Arayaz's thread so that she doesn't flood the forum

[Khemehekis]

ỳlku nm. squirrel (sessile if dead)
ỳlku vi. to shoot a squirrel

fish -> Let's go fishing!
squirrel -> Let's so squirreling!

Zero-derivation bloodsport for the win!

[Arayaz]

I realized my romanization is ambiguous between [ɔ̃ə̯̃], [õə̯̃], and [ɔ̃ã̯] ─ they'd all be <oan>. So I've decided that all [õ] becomes [ɔ̃] (except where it becomes [õũ̯] and all [ã] becomes [ə̃].

[Arayaz]

I'm really enjoying the three-vowel sequences in this lang, so I'm adding another phoneme to the language: /ɲ/, which becomes [i̯] in all positions other than word-initially and after a nasal vowel, in which cases it becomes [ɲ ~ ni̯], romanized <ni>.

I'm also thinking about romanization ─ I dislike <sh> here, and I've been considering replacing <ni> and <sh> with <nı> and <sı>. Thoughts?

[Khemehekis]

I'm also thinking about romanization ─ I dislike <sh> here, and I've been considering replacing <ni> and <sh> with <nı> and <sı>. Thoughts?

Are you against using X or C for the alveolo-palatal sibilant? I use X in Hapoish, Quispe, Txabao, and Javartu.

[Arayaz]

I'm also thinking about romanization ─ I dislike <sh> here, and I've been considering replacing <ni> and <sh> with <nı> and <sı>. Thoughts?

Are you against using X or C for the alveolo-palatal sibilant? I use X in Hapoish, Quispe, Txabao, and Javartu.

Oooo, <x> could look quite nice. I usually dislike it for /ʃ/, but as in this case I think it tends more towards [xʲ] it could work very well. Thank you!

Also: I'm strengthening the inverse suffix to -ix.

[Khemehekis]

Are you against using X or C for the alveolo-palatal sibilant? I use X in Hapoish, Quispe, Txabao, and Javartu.

Oooo, <x> could look quite nice. I usually dislike it for /ʃ/, but as in this case I think it tends more towards [xʲ] it could work very well. Thank you!

You're welcome! Glad to be of help.

Yeah, using X for /ʃ/ has a Spanish/Portuguese/Basque/Indigenous Latin American look to it, plus it's an X-otic-looking letter in an English cont-X-t, so I like it quite a lot. Quispe, after all, is supposed to bring to mind Spanish, Basque, and Quechua (although the QU in Quispe is a /kw/, not a /k/ before front vowels).

[Arayaz]

Xúuuatxia Tense/Aspect

In Xúuuatxia, neither tense nor aspect is particularly important, and they are somewhat conflated.

The default, unmarked form is indefinite with regards to tense. The suffix -bon marks a past perfective tense, stating that an action or state has already reached its end. Meanwhile, the suffix -di marks a future tense, stating that the action or state has not yet come into effect. Both suffixes are atonal.

makouxìbon kon
[mʌ˧kou̯˧ʃi˩bɔ̃˧ kɔ̃˧]
ADJ-water-PST 1sg
I was wet (but I'm dry now).

makouxìdi kon
[mʌ˧kou̯˧ʃi˩di˧ kɔ̃˧]
ADJ-water-FUT 1sg
I'll be wet (and I'm dry now).

[_Just_A_Sketch]

<x> for an alveo

Are you against using X or C for the alveolo-palatal sibilant? I use X in Hapoish, Quispe, Txabao, and Javartu.

Oooo, <x> could look quite nice. I usually dislike it for /ʃ/, but as in this case I think it tends more towards [xʲ] it could work very well. Thank you!

You're welcome! Glad to be of help.

Yeah, using X for /ʃ/ has a Spanish/Portuguese/Basque/Indigenous Latin American look to it, plus it's an X-otic-looking letter in an English cont-X-t, so I like it quite a lot. Quispe, after all, is supposed to bring to mind Spanish, Basque, and Quechua (although the QU in Quispe is a /kw/, not a /k/ before front vowels).

<x> for an alveolo-palatal sibilant is one of my favorite uses for <x>. It reminds me of Mandarin, which uses <x> for /ɕ/ in pinyin. I also hate <x> for /x/, probably since I'm so used to the Mandarin use of <x>.

[TBPO]

<x> for an alveo

Are you against using X or C for the alveolo-palatal sibilant? I use X in Hapoish, Quispe, Txabao, and Javartu.

Oooo, <x> could look quite nice. I usually dislike it for /ʃ/, but as in this case I think it tends more towards [xʲ] it could work very well. Thank you!

You're welcome! Glad to be of help.

Yeah, using X for /ʃ/ has a Spanish/Portuguese/Basque/Indigenous Latin American look to it, plus it's an X-otic-looking letter in an English cont-X-t, so I like it quite a lot. Quispe, after all, is supposed to bring to mind Spanish, Basque, and Quechua (although the QU in Quispe is a /kw/, not a /k/ before front vowels).

<x> for an alveolo-palatal sibilant is one of my favorite uses for <x>. It reminds me of Mandarin, which uses <x> for /ɕ/ in pinyin. I also hate <x> for /x/, probably since I'm so used to the Mandarin use of <x>.

I am Polish, and I am surrounded by Indo-European languages, in which /x/ is always transcribed with <h>; so I like transcribing /x/ with <x>.

[Arayaz]

I am Polish, and I am surrounded by Indo-European languages, in which /x/ is always transcribed with <h>; so I like transcribing /x/ with <x>.

I can't think of a single Indo-European language in which /x/ is written <h>; it's usually <kh> or <ch> (or <j> in Spanish). And Polish is Indo-European too.

[Arayaz]

Toxèix Haio iu (osmánkoxia)
The Story of Haio (first part) ─ read part two here


Toxèidi kon Haio iu.
Maakán ak màylku Haio iu. Toxak mysý, katxíe nókìuan nyu: bysý xik nyu, ìaaix. Toxak ásos Haio iu nyu: ìaaix áxe.
Toxèbon máa iitua. Xisá iitua kouxì hy ak kanngak íoan. Kóon nyu, "Emasàfuk! Maakán iitua. Ásos nyu: oiù!"
Toxak ía, hafobon Haio iu; oukí nyu úxi táak, toxak àesubon ngitu nguk. Ibúbon ak kóon nyu: "Ía! O kuitu tà?" Kóon ngitu nyu: "Tòan kon. Eibúk xik kon, ak kanngakli kon tà. Óasoxix ngùoka?"
Toxak kóon Haio iu nyu: "Ásos kon nyu: ìaaix áxe." Toxak kóon ngitu maakáian nyu: "Etansàyk itxiktáaka hýxìuia nóoukí, ak toaxiix nyu, hỳihadi itxiktáaka hýxìuia nóoukí ak ìaaix xik oukíia tà. Toiudi kon. Toxak ùukli."


I will tell the story of Haio.
Haio was clever and nimble. And he was brave, except for one thing: he was scared of death. And so Haio wanted to never die.
His mother once told him a story about ngitu, who live in the water and offer trades with people. "But be careful!" she said. "The ngitu are crafty, and they intend to steal from you!"
But Haio snuck away during the new moon, and a ngitu came out. He saw it, and said, "Oh! Are you a ngitu?" The ngitu said: "I am. Do not look at me, and I will trade with you. What do you want?"
And Haio said, "I want to never die." So the trickster ngitu said: "Work for five months, and after that, you will live five months and not die during them. I will ensure that. And then it will happen again."

(Ngitu: a type of spirit that lives underwater and only comes out at night during the new moon because it hates to be seen, but sometimes offers trades to people)

To be continued...

Edit: Clarified some English wording.

Edit: Replaced ngituv (and inflected forms) with ngitu (and inflected forms).

Edit: I KEEP FORGETTING ALLOPHONY ;-;

Edit: Removed nyoki from the text, replacing it with constructions using toaxi.

Edit: I SUCK AT REMEMBERING ALLOPHONY -w-

[Kesshin]

"Work for five months, and then you will live five months and not die during them. I will ensure that. And then it will happen again."

So he ends up working forever, never to die? Clever!

[TBPO]

I am Polish, and I am surrounded by Indo-European languages, in which /x/ is always transcribed with <h>; so I like transcribing /x/ with <x>.

I can't think of a single Indo-European language in which /x/ is written <h>; it's usually <kh> or <ch> (or <j> in Spanish). And Polish is Indo-European too.

Oops...

[Arayaz]

"Work for five months, and then you will live five months and not die during them. I will ensure that. And then it will happen again."

So he ends up working forever, never to die? Clever!

I like that interpretation! But I'm realizing, my English translation was ambiguous. It's more "work for five months, and then I'll let you free for five months, during which you cannot die." And now that I realize the ambiguity, I'm thinking about what sort of adverb I might use here ... some sort of posterior marker, perhaps.

(Also, looking at a big block of text here has given me the opportunity to see more what the language looks like, and it's exactly the aesthetic I wanted. Big thanks again to Khemehekis for the suggestion to use <x>; had I used <sh>, it wouldn't have had nearly the right look. Some things I'm thinking about are whether to keep it as <kanngak> [when the first <n> isn't necessary, since nasal consonants only occur after nasal vowels (and word-initially)] and how much I like the <v> ─ I originally just didn't like coda /b/, and was just wondering what to elide lenite it to. Hm ... perhaps [u̯]!)

[Kesshin]

coda
elide

Forgive me for my beginnerism, but what do these mean? I've heard of a coda in music, but I don't think that applies here.

[Arayaz]

coda
elide

Forgive me for my beginnerism, but what do these mean? I've heard of a coda in music, but I don't think that applies here.

No problem! The coda is the consonant or series of consonants that ends a syllable. If a sound is elided, it is skipped over or deleted. I actually realized that "elide" in my sentence above was a mistake; I meant "lenite." Thanks for bringing my attention to that!

[Arayaz]

Just realized my phonotactics forbid the word ngituv! I'm fine with that, since I don't really like it. I'll replace it with ngitu, and edit the story.

Edit: Oh, and they prohibit my future suffix, -did. I'll replace that with -di.

[Arayaz]

I seem to love <x> too much; I've forgotten it wasn't a phoneme! At this point, it'll be simpler to just add it to the phoneme inventory.

(Also, Toxèix Haio iu - ostoaxiia is coming out tomorrow!)

[Arayaz]

Toxèix Haio iu (ostoaxiia)
The Story of Haio (second part) ─ read part one here


Kóon Haio iu nyu: "Íxke! Ak òiaixli nótansày kon?" Ásosbon xik ngitu nyu, ibúbon Haio iu, ak katxíebon. Toxak kóon ngitu nyu: "Àesu aiúk. Èaeisuk nóoukíeixiof nóoukí nyu, aiúk ixsú." Toxak kóon Haio iu nyu: "Okanngakli tà kon?" Toxak tòanmon.
Toxak hafobon Haio iu nóoukíexiof nóoukí nyu, aiúk ixsú. Àesubon ngitu, ak kóon nyu: "Okùuoka tà?" Masàfuu Haio iu, ak txìdìbon xúuan, ak kóon nyu: "Kùiixtu kon." Máknìbon, toxak ía àesubon ásos hy. Kóon nyu: "Ásos kon nyu: kanngakli tà kon."
Kóon ngitu nyu: "Okùuoka?" Toxak kóon Haio iu nyu: "Edátxi nyu, toiuix áxe nyu, tànsay nóuhỳiha nóuah kon." Toxak kóon Haio iu nyu: "Kanngak kon tà, ak tànsay yxìaaix nóuahtà."
Toxak kóon ngitu nyu, "Íxke. Toiudi kon." Toxak tòanmon.
Toxak ásosbon Haio iu nyu, oiùan, ak ía ─ kóon ngitu nyu: "Ìaiadi kon tà." Toxak fúanmoinx ousỳ ngitu nóasouxiu: kouxìkouxìix Haio iu. Ak ía! Toiubon ngitu nyu, ìaaix áxe Haio iu! Kouxìkouxìbon xik Haio iu, toxak fúanmon Haio iu òk, toxak ìaiabon nóuxòk Haio iu ngitu. Toxak toaxiixbon nyu: hỳiha Haio iu nóoukí ìaaix áxe ak tansày áxe.
Toxèbon kon Haio iu.


"That's great!" said Haio. "But will I die while I work?" The ngitu did not want Haio to notice that possibility, and ignored the question. The ngitu said, "The sun is rising. Come back tomorrow night." And Haio said, "Will you grant the trade?" And the ngitu did.
The next night, Haio snuck out. The ngitu emerged and said, "Who is that?" Haio was cautious and changed his voice and said, "I am Ìixtu." He was frantically scared, but then he had an idea. He said, "I want to trade something with you."
"What is it?" asked the ngitu. And then Haio said, "Make it so that I will never have to work for anyone else as long as I'm alive." And then Haio said, "It is a trade, so after I die, I will work for you."
And the ngitu said, "That is good. I will ensure it." And the ngitu did.
So then Haio intended to leave, but the ngitu said, "Now I will kill you." And the ngitu grabbed Haio's leg, intending to drown him, but Haio had been ensured to never die by the ngitu! Haio did not drown, and then he grabbed his spear and killed the ngitu with it. And he lived after that never dying or working.
I have told the story of Haio.


Note to self: nóasouxiu is nó-ásos-nyu. Nyu becomes iu after anything other nasal vowels, as per the phonotactics.

[Khemehekis]

I think it's great that you're writing a story in your conlang. Its grammar and lexicon will come to be developed in that way, to the point where you can actually say stuff in the language. Then the CBBizens can hold a Hóubenk conversation.