone would like to suggest additional or alternative themes at any point throughout the month, please feel free to do so.

Weekly Themes:

Week 1 (Dec. 1-5): Colors, Shapes, Numbers, Body Parts, and Clothing
Week 2 (Dec. 6-12): Plants, Animals, Weather, and Geography
Week 3 (Dec. 13-19): Family, Relationships, Emotion, Food, and the Home
Week 4 (Dec. 20-26): Belief, Folklore, Superstition, Mythology, Religion, and the Supernatural
Week 5 (Dec. 27-31): Time, Celebration, Culture, and History

Previous years' threads can be found here: 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019

silvercat · Post by **silvercat** » 30 Nov 2020 05:33

I have yet to finish a Lexember. Let's see what I can manage this year.

Porphyrogenitos · Post by **Porphyrogenitos** » 30 Nov 2020 05:59

Hmm, I've always thought Lexember would be fun, but I've never developed a conlang beyond the barest sketch, so whenever it comes around I'm scrambling to decide on a conlang to use for it.

Iyionaku · Post by **Iyionaku** » 30 Nov 2020 13:18

I will join with Yélian, as usual.

Additionally, participants have the option of challenging themselves to learn a new word in a natural language they're studying each day, and to include it with their Lexember entries. Credit for this idea, as far as I'm aware, goes to qwed117, who did this last year with Sardinian.

Great idea! I've struggled recently with keeping up my Spanish lessons, so I will use this as an incentive to continue here.

spanick · Post by **spanick** » 30 Nov 2020 21:14

I’ve been waiting for Lexember all year. I’ve been less active because I’ve been finishing my MA and writing my thesis, but now that that’s finally coming to a close, I have time for a little conlanging. I’ll be joining in with Yinše this year.

DesEsseintes · Post by **DesEsseintes** » 01 Dec 2020 01:29

spanick wrote: ↑30 Nov 2020 21:14 I’ve been waiting for Lexember all year. I’ve been less active because I’ve been finishing my MA and writing my thesis, but now that that’s finally coming to a close, I have time for a little conlanging. I’ll be joining in with Yinše this year.

Yay, Yinše. I want to see more of it.

silvercat · Post by **silvercat** » 01 Dec 2020 04:21

I'm pretty sure I still have leftover words from last year that I had planned the derivation of but not actually coined. For most of my langs I have so much stuff I gotta put in the official lexicons.

Iyionaku · Post by **Iyionaku** » 01 Dec 2020 07:30

Alas, it begins!

Lexember 1st - Yélian

condanaityel [ˌkondɐˈnaɪ̯t͡ʃəl] - pantyhose
Etymology: from condan "foot" + naityel "trousers"

Æ'pralet yáifadet nat u'condanaityel to o'nemia yiscetut. Vat yinus yiperviaget èpabetál yifadværet yanècen.
[əˈpɾaːlət ˈʃaɪ̯ɸɐdət nɐt ʉˌkondɐˈnaɪ̯t͡ʃəl tɔ̈‿ɔ̈ˈnemɪ̯ɐ ɕɨˈskeːtʉt | vɐt ˈɕiːnʉs ɕɨpəɾˈvɪ̯aːxət ˌɛpɐbəˈtaːl ɕɨɸɐdˈvœɾət ʃɐˈneːkən]
DEF.CONC=party PST-end-3SG when DEF.INAN=pantyhose 3SG.MASC.POSS DEF.GEN=sister PST-tear-INV.3SG.INAN | DEM moment PST-INGR-cry-3SG and_then PST-kick_out-3SG everyone
The party was over when his sister's pantyhose was ripped. She immediately started crying and kicket everybody out.

Bonus word

redondo - round

La pelota es redonda.
The ball is round.

Jackk · Post by **Jackk** » 01 Dec 2020 11:41

1r Decembr

sclar d'ogl /xlar ˈdɔjl/ [l̥ɑːˈdɔ.jʊ] blink, instant, very short amount of time

< 16C, a nominalisation from the verb phrase l'ogl sclarar "to blink (one's eyes)", used metaphorically to describe the brevity of a blink. The noun ogl "eye" is directly from Latin oculus via Old Boral oȝl(e) [oɣlə ~ oʎːə], having the same sense. The verb (now obsolete) is from Old Boral isclarar "to flash, brighten, light up", from Vulgar Latin exclārō "I lighten , illuminate, clarify" (literally "I make light, clear").

Ne sclar d'ogl l'au y quist coglt eð i faye lign a sy maðr.

In an instant he'd picked up the phone and was calling his mother.

/ne xlar ˈdɔjl lo i ˈkwɪst ˈkɔjlt ɛθ i fɛˈje ˈlajn a si ˈma.ðr̩/

Khemehekis · Post by **Khemehekis** » 01 Dec 2020 14:25

This week's categories from the Landau Core Vocabulary:

COLORS (Part IV)

Spoiler:

MORE COLORS (Part V)

Spoiler:

FORM AND PATTERN (Part IV)

Spoiler:

MORE FORM AND PATTERN (Part V)

Spoiler:

PART III: NUMBER WORDS

Spoiler:

ANIMAL BODY (Part IV)

Spoiler:

MORE ANIMAL BODY (Part V)

Spoiler:

HUMAN BODY (Part IV)

Spoiler:

MORE HUMAN BODY (Part V)

Spoiler:

CLOTHING (Part IV)

Spoiler:

MORE CLOTHING (Part V)

Spoiler:

Davush · Post by **Davush** » 01 Dec 2020 14:27

1st December

tip- 'to wear, to be dressed in'
p-Stem: PROG: tiukin 'I am wearing', PST: tipsin 'I wore', IRR: tiprin 'I will/might wear'

tipua 'clothing' (from tip- + nominalising suffix -ua)

DesEsseintes · Post by **DesEsseintes** » 01 Dec 2020 15:51

Hɨɨ - Lex 1st

vɨɨtɨn n. - cloth
→ iivɨtɨn - my cloth

spanick · Post by **spanick** » 01 Dec 2020 17:57

Yemya

śokh /ɕokʰ/ (n) ‘eye’ from PIE *h3óks ‘eye’. Like other words in Yemya, there is no plural form, but a fossilized dual does survive, śotśa /ɕot͡ɕɑ/.

Yinše

caa /t͡ʃaː/ ‘be white, bright’
ciire /t͡ʃiːre/ ‘be yellow, brown’
šaap /ʃaːp/ ‘be black, dark’
šee /ʃeː/ ‘be red, orange’
t’oo /t’oː/ ‘be green, blue’

Spoiler:

brblues · Post by **brblues** » 01 Dec 2020 18:36

Lexember 1:

Classical Bokisig

<jez> /jez/ n 1. leaf of a plant; plural: <jeskom> /'jes.kom/ 2. the colour green; plural: <jeziz> /je.ziz/

Etymology: Early Bokisig /ɣez/ n = 1. leaf of a plant 2. the colour green

Given that stative verbs functioning as adjectives were derived from the root in the Early Bokisig stage already, it is safe to assume that the extension of the meaning from a leaf to the colour had already taken place by then. The different plurals are based on how plurals were formed in Early Bokisig: collective nouns were suffixed. Which noun would be suffix depended on semantic criteria, which explains why the different meanings form different plurals:

- /ɣez-kom/ leaf-forest > /'jes.kom/ = “leaves” (leaf-PL)
- /ɣez-ɣuz/ = leaf-pile > /je.ziz/ = “green ones” (green-PL)
NB: not “greens” as in “healthy veggies” or “different shades of green”!

qwed117 · Post by **qwed117** » 01 Dec 2020 21:18

Much like last year, I think I'm gonna adopt a scaffolding/pyramid technique to expand my lexicon, at least for the main project. I might sprinkle in a bunch of my other langs in everywhere too. I'm also planning to continue the Sardinian words too. We'll see how this goes.
Lexember 1st

Unnamed A-Priori Hlai-lang* *In my documents it has the name "Hlaitype A Priori", so you might hear me call it "HAP".
phë3 /pʰɤ˧˩/ adj. blue

*S₁ŋ̩ʲːd-o Lat-u
*ebˀn-i n. river

Unnamed A-Posteriori Hlai-lang *I found this very distantly in my language documentations, and decided it might be good to just play with it
vɯp˥ n. acne from Proto-Hlai *Curɯːp 'blackhead'
cf. Jiamao lup8

Sardinian
anca n. leg, likely from Vulgar Latin *hanca, from Proto-Germanic *hankō, probably related to :en: ankle

Porphyrogenitos · Post by **Porphyrogenitos** » 02 Dec 2020 00:53

Well, I suppose I will jump in and do it. I guess if I don't like what I come up with I can just trash it all and start over. I'll use my metathesis-lang that I posted about in my scratchpad. I'll have to commit to a phoneme inventory for it, at least.

Um, hmm. I'll just give it a for-now unanalyzable, arbitrary name that sounds good. It'll be called hasunite - pronounced [hasunite], [hʷosnite], or [hʷoʃɲet] depending on the context.

I'll start out with a color. This raises the question of how adjectives will work and how color terms will fit into it. I suppose for now I will make color terms essentially be nouns. They can be compounded with another lexical item (like in Algonquian and Irish) or they can be used in a construction with an ezafe-like particle.

In hasunite, all lexical items are compounds of two bound monosyllabic lexical formatives. Sometimes these are analyzable and sometimes they are not. All lexical formatives are homophonous with other lexical formatives (or, you could say they are polysemous) because of the small syllable inventory (just 44 distinct syllables). All lexical items also participate in a process of metathesis and vowel coalescence in certain contexts. I will provide the metathesized form for each word (predictable from its surface form); the unmetathesized form corresponds to a straightforward IPA reading of the orthography.

hasunite - Lexember 1st

The word for 'black' is haku [hʷok], composed of the following formatives:

ha - 'night', also found in the full word hane [hɛn] 'night' (with formative ne, 'time', also found in lane [lɛn] 'daytime, morning', with formative la 'sun, day').

ku - a semantically vague nominal formative, often found in words designating qualities; haku might thus have originated etymologically as something like 'night-ness'.

Post by **Dormouse559** » 02 Dec 2020 01:12

As it happens, I began working on a new conlang a couple of weeks ago

It's a priori, with agglutinative tendencies, and it needs words.

1er lexembre:

Unnamed conlang

dòbza /ˈdɔbza/ n/adj - black (< protoform daubza, root daub + -za)

What does the protoroot daub mean? Maybe "burnt", like the etymon of English "black".

The initial idea for the language was that it would make minimal distinctions between adjectives and abstract nouns, as well as the plurals of concrete nouns. Dòbza, and probably some other color words, falls along that spectrum. The upshot for dòbza is that it can be used either adjectivally (black-colored) or nominally (the color black / blackness), but it doesn't mark number and can't be the subject of a verb.

Limnavaktagònmi dobara mavaiku.
/limnavaktaˈɡɔnmi doˈbara maˈvai̯ku/
limnavaktag-ònmi dòb<a>za mav<a>i-ku
scare-3P.NOM black<ERG> cat<ERG>-1S.ACC
Black cats scare me. / I am afraid of black cats.

Porphyrogenitos wrote: ↑02 Dec 2020 00:53 I'll start out with a color. … black …

Does this make us color buddies?

elemtilas · Post by **elemtilas** » 02 Dec 2020 03:34

I'm in!

(iri) 1. siados, a dappling of shadow & light, of muted & vibrant colours: shades of blacks, deep reds, oranges, creams, whites, greys; a pattern found on several kinds of domestic & wild fox, dog, and cat; a garment made from such a pelt or woven stuffs in imitation thereof.

zyma · Post by **zyma** » 02 Dec 2020 04:16

Day 1

Gán Vẽi (Entry 1):

kéi /kej˩˧/ (inanimate or animate)
Noun:
1. (inanimate) red, orange
2. (inanimate) pink, purple, magenta
3. (figurative, animate) fire, flame(s), pyre, bonfire, campfire
4. (animate) a member of the Kéi lineage
5. (inanimate) the low rising tone
kéi /kej˩˧/ (comparative kêi /kej˦˥˧/)
Adjective:
1. red, orange
2. pink, purple, magenta
3. (figurative) relating to fire, flame(s)
4. relating to the Kéi lineage
5. relating to the low rising tone

Etymology
From Old TBD kơih "red, fiery", from Proto-TBD *kɯr "fire, heat" + *xo "face, appearance".

Example sentence:
Lảng nâ kéi vǐ hō.
/laŋ˨˩˨ na˦˥˧ kej˩˧ vi˧˨˧ ho˥/
[ɫ̪ɑ̃ŋ˨˩˧ n̪aː˧˥˧ kʲɛj˩˧ ʋiː˧˨˧ ɦoː˥]
lảng nâ kéi vǐ=hō
house 1s.GEN red seem=DIR
My house is red.

Thedish (Entry 1):

wlite /ˈwliːt(ə)/ (plural wlites /ˈwliːt(ə)s/)
Noun:
1. dye, dyestuff, pigment, colo(u)rant
2. cosmetics, makeup, beauty products

Alternative forms
wliet, lite, liet
Etymology
From Old Thedish wlite, from Proto-Germanic *wlitiz. May have been influenced by Old Norse litr. Compare Icelandic litur, Westrobothnian let.

cleur /ˈkløːr/ (plural cleurs /ˈkløːrs/)
Noun:
1. suit (of playing cards)
2. flush (poker)
3. (heraldry) tincture, colo(u)r
4. (informal) rank (in an organization)
5. (informal, often plural) flag, emblem, insignia, logo

Alternative forms
cleor, coleur, coleor, couleur, colour, color
Etymology
Borrowed from (Middle) French couleur. Compare Dutch kleur, Low German Klöör, West Frisian kleur.
Usage notes
In terms recently borrowed or calqued from English, especially those relating to art or technology, cleur is often used in place of huy /ˈhøː/ "color" as the Thedish equivalent of English color. Examples include tecknicleur /ˈtɛknɪˌkløːr/ "technicolor" and cleur theory /ˈkløːr tɛˈoːrəɪ̯/ "color theory". In terms like these, it is becoming increasingly common for the variant colour /kəˈloːr/ to be used in place of cleur.

Example sentence:
Sumwhyl does goedwilled sport fans wlite ef de seulfsame hiws swea de cleurs ef her favorite plows anholden.
/ˈsʊmˌhwʌɪ̯l duːs ˈguːdˌwɪləd ˈspɔrt ˈfans ˈwliːt ɛf də ˈsœlfˌsaːm ˈhyːs swɛː də ˈkløːrs ɛf hɛr favɔˈriːt ˈplɔʊ̯s anˈhɔldən/
[ˈsʊ̃mˌwʌɪ̯ə̆ɫ dʊz ˈguːdˌwɪɫd̥ ˈspɔɾt̚ ˈfɑ̃nz ˈβɫiːt‿əv də ˈsœɫfˌsɑ̃ːm ˈhyːs swɛ də ˈkl̥øːɾs‿əf həɾ ˌfaˑvəˈɾiːt̚ ˈpl̥ɔʊ̯s ə̃nˈɦɔɫdə̃n]
sumwhyl doe-s goedwilled sport fan-s wlite ef de seulfsame hiw-s swea de cleur-s ef her favorite plow-s anhold-en
sometimes do.PRES-PRES enthusiastic sport fan-PL cosmetics of DEF same color-PL as DEF logo-PL of 3p.GEN favorite team-PL wear.PRES-L.INF
Sometimes, enthusiastic sports fans will wear face paint of the same colors as the logos of their favorite teams.

I'll go back in and add example sentences, and maybe a natlang word as well, once I have more time and energy. I'll also try to read over what everyone else has posted so far more carefully.

Edit: Examples added on December 19th, 2020.

qwed117 wrote: ↑01 Dec 2020 21:18 Unnamed A-Priori Hlai-lang* *In my documents it has the name "Hlaitype A Priori", so you might hear me call it "HAP".

Oh cool! I see I'm not the only one using an a priori (South)east Asian-inspired language this year!

I look forward to seeing this, as well as the a posteriori one, develop.

silvercat · Post by **silvercat** » 02 Dec 2020 04:47

Nothing exciting for this one. This is in Tynthna, which I haven't done much yet aside from phonology and phonotactics and a short, not very good, now out-of-date twine game.

dzashka /dzaʃ.ka/
blue, light blue, sky blue

Kinush dzav dzashka
the book is blue

kinush /ki.nuʃ/ = book
dzav = is/are (copula)

The CBB

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