The Dailies. May 24, 2023

The Dailies. May 24, 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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7 thoughts on “The Dailies. May 24, 2023

  1. Not gonna lie, I am feeling good about today’s report, especially because of the bit at the end!

    hoisenío (n) guard, watchman/watchwoman. Might be more in use for bodyguards and cityguards than prison guards, though I am unsure.

    yēra (v) farms, cultivates, grows in the transitive sense – and indeed this is originally a very old causative of the rote in yende, ‘grows’ (intransitive sense)
    chengene (n) farmland; any cultivated land

    raka (adj) salt, salty
    rakayos (n) salt
    ko-raka (n) saltiness, salinity
    rakale (v) salts (sthg); Lao bedu di rakaleti. She salted her food.

    lomi (adj) sweet, sugary (primarily about taste rather than behaviour)
    kolomi (n) sweetness
    Pōlomi lit. ‘sweet sea’; a poetical name for the great lake of Onemada on whose northern shore the city of Meren lies, right where the great river Olo meets the lake

    pōsheng (n) pearl, lit. ‘sea gleam’

    megi (v) sneaks, walks carefully – note, does not have as negative connotations as the English word “sneaks” seems to have
    megyo (n) 1) one who sneaks 2) scout 3) spy 4) tracker, hunter

    tsutsu (n) (approx.) reed/s (in the botanical sense). In compounds sometimes the single tsu- is used.
    This word introduces /ts/ as word-initial consonant. I hesitated for a moment (is this too Japanese-inspired? I asked myself), but ultimately went with it. I like the pointyness of that sound.

    tsumegyo (n) Lit. ‘one who sneaks in the reeds’. The name of a specific type of fish, not very large but quite tasty. Quick, likes to hide among the reefs in shallow waters, diving in and out, even eating young underwater reed shoots.

    Tsumegyo was also the first Winter Name of my main Beldreni POV character. Her grandparents gave it to her after she had arrived into the city of Meren for the first time, being then the equivalent of ca three Earth years. The name was soon shortened to Tsume. While the word has no semantic connection to her birth name Tanga (stone), her grandparents picked it because the little girl loved eating grilled fish on the journey south, she was small and spirited and once got lost into the reeds, and even the dark reddish tint of her hair at the time reminded them of the colour of the tsumegyo’s tail. The girl liked the name well enough, especially its shorter form, and when she returned for the city the next Winter, being then the equivalent of 13 Earth years old, she was called Tsume-Tanga for several months before it became time for her to pick her Shadow Name. Like all Beldreni youngsters, she would carry her chosen Shadow Name until her coming of age ceremony, when at last she would choose a name for her adulthood.

    1. Sample sentence (familiar style):
      Tsutsu ki salo lö tume tsumegyo batta hommos. Testa/Ipan* mamana sa bo!

      This morning, we (excl.) caught five tsumegyo fishes in the reeds. They were very good!

      (Testa is inanimate 3rd person plural, but can also sometimes be used for animals, while ipan is animate. I think for fishes it might come down to regional differences or even ideosyncratic/contextual differences that determine which 3rd plural form gets used.)

       

    2. I absolutely love all of these, but especially that story at the end! I really, really love that!

      That said, posheng is just the prettiest word.

      1. A belated thank you very much!! (It’s cumbersome for me to reply here on mobile, and currently I find it more cumbersome than usual to use my personal computer as well.) I like pōsheng a lot, too.

        1. Oh, yes, I don’t even bother posting if I’m strictly on mobile, which is part of my uh… spotty presence. You are amazing for doing it all. I genuinely love your languages so much though and I’m so glad you do post often. I love reading them.

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