Lexicon Building

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
Travis B.
Sumerul
Sumerul
Posts: 3570
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:47 pm
Location: Milwaukee, US

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Travis B. »

hwhatting wrote:Next: to preach
Proto-Tshyak "explain" kəzrew [kəzɻew] (pfv.), kəzrów [kəzɻow] (ipfv.)
Old Tshyak "preach" kzrew [kəʐew] (pfv.), kzrow [kəʐow] (ipfv.)
Old Mkroh "demonstrate" ʔsyéw [ʔəsʲéw] (pfv.), ʔsrów [ʔəsɻów] (ipfv.)
Middle Tshyak "proselytize" srew/sréw [ʂéw] (pfv.), srow/srów [ʂów] (ipfv.)
Middle Laeh Tshyak "expound" kzrew/zréw [ʐɤ́w] (pfv.), kzrow/zrów [ʐów] (ipfv.)

next: text, book
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

Travis B. wrote:next: text, book

ktub'a'u [ˈktub.ʔa.ʔu] "text, book, scroll, significant written work"

Next: dirk (or any similarly long-bladed dagger)

User avatar
Pabappa
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 210
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:51 pm
Location: the Peyron Apartments
Contact:

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Pabappa »

spanick wrote:

Next: dirk (or any similarly long-bladed dagger)
Poswa:
pippi sharp, curved dagger or knife. Apparently from a word that originally meant "sharp, curved claw". So, essentially, a pippi is a large single claw.
widžop dagger, stabbing tool; sharp stick torn off a tree. Seems to be cognate to džupo "thorn" but beyond that I dont have any information. Widžop generally implies a weak tool "close to nature" rather than one that has been carefully manufactured, polished, and sharpened. A widžop can even still mean simply a stick torn off a tree that has a sharp point at one end.

Pabappa:
piwibop sharp dagger made of rock or metal. Cognare to widžop above, with an additional prefix pi- denoting a handheld object
poppop A synonym of piwibop; seems to be made from the same morphemes, but formed at an earlier time, thereby causing radically different sound changes.
Despite the two Pabappa words being cognate to the Poswa word for a "weak" dagger, they are closer in meaning to pippi and usually imply a sharpened metal weapon.

------------

next:
hedge, topiary, artificially shaped bush
And now Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey with our weather report:
Image

hwhatting
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 2315
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2002 2:49 am
Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by hwhatting »

SoapBubbles wrote:next:
hedge, topiary, artificially shaped bush
Tautisca: "hedge" is bordus. There is no special word for topiary, as this isn't really a thing in Tautisca culture - you may find some neatly clipped hedges or some bushes clipped to resemble geometrical forms in some monasteries and public gardens, but that's more likely to be the brainwave of a local gardener or a limited local tradition than part of a general gardening tradition which would warrant a common, fixed special word.

Next: heavy

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

hwhatting wrote:Next: heavy
libqh [libχ] "heavy" (lit. Weighty, from root "l-bqh" having to do with weight, weighing)

Nota Bene: in the transcription, the fricative should be the voiceless uvular rather than voiceless velar, but my phone refuses to make the correct symbol so I'll have to edit this later.

Next word: to trepan, to drill through the skull

User avatar
Pabappa
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 210
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:51 pm
Location: the Peyron Apartments
Contact:

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Pabappa »

spanick wrote:
hwhatting wrote:Next: heavy
libqh [libχ] "heavy" (lit. Weighty, from root "l-bqh" having to do with weight, weighing)

Nota Bene: in the transcription, the fricative should be the voiceless uvular rather than voiceless velar, but my phone refuses to make the correct symbol so I'll have to edit this later.

Next word: to trepan, to drill through the skull
Poswa:

Well, the easiest answer, and the one that is most likely the proper one, is to simply take wipap "skull" and pumpel "drill" and make wipwappumpel "trepanation, skull-boring" and leave it at that. But looking at the morpheme breakdown of pumpel, it's pum "claw" + pfel "needle, prick". So I'm back to nature words again that have nothing to do with drilling. Why not the more descriptive and exciting -bwe "poke a hole in"? (This is a regular sound change, found in serial verbs, from the full form blube.) That would make the word wipwabbwe.Then, with the iterative (repeated) aspect infix -at-, it could be used in a sentence like

Wipwabbwatebebi.
I poked a bunch of holes in your skull.
(Poswa marks tense and both persons in its verbal suffixes.)

Pabappa:
Here, most likely, the same trick will work, in that I have a choice of how fancy I want to be with the morphemes. If I translate it the literal way, wibap means skull and I have a choice between the funny sounding pornobrel for "drill" (cognate to pumpel above; porno means "sharp, straight claw") and pipasam which is cognate to a word for nail. However, there is a difference: pornobrel simply means "worm", since worms often "drill" through objects, whereas pipasam also means woodpecker. So is trepanning more like having a woodpecker whacking away at your head with its beak or more like having a worm crawling around inside you? Probably neither, which is why I'm going to avoid the animal metaphors entirely and go with another verb meaning "to poke a hole in", which in this case is actually derived from one of the words for window, blupaupa. Pabappa would be less likely than Poswa to make a single compound word out of this, its aspect markers are suffixes rather than infixes, and it does not mark for person on its verbs, so the sample sentence for Pabappa looks quite different:

Poma wibapip blupaupadabi. Tu, mas panampa?
I made a bunch of windows in your skull. Do you like it?

-------------

next:
volcanic fissure, any opening of a volcano other than the dome
And now Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey with our weather report:
Image

Travis B.
Sumerul
Sumerul
Posts: 3570
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:47 pm
Location: Milwaukee, US

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Travis B. »

SoapBubbles wrote:next:
volcanic fissure, any opening of a volcano other than the dome
Proto-Tshyak "volcanic opening" (lit. "fire hole) tśôk lyôs [tɕɔk̚ ljɔs]
Old Tshyak " caok lyaoh [tɕɔk̚ ljɔh]
Old Mkroh " tśhwuǒkluò [tɕʷʰuə̌kluə̀]
Middle Tshyak " caok lyaoh/tsyáok lyèo [tɕɔ́k̚ ʎœ̀ə]
Middle Laeh Tshyak " caok lyaoh/tsyháok lyèo [tɕʰɔ́k̚ ljœ̀ə]

next: market
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

Travis B. wrote:next: market
khandlu [ˈxand.lu] "market" (from the root <kh-nd> "having to do with trade" + <-l-> "locative noun forming suffix")

Next word(s): mortar and pestle

User avatar
masako
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1731
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2004 4:31 pm
Location: 가매
Contact:

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by masako »

spanick wrote:next word(s): mortar and pestle
Kala: yampo - mortar (bowl for grinding with pestle); tlose - pestle; pound with a pestle

next: tedious; dull; slow

User avatar
Chengjiang
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 437
Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Davis, CA

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Chengjiang »

masako wrote:next: tedious; dull; slow
Undreve: gwandrá
Janaharian: vôngh
Luworese: kưmưtti
Common Gnomish: dwass
Chavakani: nyere

Next: rope burn (along with rope if you don't have it)
[ʈʂʰɤŋtɕjɑŋ], or whatever you can comfortably pronounce that's close to that

Formerly known as Primordial Soup

Supporter of use of [ȶ ȡ ȵ ȴ] in transcription

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a 青.

User avatar
Burke
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:55 am
Location: Red Sox

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Burke »

Chengjiang wrote:
Next: rope burn (along with rope if you don't have it)
Nawi: hwasa usoma -- ['xwa.sa 'u.so'ma] -- lit rope-red

xwasa comes from the root hw~s~ which deals with long things, pulling, etc. I will outline it in a future Nawi post for fun. Soma is inalienably possessed to form a new noun that intriniscally links the color to the rope.

Next: Flood
Formerly a vegetable

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

Burke wrote:Next: Flood
lala'tqanu /ˈla.laʔtˌqa.nu/ n. "flood"
lala'd- //ˈla.laʔd/v. "to flood"

Both derived from the reduplicated verb form of the root l-ʔd, with the general meanings of "river, to flow"


Next: to smoke (to preserve or cook meat by smoking)

User avatar
masako
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1731
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2004 4:31 pm
Location: 가매
Contact:

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by masako »

spanick wrote:Next: to smoke (to preserve or cook meat by smoking)
Kala: ipumya

ipu - dried meat; preserved fruit
-mya - causative (to do/make/cause ~)

next: social rapport; sociable

User avatar
Dama Diwan
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:42 am

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Dama Diwan »

masako wrote: next: social rapport; sociable
sina numo; "together good"; or
sina numa; "together well"; or
sina njumo "together good [marked as abstract noun]" or
swino "togetherness" or
ta tabo "human way - in between thing" or
to wan tabo "of people - in between thing".

next: feather with alternating colors, i.e. green then white then green then white and so on[/quote]
i kiwa jenon naje, nake, nibe, sake ka:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/omado.sosti.matiko

User avatar
Pabappa
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 210
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:51 pm
Location: the Peyron Apartments
Contact:

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Pabappa »

Dama Diwan wrote: next: feather with alternating colors, i.e. green then white then green then white and so on
I dont have a nice way of indicating exactly that, but I think that simply translating it as "striped feather" would work well, since there isn't really any other thing that that could mean. However, that means that this translation exercise will be one of the rare ones where I prefer to give a translation that does not just consist of a single word. There are still a few different ways I could go about this, though:

Poswa:
tombom šambi "Feather made of stripe(s)". Imprecise, but probably the best choice because it is easily understood.

tombom šampys "Feather colored like stripe(s)" This one could work if we assume that the Poswobs long ago created an independent derived word for "colored like stripes; having a striped pattern" and that that word hung around rather than being replaced by the essive case of the word for stripe. Lastly, I could use

šambotombom "stripefeather" and make it a single word after all. But I don't like this for some reason. Despite my usual love of large compound words, it doesnt quite feel right for me to have a separate compound just to denote one color of something, particularly an inanimate object such as a body part.

Pabappa:

tompom ampariel "Feather made of stripe(s)". Same as the first option above. As in Poswa, this is likely the best option.

tompom ampariosa The "colored like ..." infix is less used in Pabappa than in Poswa, and since Pabappa didn't retain the original word for stripe, it's unlikely that a word such as "ampariosa" would have ever been created. Lastly,

ampariadompom Pabappa has a rendaku-like process that voices the voiceless stops /p/ and /t/ between vowels (there is no /k/), and that would result in this word if the compound were a single word. But, again, Pabappa is even less likely than Poswa to want to use a single word here.

------------

to polish, scrub away stains
And now Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey with our weather report:
Image

User avatar
Burke
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:55 am
Location: Red Sox

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Burke »

SoapBubbles wrote:to polish, scrub away stains
Nawi : miku -- to polish, to grind | Comes from the m.kw root indicating grinding, fine grained things like sand, reflections, and white or brightness

Next: epiphany
Formerly a vegetable

User avatar
Frislander
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 836
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:34 am
Location: The North

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Frislander »

Burke wrote:Next: epiphany
Frislandian: reemvaasunem

From reem, "enlightenment", "detatchment", ABS-vaasu "to become" and -nem "gerundive/action-nominal suffix".

Next: to trace, follow the path of.
https://frislander.tumblr.com/

First known on here as Karero

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

Frislander wrote:Next: to trace, follow the path of.
palgna'h- /ˈpalg.naʔh/ "to trace, follow the path of" lit. "to follow along"

Next: to put to sleep

hwhatting
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 2315
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2002 2:49 am
Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by hwhatting »

spanick wrote:Next: to put to sleep
Tautisca: fópiten "to get / put someone to sleep, to make someone sleep" (causative of suften "to fall asleep")
Next: to serve

Travis B.
Sumerul
Sumerul
Posts: 3570
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:47 pm
Location: Milwaukee, US

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Travis B. »

I am used to "put to sleep" being a euphemism for kill, when spoken of animals killed (generally, but not always, as euthanasia) with sedatives.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

hwhatting
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 2315
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2002 2:49 am
Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by hwhatting »

Travis B. wrote:I am used to "put to sleep" being a euphemism for kill, when spoken of animals killed (generally, but not always, as euthanasia) with sedatives.
German has the same euphemism, einschläfern. But Tautisca fópiten cannot be used that way, although it can mean "knock s.o. out, render s.o. unconscious". It's not sufficiently usual among the Tautínai to put animals down with sedatives for them to have a special verb or expression for that.

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

Travis B. wrote:I am used to "put to sleep" being a euphemism for kill, when spoken of animals killed (generally, but not always, as euthanasia) with sedatives.
Travis, that's honestly the most common way for me to encounter it too, but in this case I was speaking in the sense of "put to bed." Inspired by Old English swebban and Old Norse/Icelandic svæfa. Probably could've been more specific but it looks like hwhatting got the gist of it.

Travis B.
Sumerul
Sumerul
Posts: 3570
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:47 pm
Location: Milwaukee, US

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Travis B. »

spanick wrote:
Travis B. wrote:I am used to "put to sleep" being a euphemism for kill, when spoken of animals killed (generally, but not always, as euthanasia) with sedatives.
Travis, that's honestly the most common way for me to encounter it too, but in this case I was speaking in the sense of "put to bed." Inspired by Old English swebban and Old Norse/Icelandic svæfa. Probably could've been more specific but it looks like hwhatting got the gist of it.
"Put to bed" is the usual usage I am familiar with in English with this meaning myself.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

Travis B.
Sumerul
Sumerul
Posts: 3570
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:47 pm
Location: Milwaukee, US

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by Travis B. »

Note that there is a usage of "put to sleep" that does not mean kill that I am used to, but this is where something puts one to sleep, not someone, like "that show puts me to sleep".
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

User avatar
spanick
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 121
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:35 am
Location: California

Re: Lexicon Building

Post by spanick »

hwhatting wrote:Next: to serve
tlal- "to serve; to work for, to worship" from the root tl-l from which also derives tlulu "slave"

Next word: relief

Post Reply