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.
Lexember is a game with the purpose of expanding the lexicon of one's conlang, with an added social dimension. It was first played in December 2012, mostly on Twitter, but I think it should work well on a forum too. The rules are simple: For the duration of one month, every participant will create and publish one word per day, ideally with some short notes about etymology, semantics, or usage, possibly augmented by a glossed example sentence. There will be a Topic of the Week (usually a fairly broad semantic domain) in order to encourage the creation of several semantically related words at a time; however, this topic is optional and you can always choose to create words of a different semantic domain instead. Whether or not you (or others) adhere to the current topic, everyone is of course encouraged to comment on other participants' words, or to let oneself be inspired by them.
If you want to join the game, simply post your Lexember contributions in this thread. You can also use various social media instead or in addition: There will be #Lexember hashtags on Twitter and Google+, and some people are probably going to publish Lexember words on their conlanging blogs as well.
Esaxa nzɔ nzukatu ɔ səmi mvunɛ. Olexa ño u ira salaspo. EMPH.AUX-3PL>3 TOP.NOM tomato INDEF.ACC mildew hold // OBL.AUX-1PL>3 as.3 INDEF.NOM trash discard
“There’s mildew on these tomatoes. We’ll have to throw them away as trash.”
EDIT:
It turns out I already had a word for ‘junk, rubbish, useless things’ in Buruya Nzaysa: gastu, borrowed from Miwan gwāstu ‘dump’. The main semantic difference between these words is that ira refers to things that are not usable (anymore) for their usual purpose or that don’t have a purpose at all (e.g. rotten food, inedible parts of a plant or animal, or a tool that’s broken beyond repair = things that must be dumped), whereas gastu can also refer to things that are strictly speaking still usable but considered pointless to use (e.g. a tool that doesn’t really make the current task much easier, or a contract that’s not worth the paper it’s written on = things that would better be dumped [but possibly can't be done away with just yet]).
Markie sue deamee doue vekanae ie det. /ˈmarkɪ sə dɛɣmɛ dəʊ ˈβɛknə j dɛt/
Mark under push_into but not:community COP good
Mark may try to fit in but he's not one of us.
Lexical 10th of the Nefarious Bandit, from Salenzian:
arukokobu [ʌʁɯkokoˈbɯ], "zodiac, constellation, astrological sign", from Old Salenzian arhucaccabus, from Ancient Prophan αρ῾υκακκαβος, from a Ticonderan Jamic source, meaning "months and stars"
Lexember 1st:
Zukish (as it's the language that needs the most lexicon right now...)
'wuä [ʔʊːʔe] (n., f): Mother, from Classical Zukish wu'ä [wuʔaː], ultimately from Proto Desert-Coastal ŋuepaː with ŋue being a kinship prefix and paː from baby talk
Plural form is 'wuäen [ʔʊːʔeʔɛn]
'wume [ʔʊːmɛ] (n., m): Father, from Classical Zukish wumë [wumeː], ultimately from Proto Desert-Coastal ŋuemaː with ŋue being a kinship prefix and maː from baby talk
Plural form is 'wumen [ʔʊːmɛn]
Last edited by Lyhoko Leaci on Tue Dec 03, 2013 2:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Zain pazitovcor, sio? Sio, tovcor.
You can't read that, right? Yes, it says that.
Shinali Sishi wrote:"Have I spoken unclearly? I meant electric catfish not electric onions."
My first word for Lexember, and the second actual word created in my "Novemberlang". (yes, it's unnamed so far)
nene [nənə] (n.) 'mother' poss. related to Proto-Takayo nigi [niᵑgi]
Derived terms: neneku [nənəku] (n.) 'motherhood' (nene +-ku derivational suffix 'condition or state of being') hewnene [həwnənə] (n.) 'great mother', honorific title used toward another person nwurnene [nwurnənə] (n.) 'this terrible mother', a pejorative title used by oneself to indicate humility (nwur- despective affix + ~) nenera [nənəʁa] (adj.) 'motherly, like a mother' (~ + 'adjectivizer suffix that denotes having the quality of something')
and I worked on another word out of being somewhat motivated for a few minutes:
kura (n.) man
kuraku (n.) manhood
kurara (adj.) manly, mannish (like a man)
nwurkura (n.) a terrible man, self-referential pejorative title
hewkura (n.) a great man, honorific title used for others, not oneself
[bɹ̠ˤʷɪs.təɫ] Nōn quālibet inīquā cupiditāte illectus hoc agō Yo te pongo en tu lugar... Taisc mach Daró
Inspired by Bristel's kura, Proto-O now has *kwr [kwa] "be male".
Derived terms:
- *kwer [kweʁ] "man, male"
- *kjwr [kjuʁ] "become a man; make a man out of s.o."
- *hkwr [aɣwa] "make a man out of s.o."
The difference between *kjwr and *hkwr is a fine one. Morphologically *kjwr is a transitive verb, but certain verbs in Proto-O (typically stative ones with a noun referent) can be used as reflexives/autobenefactives. Additionally, *kjwr is used with non-sentient subjects (e.g., "the war made a man out of him"), whereas *hkwr can be used with a sentient subject (e.g., "his father made him a man"—think "took him hunting", "took him fishing", "took him hiking", &c.).
Doing both Lexember 1ˢᵗ and Lexember 2ⁿᵈ in same post because I missed the first one.
Lexember 1ˢᵗ
tan [ˈtɒn] v tr eat
This is a relatively uneventful word which is also not in line at all with this week's topic – categories, structures and relationships – but I shall make use of the rich participle system Rant possesses to create two new words which fit the topic much better.
Using the passive participle suffix -ᵃn, I get tanan “food”, or more precisely “what is eaten”, which covers any edible foodstuff eaten by some people out there in the world.
However, there is also the utilitative participle-et, which yields tanet “food”, or “what is to be eaten”. However, tanet has a different meaning from tanan because it solely includes foods found in traditional Rant cuisine, while tanan has a wider meaning which includes food from foreign cuisines.
Lexember 2ⁿᵈ
véy [ˈɸeːɥ] v tr to parent
This one is also not in line with the weekly topic, but the participle system again jumps in to create véyag “parent” using the active participle suffix -ag.
I wanted to try this, but I don't have a fully-developed language yet, so I decided to make one specifically for this so that I am forced to create some words for it.
Anyway.
DECEMBERLANG (NAME UNDECIDED):
Lexember 1st: papi (v., 3rd person singular present) "he is the father (of...)"
The noun for "father" is papa. Nouns can behave just like verbs by stacking on the affixes, dropping the last vowel if necessary. The citation form of the verb is the 3rd person singular present, marked by the null subject prefix and the present tense suffix -i.
Lexember 2nd: kuno (n.) "wood"
This word isn't too interesting by itself, but it gives me a chance to explore the categories/structures/relationships derivatives. So here's some derivatives of wood: kuni, "be (made of) wood" kunoya, "wooden" (adj.) mikuni, "he/she/it causes to be made of wood," or "he/she/it makes (something) out of wood"
Putting these together, we can make the highly-repetetive sentence: kunoya rihóy kunojá mikunwe kuno-ya rihó-y kuno-já Ø-mi-kuno-we-Ø
wood-ADJ house-ACC\DEF wood-INS\DEF 3s-CAUS-wood-REC.PST-PERF
"He/she/it made the wooden house out of/with wood (recently)."
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet." -- Vladimir, Waiting for Godot
"Nonsense! Time enough to think of the future when you haven't any future to think of." -- Prof. Higgins, Pygmalion
Lexember 1: (-)tss [ts̩s] means type, kind, or form. It's related to another common word, tuss [ˈtʏss̩], which was—or would have been—*tsss, but retained its vowel for disambiguation. Both derive from Old Msérsca tusupiece, thing. tss is often suffixed onto nouns or verbs as an attributive, as in cemtssmasculine (compare cemíamanly) and eáratssbellicose. It is also used in a good number of compound nouns, like cemeatssethny and smorotssoriginal version. It is only occasionally used on its own. tuss can refer to just about any moving part on a machine—gears, cogs, cams, axles, pistons, etc.—as well as to machines or tools in general, including in compounds: trírtusspair of scissorstáltussmouth (informal, akin to English trap or piehole) lantartusspropulsion device. It is also used for poker chips.
Lexember 2: naeoir [ˈnaːwɪɹ̝~naːʏɹ̝] originally meant to be born, but is now more often used figuratively for causal or categorical links, as in fóstn dá naeoit or ms fóst naeoitout of goodwill, as a favor, cén dá naeoitsomeone's responsibility, and eócet naeoiédeajoint development.
Last edited by äreo on Sat Dec 21, 2013 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
stative verb: "to be the same as", "to be similar to" (usually implies a close correspondence in some salient category with no similarly salient differences in competing categories; but does not claim that the two arguments are identical)
Lexember 1 for my new language, variously known as Aa, Ngolu and Ilyara.
nini(-) ○ NOM is a <mother> <aunt> of ACC / PART; NOM <mothers> <takes care of> ACC; NOM is <motherly> towards ACC
nana(-s) ○ NOM is a <father> <uncle> of ACC / PART; NOM is a <father figure> to ACC
Nini and nana refer to any female or male relative, respectively, of one's parents' generation. With the possessor in the accusative case, the implication is about care and raising, with the partitive case (≈ inalienable genitive), it is merely an indication of kinship.
For example, a boy, pointing out his father, would say ...
Nana ni ja muja tio
[na.ˈna.ni.ʒa.mu.ˈʒa.tʃo]
nana(s) ni ja(s) muja(d) tio(n)
be.father ACC.1s.ANIM 3s.DEF.MASC.REL be.man be.that3
"That man over there is my father/uncle."
... but as a grown man he would say ...
Nana's una ja muja tio
[na.ˈna.suˈna.ʒa muˈʒa tʃo]
nana(s) una(s) ja(s) muja(d) tio(n)
be.father PART.1s.MASC 3s.DEF.MASC.REL be.man be.that3
"That man over there is my father/uncle."
A boy would use unu, (PART.1s.ANIM) to refer to his father, or an uncle who takes no part in raising him.
Derivatives:
nigaa(-d) ○ NOM is <Ningaa> [from nini + aa 'world mother']
Ningaa is the Aa goddess of creation, life and femininity. The Aa believe their hollow cylindrical word, in which they live on the inner surface, to be the inside of her womb.
_____________________________________________
Lexember 2 omo(-d) ○ NOM is a pair of <eyes> belonging to PART, which <looks at> ACC; PART <looks at> <watches> ACC xeva(-s) ○ NOM is <visible> to DAT; NOM is <[bseen[/b]> by DAT; DAT <sees> NOM
One man to another man:
Xeva was ene.
[ʃe.ˈva.wa.se.ˈne]
xeva(s) wa(s) ene(s)
be.seen NOM.2s.MASC DAT.1s.MASC "I can see you."
From klat, "belly; to embrace, trust," and kqam "enemy, rival, one who has wronged you"
This is a rather imprecise translation of the Yipta term, which describes a participant in a relationship that is paradoxically both positive an antagonistic. To act as a klatkqam toward another is to consistently challenge, criticize, and embarrass that person with the intention of forcing them to recognize their weaknesses, teaching them humility, and helping them to grow as individuals.
Although such behavior may appear to be cruel to an outside observer, the relationship between a klatkqam and his or her target is consensual and built on a foundation of trust and understanding between the two individuals. Indeed, such a relationship is considered every bit as positive and intimate as that between friends or lovers, and individuals who form such a bond are considered to be fortunate to have done so.
A klatkqam and his or her "target" are always of the same gender; it is considered highly inappropriate for a person to attempt to initiate such a relationship with someone of the opposite gender. Likewise, one may not act as a klatkqam toward a sibling, child, or grandchild, though uncles and aunts frequently form such a relationship with favored nephews and nieces.
Partners in the relationship are often of differing ages, in which case the klatkqam is always the elder of the two and it is considered inappropriate for the younger partner to return the elder's jabs in kind. Many, however, consider it preferable for a klatkqam to be roughly the same age as his target, in which case the relationship is usually reciprocal. Same-age klatkqam relationships often last throughout the participants' entire lives, while different-age relationships usually end around the time that the younger member gets married or has his or her first child.
