Rangyayo - an East Asian language of the elixir of life

[desmond]

琅野 – so, "jade fields"?

almost sounds like "elysian fields" or something.

I only noticed this because I recently learnt the kanji 野 as part of names such as 中野, 上野 and 武蔵野 in Tokyo.

Do you have a designated reading of the characters in Chinese/Korean/Japanese? It seems to come out as rouya in Japanese as far as I can tell...

Yes. 琅 precious stones, I assume it's jade 野 fields.
I did a quick research on "Elysian fields". What a coincident!

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In Sinitic mythology, Rangya Islands hold the secrets of elixir of life. There are magical fruits growing on the islands that can heal any disease, grant eternal youth, and even raise the dead.
Historically, various emperors in ancient China sent their alchemists to the eastern seas to find the fabled elixir, but to no avail. Historical text stated that Rangya was found instead.

vs

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Elysium or the Elysian Fields (Greek: Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, Ēlýsion pedíon) is a conception of the afterlife that evolved over time and was maintained by certain Greek religious and philosophical sects, and cults. Initially separate from the realm of Hades, admission was initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life.

琅野 is lángyě in Chinese, lòngyéh in Cantonese, rangya 랑야 in Korean, rouya ロウヤ in Japanese, and langdã in Vietnamese (here <d> is pronounced /j/).

[desmond]

Yes Desmond the first solution is the best I must also say.

By the way, when you do come up with an up-close map of Rangya, I will go apeshit. I'm trying to do this for my con-country right now as well.

Edit: I also thought I would mention, I very much like the location of Rangya, but I think it would be more realistic and able to maintain its independence if it were just a bit further east of the Ryukyu Islands, and possibly slighly larger in size (than what I assume it to be). This type of change in location could mean

1. The Sinitic mythological beliefs about Rangya would be more exotic, given its location further out in the Pacific
2. The country would better maintain its independence if not surrounded by Japan on one side and China on the other (unless of course it was a vassal state, in which case its proximity to China would help it retain independence from Japan, but as mentioned above this might lead to a Taiwan type situation)
3. It would have developed a more unique identity from China and Japan, keeping its language and customs (think Taiwan vs. Palau)

You could have a chain of small islands running from near Ryukyu further out; the largest islands would be further from Ryukyu; the early native settlers could have island-hopped via China > Taiwan > Ryukyu > Rangya or Korea > Japan > Ryukyu > Rangya. Such a scenario (especially the latter) also makes a case for Rangyayo's possible Altaic origins

Anyway, this is just my suggestions. Surely you know your concountry the best, so do what you think is right.

Thank you very much for the idea but I may pass this time for Rangya. However I will take your suggestion if I make a Micronesian conlang in the future

Reasons behind that are:
If Rangya is further out in the Pacific, it will be a bit too far away from the Sinosphere in order to borrow Chinese loanwords and from Korea to borrow hangul.
Also locating at the centre of East China Sea keeps Rangya away from the dangerous Pacific Ring of Fire. And having the archipelago of Ryukyu Islands between Rangya and Pacific Ocean as the natural "breakwater", helps reducing the damage of natural disasters like tsunami and typhoons to Rangya. *evil*
Moreover, Rangya can benefit from trades between China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan both in the old days and nowadays.

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[desmond]

To address the difficulty of typing Rangyayo, I would like to present the Online Rangyayo Input Method that I created just now. This is an attempt to make typing Yenmun (Korean hangul) and Hanji (Chinese characters) less painful.

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The screenshot above shows a user trying to type thuyoit for "土曜日 Saturday".

The romaji of the Rangyan pronunciations that users typed in are converted into relevant Yenmun (Korean hangul) and Hanji (Chinese characters) with phonetic methods. Homophones (much fewer homophones if you see words as a whole) found in the Rangyan language are listed for selection by the user from 1 to 0.

Note that the substitute key for <ts> is <c> and for <ü> is <v>.

[clawgrip]

Very interesting. It must have taken some time to program that.

[desmond]

Very interesting. It must have taken some time to program that.

Yeah, it took me a few hours to make it I can now use it to type Rangyayo Hanji and Yenmun when I'm not at home (assuming the machine I'm on is connected to the internet).

[desmond]

These example texts are translated into Rangyayo for a new featured conlang competition. I post them here as a record.

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[desmond]

Sound symbolic words

Sound symbolic words or mimetic words occur more often in Rangyan than in English. They are found in formal as well as vernacular language.
These words cannot all be considered onomatopoeia. Many mimetic words in Rangyan are for things that do not make any noise originally.
Mimetic words can be classified into three main categories:

• Phonomime or onomatopoeia (isengzhi 擬声詞 or iimzhi 擬音詞): words that mimic actual sounds; isengzhi refers to sounds made by living things, while iimzhi refers to sounds made by inanimate objects;

• Phenomime (ithaizhi 擬態詞): mimetic words to represent non-auditory senses;

• Psychomime (ijengzhi 擬情詞): mimetic words that represent psychological states or bodily feelings.

In Rangyan grammar, sound symbolic words function as adverbs, and most of them can be applied to only a handful of verbs or adjectives (heads).

Examples:

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[Jipí]

I like piripara :) Oh, hey, cf. German plappern.

[desmond]

I like piripara Oh, hey, cf. German plappern.

And plappern is almost like "blah blah"

[Bob Johnson]

pera peeeeeera~

[desmond]

pera peeeeeera~

As in Japanese perapera ぺらぺら (talkativeness in a negative sense or to chatter)?

[clawgrip]

ぺらぺら is not always negative. For example, 英語ぺらぺら Eigo perapera means 'speaking English fluently' and that only ever seems to be used in a positive way.

[desmond]

It's a great honour that Rangyayo has been voted as one of the featured conlangs on Conlang Wikia. I'm posting it here as a record. hehe...

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[desmond]

Counter words

In Rangyan, counter words can be used along with numbers to count things, actions, and events.
Unlike Japanese, Korean and Chinese, Rangyan numerals, if possible, can quantify nouns without counter words. Therefore to express the idea "two birds" in Rangyan one can either say pu ik tu haya ２翼두鳥 (lit. "two wing's bird"), haya i ik 鳥二翼 (lit. "bird two wing") or simply pu haya ２鳥 ("two bird"). Notice that native Rangyan number is used if the number comes before the head noun, while Sino-Rangyan number comes after the head noun. And here haya 鳥 means "bird", pu / i 二 is the number 2, and ik 翼 is the counter for birds. These counters are not independent words and always appear with a number (or question word) before them. If the number is unknown, a question word is used, most often ma 마, as in mameng 마名 "how many guests?", or maya 마夜 "how many nights?".

This is a selective list of some of the more commonly used counter words.

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[desmond]

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11: 1-2)

[Kaenif]

I also translated until the 2nd part, then was stuck.

[desmond]

"This language was once featured."

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"Thanks to its level of quality, plausibility and usage capabilities, it has been voted as featured."

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[desmond]

Some samples of the attempted ancient script of Rangyayo. The script is called nakuyatji 亀卜字.

[Bristel]

Very interesting, hope to see more examples and concordances.

[desmond]

List of Zangyong Hanji

The zangyong hanji (常用漢字, literally "frequently used Chinese characters") is the guide to Chinese characters announced officially by the Rangyan Ministry of Language and Education.

Please click on the links below to read the list in details.

• List of Zangyong Hanji on Wikia.com; or

• List of Zangyong Hanji on Wikkii.com

[desmond]

셔록・홈쓰 Shyerok Homzü (Sherlock Holmes)
影두遊戯 Ahe tu Yuhi (A Game of Shadows)
2011年12月 i-chen-zhip-it nen zhip-i wet (December 2011)

[desmond]

Rangyan New Year, darin-oku 新린年, is the most important and popular holiday and festival in Rangya. It is the Rangyan New Year marking the arrival of spring based on the Chinese calendar, a lunisolar calendar.

Darin-oku is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, though exceptions arise due to the one-hour time difference between Rangya and China. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the Lunar calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Many Rangyan prepare for Darin-oku by cooking special holiday foods and cleaning the house. There are a lot of customs practiced during Darin-oku, such as visiting a person's house on the first day of the new year, ancestral worshipping, wishing New Year's greetings, giving lucky money to children and elderly people, and opening a shop.

Darin-oku is also an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. During Darin-oku, Rangyan visit their relatives and temples, forgetting about the troubles of the past year and hoping for a better upcoming year.

Below is the personal New Year Message for the year of the Golden Snake from His Majesty Thenbong Kijang 天奉紀奘 to his people.

[desmond]

漢源辭林 かんげんじりん 한원사림 Hán Nguồn Từ Lâm 한원씨림
© The Compilation of Sinoxenic Words by Desmond Lee

[desmond]

I've written the lyrics of the national anthem of the Kingdom of Rangya today and I would like to share it with fellow conlangers here

"Eyu rin tu agoju", literally means "the shining pearl in the sea", is the national anthem of Rangya. The lyrics is written in the traditional form of Rangyan poems which consists of 33 syllables in five phrases of 5, 7, 9, 7, 5 syllables respectively.

志슫士、
美기山다川、
我等두国神佑르。
海中두明珠、
久々임照브。

Romanisation:
Pago süt omu,
tuki ugu ta ruru,
khite tu migu iru korü.
Eyu rin tu agoju,
nono'im alpü.

English translation:
People with aspiration,
beautiful mountains and rivers,
and our homeland are blessed by gods.
The shining pearl in the sea,
it shines forever.