The Dailies. April 22, 2023
Did you work on your language today? Create any new rules of grammar or syntax? New progress on a script? New words in your lexicon?
On the other hand, do any excavating or reading or enjoying stuff you’ve already created? Do you have any favorites to share?
How did you conlang today?
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2 thoughts on “The Dailies. April 22, 2023”
For Beldreni:
nandulai (n) 1) spiral; a loanword from the old Tomona language 2) a form of poetry that is constructed in a pattern that is nearly but not entirely circular 3) sometimes also used for certain prose stories with structural similarities to the aforementioned “spiral poems”
dā ho kikujana lit, ‘road’s story’. Perhaps the most common way of referring to a tale/legend that only gets told in its full length when you are on a long journey, within people of the same travelling party. Naturally the most common times of telling such stories are on the Long Journey North in spring (known as Alet in Beldreni) and on the Long Journey South in autumn (known as Anet). In English I would like to use a loose translation and call these stories “The Walking Tales”. They are frequently longer, more intricate versions of tales that often get told at other times but then only in their shorter forms. Some are adventures using characters from well-known stories, and some are wholly unique in both plot and cast.
There is, for the Beldreni, no real taboo against recording any of the Walking Tales in writing, and several of the stories do exist in manuscript form… but not in print form. Because just as the stories are not supposed to be told when you’re not on a long journey, they’re not supposed to be written down at other times either. And you can’t really use a printing press when you’re on a foot-journey across a whole continent for months on end, and so is everyone else.
You may also see Alet ho kikujana and Anet ho kikujana for these Walking Tales, and the compound komuyakiko. Komuya = ‘travelling on foot’, kiko = ‘something that is told’ (usually the word kiko does NOT refer to fictional stories, but this compound is a potential exception. Although I should add that legends, clan histories, and other histories purporting to be retellings of true events may also be part of The Walking Tales.)
So not only do I love the IDEA of walking tales, I also love the idea of they only get written down while walking, so no print versions! Delightful!