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A Convoluted Etymology: Lexember Day 11

Dec11

Rook
/ro͞ok/
noun; plural noun rookte, rookbe, rookne

Family group, tribe.

Collective plural Rookbe is a convocation of all the tribes in an area.

Kozh
/kōzh/
noun; plural noun kozhete, kozhebe, kozhene

When two like things intersect or encounter each other.

-lel
/lel/
adjective

Peaceful.

-gut
/ɡət/
adjective

Violent.

-laizh
/līzh/
adjective

Profitable, with gain

tap
/tap/
verb

To go, in the sense of travel

All right, if you put these words together, you get two sorts of meetings of two tribes: peaceful and violent, kozhrooklel, kozhrookgut.

From kozhrooklel and -laizh we get the idea of trading, a profitable pleasant meeting: kozhrooklellaizh, which over time became kozellaiz, trade.

From Kozellaiz and tap came tapkozhzellaizh, Go to trade, which became tapzellaizh and from that, over a long time, came tappaizh /tap ‘īzh/, from “go to a peaceful, profitable gathering of tribes” to “road”, the thing on which you go to those tribes.

Phew!

See here for images of words.

(And all this because [personal profile] anke wanted words for giving or getting directions…)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1023044.html. You can comment here or there.

What’s your Name or Screen Name in Calenyen? (Lexember sidetrack)

Dec10

I’ve been playing around with language, as you’ve noticed, and playing with putting people’s names into Calenyen phonemes.

In some cases this requires bending the rules. For instance, my name, Lyn, falls entirely within Calenyen phonemes, but L- is not an initial sound.

In others, it requires bending the name:

It’s a CV(C)**** language: Underlyingly CVC, but because of degemination very commonly CV(C) in less formal registers, and typically so written (except in formal documents). (hat tip [personal profile] thnidu)

Adjacent consonants are okay unless they occur within the same syllable

No cl, gr, sk, bl, and so on.

No -io, -ia, like Mario, Maria, either. HOWEVER, to quote [personal profile] inventrix, “some of the vowel combination sounds can be ‘mimicked’ by using a palatalized preceding consonant.”

And some are nigh on impossible!

How’s yours work out?

Calenyen has the following letters:
Consonants
14 that can begin a word:
7 nonpalatalized, or “plain”: K, L, P, T, D, B, G,
7 corresponding palatalized: ky, ly, py, ty, dy, by, gy *
10 that cannot begin a word (non-initial)***:
5 plain: r, z, zh, m, n
5 palatalized: ry, zy, zhy, my, ny
4 non-initial consonants that arose in later days
2 plain: v, s
2 palatalized: vy, sy Vowels

9 vowels**
ai, i, aa, a, e, ie, u, o, oo (see here)

* beginning a noun, even a proper noun, with a palatalized consonant suggests something is without use, worthless. Yes, some people name kids that way.

** you can begin a name with a vowel! It means you’re royal, or, at least, you have an Emperor/Empress in your ancestry.

***The Calenyen break this rule, so it’s okay if you do! They like stealing names from other languages…

****with some variations, see Imperial names, etc.

If you want, I’ll draw your name in Calenyen letters. I could use the practice!

If your screen name involves an word (dragonfly, inspector, thorn, alder), I could be convince (if you ask) to make up that word in Calenyen, too.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1022144.html. You can comment here or there.

Sayings to translate into Calenyena, mostly a note to myself

Dec8

From a previous draft of Rin & Girey:

A border is written in blood on the heart and on the mind. -Old Cālenyen saying

If you allow the rain to slow your passage, you will never leave your tent. -Old Cālenyen saying

After a war-season, we look for friends in the faces of strangers, and for enemies in the faces of our friends.

When uncertain or angry, close your mouth. Keep it closed until you are certain, and calm. – From the book of Reiassannon
When uncertain or angry, stab forth. Ride the fire of anger until you are certain, and calm. – From the book of Veignevar
When angry, study the anger, then find where it leads. When uncertain, find the core of the uncertainty, and study it until it vanishes. – From the book of Tienebrah

Do not question why the goat you are given as a gift only has three legs. – Old Cālenyen saying

Sleep is a gift, but, like all gifts, it has its flaws and its price – ancient Calenyen saying

From Edally:

If the fingers are working, the mind is free to breathe

If You Call It a Fish, People Will Expect It to Swim

Some Fish Swim Best in the Air

When making war, first make tea

Hit First, Reassess, Hit Again

A Bond Reforged is Thrice as Strong

Sometimes the weasel just gets away

You can offer the goat the river, but a stupid beast will still chose the puddle

When the World is Shaking, Do Not Stop to Rebalance Your Saddle-Bags

The Brightest Fire Does Not Always Burn Hottest

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1020501.html. You can comment here or there.

#Lexember day 8: Ancestors

Dec8

ankewehner asked for family relations. So far, I have ancestors!

The Calenyena enjoy their sometimes-complicated family relationships, and most Calenyena can list the most important deeds of at least three generations of ancestors.

Starting with parents:

ketbaa, mother
dobaa, father

See here for images of words.

And grandparents:

ketbaake, maternal grandmother
ketbaado, paternal grandmother
dobaake, maternal grandfather
dobaado, maternal grandfather

This can go on!

ketbaakeke, ketbaakedo, mother’s mother’s mother; mother’s father’s mother.

-baa, parent; -baake, of the mother’s line, -baado, of the father’s line

kezzatbaake, zezzatbaado, a female ancestor of the mother’s or father’s line; dozhabaake, dozhabaado, male ancestors of mother’s and father’s lines.

Informally, baake, baake and baado, baado, “some ancestor way back in the line.” If you don’t know which side of the family the ancestor is on (which is unlikely), you end up saying baa, baa And sounding about as silly as that looks.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1020334.html. You can comment here or there.

Lexember Day 6: plurals, also, treaties

Dec6

clare_dragonfly asked for “…writing stuff. And legal stuff,” specifically regarding Edally: The Missing Treaty.

I already have words for writing: zhiezhet, book, turnie, and words for history that I need to reconsider.

Telyen “story”, and telnyet is “truth-known.”

Pause for plurals, because I really need to figure those out, or, as we say in the conlang business, make some shit up.

We’re going to make the goat plural: pazit, and the dyohd, an obnoxious rodent.

One goat: Pazit

Two goats: Pazitte

A herd of goats: Pazitbe

An unknown plural of goats: Pazitne

One rodent: Dyohd

Two rodents: Dyohdtye

A family/nest of rodents: Dyohdbye

An unknown plural of rodents: Dyohdnye

There! Now we can make stories plural, telyenne!

The Calenyena word for a treaty is Gaaneg, from gaaven (obsolete), bound, and geg, rope.

The Bitrani word for treaty is Meniano, from meni, to think over, to consider.

Incidentally, Coffee is a loan-word to both languages, coming from the prot-Arran fega. The Bitrani call it Vegia; the Calenyena call it
vegie.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1018814.html. You can comment here or there.

Lexember Day 5: Underwear and Vests, Linen and Buttons

Dec5

kelkyag asked: “You have existing clothing words — are they all gathered up somewhere? Are there gaps in that to fill? Words for underwear and buttons and hats along with tunics and stuff?”

Some!

Quoting myself:

The basic unit of Calenyen clothing is the kiparrie. This, like “kimono”, is a generic term, with any number of specific terms depending on shape, length of hem and sleeve, purpose, cut of collar, etc…

It is worn down to the knees over full pants (tozhyu) or a full skirt (kanzhyu).

The kiparri is worn in layers, starting, usually, with what I commonly translate as “linens.”

The word in Calenyena doesn’t actually come from their word for linen, betbet or even their word for flax, betyier.

(Betbet itself is sometimes said to come from the word betyier and sometimes from the sound the wet stalks make when, after retting, the stalks were beaten against rocks to reveal the fibers).

No, the word for under-clothes comes from the word lur, meaning smooth, easy: from kiprat-lur to kiplur and eventually down to kur.

Under-clothes are fastened by ties or laces, from geg, rope, gegyup.

They are usually heavily decorated with bentyek, art-with-a-needle, embroidery, around the hems and cuffs, and sometimes along the seams as well.

The outermost layer is usually a vest, kiprat, which you might recognize from above. The modern vests are long, reaching to mid-hip, unlike their namesakes, which often fell only to the bottom of the ribs; the modern vest is made of woven wool, linen, or some combination, where the original kiprat were made of felted wool.

This is held closed with fancy buttons, reddakak, from kak, push (non-fancy buttons, purely for function, are dakak. A person who makes buttons is a Diedreddakak, and is considered a skilled craftsperson.

And if we have left our model in only their linens and vest, well, at least their linens are soft, and we can put in the middle layers on another day.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1018025.html. You can comment here or there.

Lexember day Four: Parts of the House

Dec4

ankewehner asked for parts of a house, and I’m beginning to realize there are quite a few of those. Here’s a beginning:

Okay, let’s start with house, which I originally covered in “Home and Tent, Goat and Saddle.”

House: pepok, from petepok, “stone tent.” (-pok sounds like -poke)

See here for images of words.

Door: Gaaret (rhymes with ferret) from gaat, to pass through. A Gaatet is a pass-through, an entryway with no door in it. A Gyaat is a crawl-space entry.

Walls come from tent-blankets, geten-peten, with a modifier for “stone”, -pok, and thus getok. (This is specifically a house wall of stone).

The Calenyen did not come up with a word for floor, simply using dez, ground. After a while this was modified with -ok, but in Reiassan, stone ground is most of the continent. The current usage is dem, from dezem, indoor-ground.

Floor as in story comes from an archaic word for box stolen from the prot-Arrans. Their word began as fillijai, which became Liezhai.

“Second floor” began as liezhai-lok, next-floor, and many people still use that usage. And from there you end up with liezhai-zaa, up-floor, and liezhai-tan, sky floor.

Man, I would pay to have someone draw me Richard-Scary-like diagrams of this stuff. 🙂

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1017033.html. You can comment here or there.

Lexember Day One: Rabbits

Dec3

clare_dragonfly asked for the Calenyen word for bunnies. So:

Lexember Day 3:

Bunnies, it must be bunnies♪

They have three variants on the rabbit on Reiassan:

The Kaler, a domesticated fur rabbit, small and generally friendly. Their fur comes in a wide variety of naturally-occurring colors and is well known to be good for baby clothes and underclothes.

The Zhyoobie, the wild version, which is about the size of a squirrel, eats plants one wants to keep, and nobody has yet made a Peter Rabbit book about. It’s known to make its nest in the remnants of other animals’ nests, and generally leaves a mess of wherever it nests.

The Natiel, a large hare, sometimes domesticated but often wild. These are the biggest of the rabbits, brought over by the Bitrani settlers, and named by them (nateo), but they do not thrive in the warm climates of southern Reiassan and have mostly migrated north.

This is not the first time I’ve shamelessly named things in Calenyen for people, as much as the language allows. The Zhyoobie and the Natiel are named after people I know/have known in other parts of my life.

Lots of days left to go! Stop in and give me something to word about!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1016518.html. You can comment here or there.

It’s Lexember! Yay~

Dec2

As per 2012 (not sure what happened in ’13 and ’14), I’m doing Lexember again!

What’s lexember? It’s a month to build the lexicon of your conlang! Specifically with everyday objects.

I already have some saddles,
goats and tents
kinfe and sword
eating tools
meals
art and needle-art
Plunder!
Waste
Colors, posers, and fakes
Dairy
Fire
Kids (and kids)
history

So! What words should I create for this year?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1015543.html. You can comment here or there.