Woven Tongue

[Woven Tongue]

Quitting.

Unannounced three-week hiatus? I guess you could see this coming.

I think the conlanging phase of my life has come to an end. It was fun while it lasted, from my earliest fumbles with Draen (in 2014. Wow.) to the reign of Amraya to the swansong of Núkhacirj. I can’t say I have moved to bigger and better things. In fact, I haven’t really moved on to any new hobby.

Two weeks ago, a book I read sparked a sudden wave of anxiety about climate change. For more than a week I was convinced the world was going to end during this century, that I would have to watch as it slowly burned around me. I’ve since talked about it with knowledgeable people, and I have calmed down. But that kind of thing gives perspective.

That perspective showed me that I wasn’t really a conlanger anymore. I hadn’t been for a while, not enthusiastically anyway, but only recently I let go of the identity. This is not who I am anymore. And that’s okay.

I hope you wish me luck in whatever endeavor I take on next.

[Woven Tongue]

18: Lifesaver

Khalj te rósja noxa phi xákusudélj gesa mi mar céthe, téi xákusudélj su mar nji ró.

I want you to know that it’s okay if you just save one person, and it’s okay if that person is you.

want-PERS 1s 2s-ACC know that okay-COP-GNO-PERS save one person only, and.also okay-COP-GNO-PERS COP person this 2s

Grammar:

A more literal translation would be:

I want you to know that it’s okay to only save one person, and it’s okay for that person to be you.

Words:

phi conj. that; subordinates a clause

xáku intrj. okay, alright adj. okay, acceptable

xákusu v. to be okay

gesa v. to save

mi num. one

Note: Numbers coming soon, maybe.

céthe det. just, only

[Woven Tongue]

17: Weapon

Téi dólj nga apos, acuyámilj váive dan nunemilj máljami, xi eiphe thomi dan sora. Ngoriyásjil, aon iskirji tháikuchélja.

And there it was, not as much floating as simply resting, unconcerned about not touching the ground. Nightbreaker, its blade of gemstones and quicksilver.

- Injdathú, Book of Tears

and.then stand-PERS 3s.PRX that-LOC, float-IPV-PERS equal-PTCP not than rest-IPV-PERS simple-ADV.IPV, without worry touch not ground. break-night with blade gemstone-quicksilver

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Worldbuilding:

The islanders’ gods don’t have an agreed-upon appearance. Instead, it is almost an art form how varied the depictions can be. Yet few things always remain the same. For Yiring, there are two: the scar across the face, cutting deep, and her sword. Nightbreaker. Almost sentient, the weapon awaits, hidden, appearing right before the world ends. Its master wields the power to level armies.

And yet, over and over again, we lose.

Words:

apos adv. there

From apo det. that

acuyá v. to float, to hover

vái v. to equal, to be equal in

váive ptcp. equaling, equally, as much

nune v. to rest (against), to be at rest, to be still

málja adj. simple

Note: Adjectives are marked with aspect (agreeing with the verb) to indicate adverbs. The ending for the perfective is -ná.

eiphe n. worry, concern

thomi v. to touch

ngori v. to break, to crack, to snap; to break something rigid

yásjil n. night; archaic and sometimes fossilized, has a negative connotations

iskirji n. blade, edge; long sharp part

tháiku n. gemstone, jewel; any kind of valuable stone

chélja n. quicksilver

Note: There is a lot of debate about what “tháikuchélja” really means, whether the blade looks like gemstones in quicksilver, quicksilver forming gemstones or gemstones acting like quicksilver. Even others suggest it is simply a poetic description of the blade’s texture. Until the sword reappears, we can’t really know.

---

Sorry for the delay, I had exams and problems with motivation. I think the solution might be making the language more complex, but I’ll have to try and find out.  

[Woven Tongue]

16: Gold

Usúna khas Marlene no tóga aon ongín, gé curjís dantú nga aiyus reng.

Marlene wanted to marry a rich man, but she never found one she liked.

- 919th Just Used 5 Minutes of Your Day on /r/conlangs

/usúna kʰas mɑːliːn no tóɣa ao̯n oŋín, ɣé t͡ʃuɹís ðantú ŋa aijus reŋ/

marry want-REP Marlene with man having wealth, but find-REP never 3s.PROX like-REP RESM

Grammar note:

“Aiyus reng” is an odd construction, a relative clause without marker or referent, essentially like saying “she never found she liked one”.

Words:

usúna v. to marry; naturally reciprocal, one participant is topicalized over another using “no”.

tóga n. man, adult male; usually but not necessarily human

ongín n. riches, wealth; the adjective “rich” is expressed with a prepositional construction.

curjí v. to find

aiyu v. to like, to consider positively

[Woven Tongue]

15: Dive

Asjéochi saikás tesja, no gamúyi tem yóthovái sélj aletá, athai noxas thesedés khanacúr phinjócá.

Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.

- Killmonger, “Black Panther”

scatter-IMP ocean-LOC 1s-ACC, with ancestor 1s-GEN jump-REL from ship, because know-REP exceed-GNO-REP die-N.ERG enslave-N

Grammar note:

The reportative evidential is often used with the arguments of verbs like “to know” or “to believe”, when talking about other people, to mark a statement as being claimed by someone else. In statements about other people, it usually means that those people have told the speaker. That is the case with noxas here, but it is more metaphorical; actions speak louder than words

Words:

asjéo v. to sprinkle, to spread (dust); to scatter ashes of a dead person

Note: Núkhacirj lacks a word for “to bury”; the word for “to hide” is used for buried treasure, “to engulf” is for being buried in sand, and “to place in the ground” is used to translate the funerary meaning.

saiká n. ocean, salt water

no prep. with, accompanied by

gamúyi v. ancestor, predecessor; of gamú + -yi agent nominalizer

gamú v. (trans) to precede, to come before

yótho v. to jump, to leap

sélj prep. from

aletá n. ship, boat

athai conj. because, for the reason that

khanacá n. death, from khana to die + -cá event nominalizer

Note: -cá inflects irregularly, dropping the “a” while retaining the high tone: -cúr, -cím, -cís, -cálja.

phinjócá n. enslavement, bondage, subjugation, from phinjó + cá

---

Black Panther left me rather unsatisfied, but every word from the villain’s mouth was gold. His presence instantly made the movie come alive.

[Woven Tongue]

14: Miracle

ljáurju n. an anti-miracle; something highly unusual and negative

Other translations: a catastrophe, a fuck-up

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Dómilj nite sjinis náyá xi ljáurju.

We will be there soon, unless we are really unlucky.

stand-IMPV-PERS 1p that-LOC soon without “ljáurju”

Words:

dó v. to stand, to stand up; to be at

Contrast tachu v. to lay, to lay down; to be at

Note: One can’t really say “to be at” without categorizing according to posture. Metaphorically, dó is used for people and buildings, for example and tachu is used for things in water (like boats or islands) and geographical formations.

sjinis n. there (where you are); locative case of sjin that (near you)

náyá adv. soon, not far into the future

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Plugging some lexical gaps! I just have to remember to introduce some too at some point.

[Woven Tongue]

13: Purpose

Avitága ljoi káoro ivén noxamikho dan, yunjaidérún ica eyén

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favourable to him.

- Seneca

steer-Q for harbor which know-IMPV-COND not, favor-GNO-FACT no wind

If one doesn’t know towards which harbor one steers, no wind favors them

Grammar notes:

From the gloss one might notice that there is actually no mention of the person this applies to, while the original includes three. This is a grammatical feature adapted from Finnish, my native language, called zero-person, which simply leaves the subject out to mean “one”, like “to Mordor doesn’t simply walk”.

Nukhacirj plays this a bit looser: the omitted generic person can be either the absolutive or the ergative argument, based on context.

Words:

avitá v. (trans) to steer (a ship) v. (intrans) to head (towards)

ljoi prep. for, towards; marks a goal or a destination

káoro n. port, harbour, haven; a place to lay down one’s anchor, whether natural or artifcial

ivén det. which, what; used as a modifier

Compare ivá what, who; used like a noun

yunjai v. (trans) to be good to, to favour v. (intrans) to be favourable

Note: Not “to give preferential treatment to”

ica det. no, none of

eyén n. wind; often as Ni Eyén The Winds

[Woven Tongue]

12: Teach

Vostedérún mar xiaon thúna. Ére iga, rjená aidé lú.

People are born without logic. For humans, it can be learned.

- Injdathú, Book of Thought

birth-GNO-FACT people without logic. human TOP, learn can-GNO 3sp

Words:

voste v. to be born; to give birth (to)

Derive vostecá birth, childbirth

xiaon prep. without having; xi without + aon with; having 

thúna n. logic; the art of order and sophistication in thought

Note: “Rationality” is also a valid translation. Thúna is the rejection and control of one’s natural tendencies to believe things based on bad evidence.

ére n. human; member of the species Homo sapiens

iga prt. (as) for, regarding; promotes something to the topic of a sentence.

rjená v. to learn; to study and learn

lú prn. third person singular peripheral; refers to something that is not the topic. 

Note: In this case using nga would have referred to “humans”, as it was explicitly marked as the topic of the sentence. Afterwards nga can be used to refer to “logic”, as the rules are pragmatic, not syntactical.

[Woven Tongue]

Something Else

I have spent a lot of time over the summer writing up a long essay on international auxiliary languages, mostly inspired by Justin B. Rye’s “Ranto”, an incredibly thorough criticism of Esperanto. It’s sort of become a holy book for me, one I go back to over and over for wisdom.

Creating a language to unite the world is an inherently interesting idea. It is culture made into technology, language itself taken apart and reassembled better. It is idealistic, utopistic, it shows hope for humankind to be finally united.

And it is so very easy to get wrong. The skills and knowledge needed to make a good auxlang are the same ones needed to recognize a bad one, and few auxlang creators have either. Sometimes integral theories of linguistics hadn’t yet been invented when the language was created, leaving it crippled from the start.

So this is my exploration of the topic, in all its pretentious glory:

On The Technical Aspects Of A Global Constructed Auxiliary Language

[Woven Tongue]

Kinship Terms

Núkhacirj’s system of kinship is largely gender-neutral, opting instead to make other distinctions to reduce ambiguity.

amá, áta, itha - mother, father, parent(s)

This distinction by gender in parents is pretty much unavoidable, unless you want a system where children call their parents by their names. The words for mother and father similar to these are very typical across a variety unrelated of languages.

nín, vul, aupú  - younger sibling, older sibling, sibling(s)

Distinction based on relative ages is rather common, and is the obvious one after gender. English also has this in expressions like “little brother” and “big sister”, but here the priority has been flipped.

nim, kitai, sánja, omili - child, eldest child, youngest child, middle child

Large families are largely unheard of on the island, but when families with more than three children occur, all children except for the oldest and youngest are referred to as omili. The plurals can be used to refer to multiple children: ni kitai the older children.

voná, íyir - maternal aunt or uncle, paternal aunt or uncle

Here there isn’t a neutral term, as one is very rarely needed. One’s mother’s siblings and one’s father’s siblings considered separate categories. If a collective term is needed, ni aupú itham siblings of parents can be used.

amamá, amáta - maternal grandmother, maternal grandfather

atamá, atáta -  paternal grandmother, paternal grandfather

Simple portmanteaus suffice for these. The system is actually relatively similar to that of Swedish. For more distant generations, ordinal numbers are used (”second maternal grandfather”).

vonánim, íyirnim - maternal cousin, paternal cousin

nínnim, vulnim - niece or nephew; from younger sibling, older sibling

nimnim - grandchild

A lot of mileage is gotten out of using nim as a productive affix.