#conlang guide | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sentistrange · 2 years

Text

Conlang Tips & Info

@typotripprr asked about this, but it would be way too long to comment (lol).

Some Basic Notes

I think the first thing you should ask yourself is this : will it be for a fictional world or for the modern day?

This is important because if it's used for a nation/group in a fictional setting, you need to think about what sounds speakers can make (pitch for rodent-inspired characters, clicks for aliens, etc.). And if you are solely using this language for specific scenes, then you really only need to create words for those moments. You’d need words specific for that world, probably without a direct translation for extra realism.

If you're using this for the modern world and everyday use, then you'll need to add words we use day-to-day in the present (car, computer, soda, etc.). However, you can make combo words to make something new or the same words with multiple meanings.

You can also take inspiration from a lot of languages, but don't clutter them. My first conlang, Sukoig Nohaas (lit. Star Sound/Language) has been described as sounding like Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Polish, and quite a few others, but I actually didn't take inspiration from any of them. But it is a language that can be used IRL.

The Letters & Sounds

This is something you should start with, as it's the foundation of your words.

You can start with these kinds of charts :

But personally, they're too complex and complicated for me, so I stick with basic, "a = ah, e = eh, i = ee, etc." which works fine.

Think about the sounds letters make. In English, "c" can be "k" or "s", but in Indonesian, "c" is "ch", and in Chinese, "c" is a mix of "s" and "z" (but that depends on dialect). You can choose to have certain letters with the same sound, but how the word is spelt changes which one is used. Or you can remove one entirely. In Gaelic, there is no "k", and they always use "c" for that sound.

If you can't decide what letters you want, you can do a couple things. If you have Scrabble, grab a random bunch of pieces and use those letters or find random letter generators/assign numbers to letters and use a random number generator. You can also choose words/names and take those letters. My second conlang, Kikke Molmi (lit. Name Language), only uses the letters in my full name : a, e, i, o, u, j, k, l, m, r, s.

Also, we have letters that make different sounds when put together. In Gaelic, "bh" makes a "v" sound. In Sukoig Nohaas, "sg" makes "sh", "vg" makes "th", and "gh" makes "ch".

But if you're making your own alphabet or using a non-Latin real script, you can have separate letters for the sounds. In Japanese, "し" is "shi" and "ち" is "chi".

While it doesn’t have special letters, this is Kikke Molmi’s script (based on things I like) :

Letter Order

This can be important or it can’t matter at all. Having a specific formula for letter order helps the language stay congruent, but your language doesn't need to be.

For making new words with a specific order, there is a website called Awkwords that a lot of people use. Using Kikke Molmi as an example, it looks like this :

(Note : V = Vowel, C = Consonant, N = Nasal, but you can add/remove.)

And by doing this, you can choose words in that order or random.

Some people just make up random orders. Using Sukoig Nohaas as an example :

Stet angha nen biirn'mius nen. Gholu stet haram sgapa ferharma nen yaun opur sgri (lyrics from a cover I made of a song called Still (Piano Ver.) by Rua feat. K. It's 1:15-1:25).

Grammar, Pt. 1

Okay, this part's a bit tricky.

You'll see examples using "S", "O", and "V", which means "Subject", "Object", "Verb". They'll be in the form of SVO, SOV, OVS, etc.

Examples :

English, SVO : The woman plays the piano.

Japanese, SOV : 私は猫が好きです。(lit. I cat like. Means, "I like cats".)

Ancient Middle Egyptian, VSO (some are supposed to stack) : 𓇋𓅱𓅠𓅓𓈖𓀀𓋴𓏭𓏞𓀀 (lit. Found the scribe her. Means, "The scribe found her".)

Sukoig Nohaas uses OVS and Kikke Molmi uses VOS.

Additionally, if you're using a new alphabet, which way do you write it? Latin sentences are left-to-right, up-to-down, but Chinese sentences are (traditionally) up-to-down, right-to-left. Sukoig Nohaas is written in Latin order, but Kikke Molmi is written left-to-right, down, right-to-left, down, and so on. This was inspired by Atlantean from Atlantis: The Lost Empire (my favorite Disney movie).

(This is the sentence shown in Grammar Pt. 2.)

Grammar, Pt. 2

Next, you need to think about when things like time/tense, adjectives, prepositions, and amounts. Using Kikke Molmi as an example, the full order is :

Time - Location - Verb - Amount (+1, +2) - Adjective - Object - Amount - Adjective - Subject.

So a full sentence would be :

Liklu osura rasja orki aska askok ku (lit. Lunchtime eat dead dog happy cat. Means, “During lunchtime, the happy cat eats the dead dog”).

But are you going to form these things? Maybe you don't need adjectives or tenses or pronouns. Kikke Molmi has no tense (as you may have noticed) nor pronouns, as it uses names only and a term for the "unknown person" if the name is unknown. So no I/you/us/he/she/they/it.

As opposed to Sukoig Nohaas, which depends on root words and affixes.

For example, the root word "zusiefaur" means "romantic love", so "le'zusiefaur" is "lover" (le' is a person), "me'zusiefaur" is "to love" (me' is a verb marker, and then uses a suffix for tense) and ner’zusiefaur means “romantically lovable” (ner’ is an adjective marker). So these two languages are very different when it comes to that.

Also, Kikke Molmi’s number system are in the form of +1, +2, +3, but use symbols with 1 stroke for +1, 2 strokes for +2, etc., which can be confusing

Creating a Lexicon

When creating your lexicon, think about *what* it's for. In fantasy/sci-fi languages, focus on specific scenes and terminology. As for everyday use, I personally make words as I need them or find a list of words and fill them all out. You should definitely keep them on an online document or notebook and if you want to use it IRL, it's a good idea to make flashcards/quizzes to memorize.

Slang is a good thing to add. English uses “fruity” in reference to being gay, while Spanish uses, “Tener pluma.”

An example of Sukoig Nohaas slang is, “ner’nemmia ner’nuun fomaasg,” which means, “a dusty old book.” This is slang for someone who is outdated and shuns modern technology-- basically a boomer.

Actually Writing Things

You can easily look up "conlang exercises" and poems, but if you want a *real* challenge, translate a book.

As I showed before, you can also make song covers. Keeping the same amount of syllables is hard, though, so I separate each syllable, count them, and find my own words that match and share the meaning. It's tricky, though, and you'll need a decent amount of words to do so. Sometimes you need to make new words to fit it.

It's tough at the beginning, but it definitely gets easier the more you practice.

Prompts

Here are some prompts to get you started :

Pick 3 random vowels and 8 random consonants.

Choose 5 random or your favorite Pokémon and use those letters.

Start every syllable with a vowel and end it with 2 consonants (same or different).

Take real words and invert/scramble for a new word.

Use the first 2 letters of 6 people you know.

Only use the letters of your full name. (Credit : @/conlangprompts)

Find three random items and use those letters for a word.

And prompts for scripts :

Use your favorite things as letters.

Make every letter have a swirl.

Only use boxes and circles.

Draw shapes with your eyes closed and use those as letters.

Helpful Sources for Info, Prompts & Help

(YouTube) Biblaridion

(YouTube) Artifexian (Inspired Sukoig Nohaas)

(Tumblr) conlangprompts (Inspired Kikke Molmi)

(Site) Awkwords

(Site) Ogden's Basic English

(Site) Arth(aey)

r/conlangs

Conclusion

Making a conlang seems daunting and intimidating at first, but it's super fun! I came up with Kikke Molmi in less than 10 minutes. Creating a language for a fictional world can be a lot harder because you need to obey certain rules, but Awkwords really helps with that! Don't stress and work at your own pace. Let your creativity flow, even if you don't see yourself as creative.

I hope this helps. And remember, don't stress and have fun!

#conlang #constructed language #fictional language #conlang tips #conlang prompts #conlang guide #ask #somewhat sorta

25 notes · View notes

jackdaw-kraai · 1 year

Text

Everyone giving suggestions on my Quick ‘n Dirty Brute Force Conlang post to Do It Better™: you missed the point, you missed the point, you missed the point, I don’t want to do it better, I don’t want to ask people to do it for me, I don’t want to do syntax or grammar or have a website help me out, I want to struggle my way through with incorrect technique and horrible construction and structure and ignoring all best practices and with all curse words and swears and begrudgingly discover the intrinsic wonder of a foreign, alien culture while figuring out what would be important to them, what would be annotated, how they would think because of their language and how their language would reflect how they think. And I want to hate every moment of it.

Every single last horrible moment of it.

#conlanging #conlang #guides verse #the guides verse #writing #worldbuilding

72 notes · View notes

antique-symbolism · 11 months

Text

A BRIEF FAMILY HISTORY OF THE MAGICAL MUNDANE || a contemporary fantasy

Jacket Asanbosam has eagerly awaited their father's Sanguine Quarter celebration ever since they were a little kid. A vampire's 250th anniversary is already the biggest blowout a magical family could throw, and with the Asanbosams, every event is a boisterous family reunion. There's just one problem -- obviously, Jacket's sister Tala is invited, too.

What better way for Jacket to distract from the impending anxiety of confronting their estrangement than to invite their best friends Holly and Bash as their +1 and +2? Turning the roadtrip into a sightseeing tour of magical America will be more than enough to get their mind off their troubles with Tala, but the three friends will soon find that the Asanbosams aren't the only family with secret tensions bubbling below the surface.

#FINALLY wrote a summary for this reworked wip!#some of you will remember this as ccgccl/cat and cleo's guide to cross-country liminality #unfortunately I have completely written out cat and cleo so that title obviously wasn't going to work anymore #weird how sometimes you write a whole novel and parts of its sequel and then you realize the story isn't actually about the main characters #but about their weird friends having family problems #I'm open to questions about any of the characters; the setting; the plot; whatever!#I'm also going to be conlanging for this one so feel free to ask about that too!#abfhmm #abfhmm intro

23 notes · View notes

sevenines · 3 days

Text

i dont think there's enough appreciation for su's alien language not being just a substitution cypher and instead having its own system of symbols completely unique from english

#steven universe #i love looking through the gem glyph guide on the su subreddit #and getting lost in it because it is BEAUTIFUL #need steven sugar to release the translation notes NOWWW #this post is very much inspired by seeing contemporary shows' written conlangs #and seeing them just have replacements for the alphabet like noooo i know the alternative takes much more time #but cmon

6 notes · View notes

akaessi · 2 years

Text

the linguist in me gets so peeved about conlanguages that don't have conwritingsystems but maybe I'm neurotic

*Clarification in the notes*

#fantasy writing #writing guides #worldbuilding #conlang #linguistics #linguist problems #dark acadamia quotes #dark academia #chaos academia #light academia #goblin academia #university #study #writing tips #seriously stop taking ancient writing systems and just adding like a line here and there #am I being salty?

78 notes · View notes

lexiconga · 11 months

Text

New Domain, Same App

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Lexiconga's domain name has been changed to https://lexiconga.com. While I prefer the old lexicon.ga address, I don't believe I'm going to be able to reclaim the domain for a while as control of the .ga registrar is being settled (though I'll definitely be on the lookout for it!).

The Lexiconga app remains exactly the same, and you can use your same login credentials to access your same dictionaries if you created an account.

Recovering Local-Only Dictionaries

If you did not create an account and your dictionary is only saved locally, there may still be a way to get your dictionary and import it back into lexiconga.com! Unfortunately, this will only work if you have been using Lexiconga on a browser that can access its Developer Tools.

1. Visit https://lexicon.ga

The page will either look weird and say "You are OFFLINE" OR your browser will say something like "This site can’t be reached. lexicon.ga’s server IP address could not be found." This is fine.

2. Right click the page and click "Inspect" from the menu

This will bring up the Developer Tools in most browsers that use Chromium or Firefox.

3. Click the "Application" tab and find "Local Storage" in the sidebar

At the top of the developer tools are tabs. Sometimes "Application" can be hidden within a button double arrows.

4. Copy & save the data

All your dictionary data and settings are stored in local storage. Make note of the key names and copy the JSON data into a text file.

5. Paste the data into lexiconga.com

Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the new domain, and when you see the empty local storage data, double-click in the key area and type the key of the data (either "settings" or "dictionary"), then in the value area, paste the data you copied eariler.

6. Refresh the page and continue as normal

If you did it correctly, your old dictionary should appear immediately as if nothing ever happened!

Please let me know if you run into any issues with this process, but if you copy and paste precisely, it shouldn't be any trouble.

#update #Lexiconga #conlanging #constructed languages #conlangs #tool #web development #webdev #internet #helpful #guide

7 notes · View notes

fremosura · 7 months

Text

The Lussarian Ministry of Education (me) is proud to announce the first installment of the Guide to Learning Lussarian.

It features pronunciation and some basic words. Designed to be easy and quick to learn for anyone.

#lussarian #constructed language #conlang #guide to learning Lussarian

3 notes · View notes

bitegore · 2 years

Text

yt wos paenyt at tu mi bi dhhy hyksylhyn @quetzalpapalotl dhet yn dhi ynglysh lenguej, lydhyrs er sort uv iuslys hynd min pryti much nuthyn hyt hyl, hynd dhhyr hard fur pibal tu undhyrstend yf dhe dunt spik ynglysh netyvli. so tu bi fer fur hyveriun, uhyn ai du mai funhytyk posts, ai wyl sympli iuz mai un conlhyng rhulz.

No un wyl bi ebyl tu rid yt.

#translation guide: it was pointed out to me by the excellent quetzalpapalotl that in the english language letters are sort of useless #and mean pretty much nothing at all and they're hard for people to undersand if they don't speak english natively #so to be fair for everyone when i do my phonetic posts i will simply use my own conlang rules #no one will be able to read it.#red rambles #sorry for the ping barbie but i think you will hopefully find it funny to watch the english speakers be baffled at the letter choices #...if anyone else comments i guess #radasyx transliteration game

15 notes · View notes

nomaishuttle · 8 months

Text

comparison (new on left old on right)

#As you can see i was mainly working ln fixing the distortion on the poles i did get a bittt carried away and add like a ton of oand but its #ok. also i did the math and its sitting at abt 40:60 land water ratio #rly its 41:59 but 40 60 is far easier #ive also still got to add rivers.. i have a few lakes as you can see but i haven't gone through and added rivers yet #ill probably have to do mountains first then rivers....#ive also been thinking abt making a sideblog solely for worldbuilding posts but im shy LOL so itd probably judt be 4 me #i wouldnt be opposed to sharing it with anybody whos interested i just dont think anybody rly is...#im also working more on the language its kiiiind of rly frustrating me..#i also have gaught to add a new island in the middle of the ocean bc ive been thinking while at work. but idk if i Actually want to use #those thoughts 4 this or keep them seperate.. whatevrr #but yeah. as mentioned the edits arent perfect yrt theyre kind of difficult to do 😭😭 map to globe doesnt allow you to draw directly On #the globe and the umm. sketch thing they have is kind of rlly annoying #like you can colorpick Once. but after that you have to reload the page to colorpick again #+ the likee. drawing you do on it is super artifacted and weird... + theres no way to just get the finished image idt. i may be wrong #but yes. anyways if i do make the sodeblog i wanna name it after the world but the issue is the world doesnt have a name 💀#and to make the name i need to work on the primary conlang some more 😭😭😭 but its frustrating me i think its bc i started with the #written form which like. every guide im looking at says you shouldnt do that 💀#so i might just scrap it and start from the ground up

1 note · View note

aohendo · 1 year

Text

Prince for Hire Pronunciation Guide

Some of the names and whatnot in Prince for Hire kinda look intimidating (...Nelovskevouk...), so after ages, I figured I’d put together a loose pronunciation guide!

The general rule of thumb is that everything is pronounced exactly as it looks. Whatever floats your boat works for me. But here’s generally how I’ve been doing it, below the cut.

Tagging the taglist because worldbuilding stuff: @cactusmotif, @houndsofcorduff, @whimsyqueen, @on-noon, @paradisiacalshroud. Also, some of the previous language development/alphabet stuff is over here.

First off, the alphabet. The only tricky letters here are the ‘C,’ the ‘J,’ and the ‘Y.’ The ‘C’ sound (2nd column, 2nd row) only appears at the front of words, and is basically an ‘S,’ like in ‘silo.’ The ‘J’ sound (2nd column, 3rd row) is more of a ‘y’ sound, like in ‘yarn’ (or ‘bjorn’). Lastly, the ‘Y’ sound (2nd column, 4th row) is pronounced as ‘aye’ (aye aye, captain!) except when at the front of words, where it is pronounced as ‘ee’ (like eek).

[image id: a conlang alphabet organized by row and column with spiky, m-looking letters written in pen on graph paper /end id]

Some exceptions to the call it as you see it thing: a word/name ending in a ‘k’ that is not doubled will drop that ‘k’ sound (as in: kulok = koo-low, not kulok = koo-lock). Doubled letters (as in iiriok, thaav, vuun, etc.) give extra stress.

Although there’s some other non-standard pronunciations (and sounds not touched upon by anything in Prince), for the purposes of Prince for Hire, that’s all you need to know to pronounce things just fine--at least, for things originating in the Novgor Plateau. Obviously the Turre, Aghran, and Musmiel pronunciation conventions are going to be a smidge different.

Below are some of the more frequent names and places in Prince for Hire.

Kiris Avkonin = Kear-ihs Ahv-kohn-in

Yphant na Suem = Ee-phant na Sew-em

Iiriok Nelovskevouk = Eerie-ohk Neh-loave-skeh-vouk

Batar ni Musyr = B’tar nee Moo-sear

Kaar Kulok = Kar Koo-low

Orjiar Thaav = Or-jyar Thawv

Duvutriok Vuun = Dew-voo-tree-ohk Voon

Kysminov Evina = Kayes-min-ohv Eh-veen-a

Martarez Nazvili = Mar-tar-ez Nat-zvee-lee

Aris of Krigover (Krigovervk) = Air-ihs Krih-goh-vorvk

Eskarez = Es-kah-rez

Trusov = True-sahv

(some Turre names)

Bascia = Bah-schya

‘L Tuola Turre = Luh To-oh-la To-ray

Ta Ritasa = Tah Ree-tah-sah

Sciombattor’ Ougle = Shohm-bah-tor’ We-gleh

(some place names)

Dargoulvga = Dar-gohlv-ga

Msvoulga = Mis-vohl-ga

Strauv = Strauv (rhymes with ‘ow’)

Cym = Saim (like ‘sign’)

Toor = To-or

#princeforhire #next up will be the fashion guide #(eventually)#not? writing #conlang #wip #fantasy #writblr #writeblr #writerblr #pronunciation

3 notes · View notes

completewermosguidetohuttese · 1 year

Text

I would like to thank the very kind and talented @jedi-valjean for taking the time to make this inkabunga [incredible] banner for The Complete Wermo's Guide's tumblr! I love the Nar Shaddaa backdrop and the super awesome logo in both standard basic AND Aurebesh!!! And that little swirl reminds me of a Hutt's tail which makes me smile. :) Thank you so much again!!! <3

#aurebesh #complete wermo's guide #nar shaddaa #huttese #star wars languages #star wars fonts #conlang #star wars

1 note · View note

jayrockin · 9 months

Note

question for you the creator. do you genuinely follow the “guide” for your alien languages or do you sometimes go off the rails?

I'm actually in the process of overhauling my conlangs because I was making them extremely slapdash and disorganized, and I'm attempting to follow the Biblaridion series technique now. I find conlangs interesting but they have trouble holding my interest for long periods of time so I'm kinda struggling to get it where I want it to be

#jaytext #scripts are more fun but youre kind of supposed to make them last lol

478 notes · View notes

writingwithcolor · 6 months

Text

Conlanging Issues: A Compendium

NOTE: This question was submitted before the Nov 1, 2023 reopening and may not adhere to all rules and guidelines. The ask has been abridged for clarity.

Most of my questions are about linguistics. […] One of the major locations in my story is a massive empire with cultural inspirations ranging from North Africa in the far south to Mongolia/Russia in the far north […] The middle region is where the capital is and is the main root of culture, from which Ive been taking inspiration from Southwest Asia […], but most notably southern regions of India. I've tried to stick to the way cities are named in Sanskrit-based languages but added the names of stars to the front (because the prevalent religion of this region worships the stars [...]). So Ive ended up with names like Pavoprayag, Alyanaga, Alkaiduru, Alcorpura, Cygnapete, etc. Is this a consistent naming system or should I alter it in some way? The empire itself is named the Arcana Empire since [...] each act of my story is named after a tarot card [...]. Another region in my story is based more on parts of South China and North Vietnam, so I've tried to stick to names with a Chinese origin for that. I understand the significance of family names in southwest [sic] Asia, so I wanted to double check [...]. They have only two short given names. Based on the birth order of the child, the first half of the name comes from the fathers family and the second half from the mothers family. It is seen as disrespectful not to use both names because using only one is seen as denouncing that side of your family. Thus I have names like Su Yin, Dai Jun, and Yi Wen for some of the characters from this region, and the city itself that they are from is named Bei Fen. On the other hand, Im having further trouble naming characters. […] Ive been trying to give my human characters names from real human cultures to distinguish them from the website-generated names of say, orcs, elves, dwarves, etc, but I think I should change many of the names Ive used to be more original and avoid fracturing real world cultures for the sake of my worldbuilding. […] Im still very weak in the linguistics area (even after four years of French, sigh) and am having trouble finding where to read about naming patterns so I can make new ones up. I read your naming guides but am still having trouble on where to start for specific languages. […] Im trying to look into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian specifically.

You're Going Too Broad

In my opinion, you’re casting too wide a net. You mentioned looking into Sanskrit, Turkish, and Persian to develop fantasy names. These languages are very different from one another, so unless you’re using them separately for very different parts of your world, it will be hard to draw inspiration from them in a way that makes sense. You’re taking on a huge amount of research in order to worldbuild cultures that span a massive geographical area (basically all of North Africa and Asia?) and have very little in common. Are you sure you want to take on that task?

I could see it being more manageable if most of your story is set in a small region of this world, which you will then research in depth to make sure you’re being as specific as possible.

Taking Persian as an example, you’ll have to decide whether you want to use Old Persian, Middle Persian, or Modern Persian. Each of these comes with a different alphabet and historical influences. They’re also associated with different periods of time and corresponding cultural and social markers. Once you’ve decided exactly when and where you want to start from, you can then expand the borders of your area of focus. For example, if you’ve decided to draw inspiration from Achaemenid Persia, you can then look at the languages that were spoken in the Achaemenid Empire. A quick Google search tells me that while Old Persian was the empire’s official language, they also used Aramaic, Akkadian, Median, Greek, and Elamite (among, I’m sure, many many others and many more regional variations). Further research into each of these will give you ethnic groups and bordering nations that you can draw more inspiration from to expand out your worldbuilding.

Don’t forget to make sure you’re staying within the same time period in order to keep things consistent. It’s a lot of work, and this is only for a small portion of the continent-spanning worldbuilding you’re trying to do.

You can get away with painting the rest of the continent in broad strokes without too much depth if the story doesn’t go there and you don’t have any main characters from those parts of the world. Otherwise, you’ll need to put this same level of detail into your worldbuilding for the area with Turkish-inspired names, and again for the area with Sanskrit-inspired names, and so on.

I know this isn’t what you were asking, but I honestly have a hard time helping you figure out where to start because your ask is so broad I don’t quite know where I would start myself. So, this is my advice: focus down on one region and time period and go from there. Feel free to write back once you’ve picked a narrower focus that we could help you with.

- Niki

So there’s logistical issues in regards to your naming system for southern China-coded regions. One issue is history: mainly on how there is not simply one language in China but multiple due to having a lot of ethnic groups and the size of China. South China in particular has different dialects and languages than the North as seen in this map of Chinese languages and dialects. There’s also how historically Mandarin was not the official language until 1913 in China and historical China saw vast changes in territory dependent on the dynasty. Before then, Mandarin was primarily a northern Chinese language based in Beijing while southern China had its own languages, dialects, and dynamics. Not to mention, historical China saw an evolution of language just like English has Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. For instance, Vietnam was once part of China during the Tang Dynasty and at another point, it was not part of China.

-Mod Sci

If You’re Borrowing Whole Words or Elements, Research More

The other issue is inconsistency with the cultures you’re deriving this conlang from. In regards to “two given names,” the Chinese name I was given was one syllable and then I would have a last name that was also one syllable. There’s also how not every family is perfect. Not every marriage is sanctioned and some children may come from single parents. Some families may not cooperate with marriage and sometimes children may be abandoned with unknown parents. There does not seem to be contingencies for these names under this conlang system.

The main problem with conlangs is that one needs to truly understand the languages one is drawing from. Tolkein managed to create conlangs due to training in linguistics. Mandarin is already a difficult language with multiple tones, and trying to use it for conlangs without knowledge of how Mandarin works or a good foundation in linguistics is just a Sisyphean endeavor.

-Mod Sci

Four years of French wouldn’t have taught you about linguistics as a science or anything about the language families you’ve listed - Indo-Iranian, Sino-Tibetan, and Turkic, nor any Asian naming conventions. I agree with Niki that you need to narrow down your research.

Pur/pura means city in Sanskrit (ex: Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur). Prayag is a place where pilgrimages are done. Naga isn’t a place name in Sanskrit (google says it means snake), nagar is and it means town. X Nagar is a very common name for places (Ex: Rajinder Nagar). Many cities in Karnataka have names ending in uru (Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Tumakuru, etc) but the language of Karnataka is Kannada - a Dravidian language and completely different family from Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan). I’m not sure where “pete” came from. “Bad” and “vaal” are common suffixes for places too (Ex: Faisalabad, Allahabad). A disclaimer that I do not speak Sanskrit, I speak Punjabi, which is a descendant of Sanskrit and in the same linguistic family (Indo-Aryan languages).

- SK

Also, This Is Not…Really Conlanging.

Hi OP. Linguistics refers to the science of studying how languages work, not the discipline of learning languages. And nothing shows that gap more than how you have thus far approached constructing fictional languages and toponyms.

The reason why Sci and SK have a lot to say about your place names is because they don't resonate—you have borrowed whole words into your toponyms (place names) from a variety of languages—without an accurate understanding of what these words mean, how they’re pronounced, where they’re derived from—and expected them to work together. I suggest you read the links below on why conlanging is not as simple as choosing some languages and mashing their IRL words together:

Why Using Random Languages Wholesale in your Fantasy is a Bad Idea

Pitfalls of Mashing Countries and Languages in Coding

In your city names, for example, you’re using star names from multiple languages that use different sets of sounds represented by different sets of historical spelling rules. “Cygn-” and “Arcana” stick out like a sore thumb—the fact that one “c” is /s/ and one is /k/ is an obvious flag that they are Latin-derived English borrowings. This is because spelling rules were created in Middle English to make sense of the mix of “c” pronunciations across words of Indo-European origin due to a historical split called the Centum-Satem division. This is a phenomenon that is very specific to our world history, and to the history of English at that. Ironically, in your attempt to avoid stock fantasy names (which also often fall into the Latin-derived English pit), you are taking the exact same approach to naming.

Like Niki said, your selections are far too broad to code under a single umbrella. Do you expect that whatever language that city name came from runs the full gamut of sound inventory & spelling variety that spans multiple continents and hundreds of languages? Because that’s not how languages work. (And yes, I mean hundreds. Indigenous languages and linguistic diversity are a thing. See Niki’s note about just the languages in Persia. And nation-states bulldozing over those languages and pretending it’s just one language is a thing. See Sci’s note about China.) I haven't even talked about the variation in morphology (how words are formed) or syntax (sentence structure).

Please just read or re-read my guide on “naming conlangs” in this post and start from there.

~ Rina

PSA ON CONLANGING AND FANTASY NAMES:

For fantasy language asks submitted after Nov 1, 2023, the asker must indicate that they have read Mod Rina’s conlanging posts linked in FAQ 2 (Guides and Posts by Topic) of the Masterpost under the question “How do I make a fictional language for my story?” While this is an older ask, we are posting it as an example to our followers.

Per our new rules, any questions that can be directly answered in or extrapolated from the FAQs, or questions that indicate that the relevant resources haven’t been read, will be deleted with a note in the Deletion Log explaining why.

As always, if this post was helpful or educational to you, please consider tipping the relevant mods: SK, Niki, Sci, and Rina.

Edited for terminology errors

#asks #naming #languages #linguistics #Persian #Chinese #South Asian #worldbuilding #coding

320 notes · View notes

bonefall · 1 year

Text

Clanmew 101

A Warrior Cats Conlang

[ID: Two Warrior Cats OCs speak to each other. On the left is a calico with green eyes named Troutfur. On the right is a leucistic tabby with pink eyes named Bonefall.]

Urrmeer, Clanmates! And welcome to Clanmew 101!

By the end of this lesson you should have a basic understanding of the most important aspects of Clanmew, the language of the five Clans of cats living around Sanctuary Lake.

You will learn to introduce yourself, choose the appropriate pronoun for a situation, construct simple sentences, describe attributes and understand opening particles, express possession, ask simple questions, and use the Clans’ counting system. This should cover all the basics needed in order to have a simple Clanmew conversation.

Lastly, we'll close out with a vocabulary list, and some translation excercises you can do on your own!

This guide is a massive collaboration, written largely by @troutfur with all vocabulary made by @bonefall. This guide is also available in Google Doc format, and there is a lexicon of over 300 words in this Google Sheet.

We've been working on this for several weeks, and we're beyond excited to bring it to you today!

About Clanmew

Clanmew is a language that emphasizes ranks and relationships first and foremost. The rigid nature of Clan culture is baked into the very structure of their sentences, immediately making it clear what your relationship to a thing is, and where you’ve received information about a subject.

Unlike English, in Clanmew, every line is packed with information about a warrior’s relationships and feelings towards the cats around them, turning even quick exchanges into reaffirmations of where a warrior stands in Clan society.

- Introduce yourself; the lack of a personal pronoun

Two cleric apprentices are meeting each other at a half-moon meeting for the first time. Here’s how they would introduce themselves to each other:

Babenpwyr: Pyrrsmeer! Babenpwyr. Washa-ulnyams shompiagorrl. Pryyp pyrrs? [Noncombatant-you-hello! Bonepaw. Shadow-clan moon-learning-rank. Question noncombatant-you?]

Powshpwyr: Powshpwyr. Ssbass-ulnyams shompiagorrl. [Troutpaw. River-clan moon-learning-rank]

Translated to English we have:

Bonepaw: Hello! My name is Bonepaw! I’m a ShadowClan cleric apprentice. And you?

Troutpaw: My name’s Troutpaw. I’m a RiverClan cleric apprentice.

This is a very typical introduction in the Clans. Right away these two cats establish their relationship to each other, which Clan they’re from, and their rank within it.

If you examine the way Bonepaw and Troutpaw tell each other their names, it is immediately notable how they only say them. In Clanmew there is no "first person" pronoun, no word that means "I" or "me", and similarly there is no word for the verb "to be". It is understood that if you say a word by itself, those two parts are implied. Thus Babenpwyr is both Bonepaw’s name and a full sentence that means “I am Bonepaw”.

Similarly when Bonepaw says "Pryyp pyrrs?" There is no word for "are" or "is". "Pryyp" establishes the sentence as a question, and "pyrrs" simply means "you".

There are other nuances to the grammar to explore but first, let's skip forward a few seasons, after Troutpaw and Bonepaw change paths and meet once again under the light of the full moon.

Powshfaf: Babenpwyr, pyrrsmeer! [Bonepaw, noncombatant-you-hello!]

Babenfew: Nyar, rarrwang gryyr! Babenfew! [No, outsiderness I-contain! Bonefall!]

Powshfaf: Pryyp kachgorrl rarrs? Ssoen wowa rarrs shai ssarshemi! [Question, claw-rank outsider-you? On/over outsider-you stars they-shine!]

Translated we have:

Troutfur: Hi, Bonepaw!

Bonefall: No, use the rarrs pronoun with me. It's Bonefall.

Troutfur: Oh, you're a warrior? Congrats!

This too is a common interaction among Clan cats. No warrior ever misses a chance to boast about a newly granted name, especially to a friend who already has their own. Here we see another important feature of Clanmew grammar, the choice of pronoun. Clanmew pronouns have nothing to do with gender, but rather, how dangerous the subject is to you.

This is called…

- Threat Level How To Choose the Appropriate Pronoun

Using the pyrrs pronoun may be appropriate with a cleric, or an apprentice, or a close friend in your same Clan. But for an enemy warrior it’s inappropriate, or even rude, regardless of if they’re a friend or not. It may indicate you are underestimating them, or worse, that you two are traitorously close to each other.

Each pronoun in Clanmew has a third person ("he", "she", "they") form and a second person (“you”) form. The full list of pronouns and when to use them is given below, from least to most threatening.

(Them/You)

Wi/Wees The softest, weakest possible way to refer to a person. It is used exclusively for babies, aesthetically pleasing but useless objects, and food. “Mousebrain” is either Wiwoo (them-mouse) or Weeswoo (you-mouse).

Nya/Nyams This one indicates familiarity and closeness, moreso than with a Clanmate or a trusted ally. It is used for mates, platonic life partners, siblings, and so on. It’s sometimes used on objects that significantly change a cat’s life, such as Briarlight’s mobility device.

Pyrr/Pyrrs Used for apprentices, medicine cats, elders, exhausted warriors, and other non-combatants, but also for friends. It’s a neutral-weak pronoun. Used incorrectly, it can be patronizing, or over-familiar. This is also used on useful objects, like nests, herbs, Jayfeather’s stick, etc.

Urr/Urrs Indicates a capable clanmate, carries an implication that they are able to hunt or fight at the described moment. The term carries endearment– the old RiverClan river was referred to with Urrs, for respect. Strong, worthy prey is in this category; RiverClan refers to medium-sized fish with urrs, WindClan uses it for hares, etc.

Rarr/Rarrs Now we’re in the 'outsider’ category. These are not used on clanmates without insult. Used for things that require extra caution. A lot of twoleg things like fences and bridges are 'rarr’. The cats who live in the barn and other loners are 'rarr’. Warriors in other clans are 'rarr.’

Mwrr/Mwrrs Something dishonorable, that lives without code. Rogues are tossed into this category before proven otherwise, as are snakes, foxes, badgers, and dogs. This is a serious insult when used for a Clan cat.

Ssar/Ssas Something powerful and dangerous. Storms, floods, cars. Overwhelming and unpredictable, in a way where its power cannot be contained– can be a high compliment to the respected warriors of other clans, implies the same sort of respect you would give to a natural disaster. Commonly used on leaders of other Clans.

- Objects, Subjects, and Verbs Constructing a Simple Sentence

In English most sentences have three parts, someone who does an action (a subject), an action that is done (a verb), and something the action is done to (an object). By default English sentences order these three elements in the order, Subject-Verb-Object. But Clanmew orders them differently; Object-Subject-Verb.

Compare these sentences;

“The warriors hunt mice.” [Simple English statement]

“Mice the warriors hunt.” [Grammatical equivalent in Clanmew]

Translating this into Clanmew looks like this,

Pi woo kachgorrl urrakach. [Saw/heard mouse claw-rank clanmate-they-hunt.] Saw mouse warrior they-hunt. [Direct translation]

Let’s ignore that first word for now and just focus on the subject, object, and verb.

“Woo” in this context means “mouse” or “mice”. Clanmew makes no grammatical distinction between singular and plural, whether there is only one of the noun or more than one. Likewise, “kachgorrl” means “warrior” without specifying how many or which warrior(s) specifically. Finally “urrakach” is composed of a prefix “urr-”, the pronoun for a clanmate, and “akach” the present form of the verb that means “to hunt”.

A specific named subject can be omitted but a pronoun prefix can never be omitted in a Clanmew sentence. Even the absence of a prefix is considered a prefix itself, meaning “I” or “me”. Thus the speaker’s relationship towards the subject is always specified.

- Describing Attributes

When Bonefall corrected Troutfur's pronoun usage earlier he was using this Object/Subject/Verb (OSV) sentence structure; "Rarrwang gryyr" means "Use the rarrs pronoun with me," but is constructed as "Outsiderness (I)-contain". “Rarrwang” itself is constructed of the pronoun “rarr” and the suffix “wang” which indicates a noun embodying a certain quality.

This sentence construction with the verb “gryyr” and a noun with the “wang” suffix can also be used to describe someone or something with any other attribute. Let’s see the following examples:

Yaowang gryyr. [Female-quality I-contain.] "I’m a molly."

The word “yaow” is part of a set with “ssuf” (“male”), and “meewa” (“genderless”).

Pi morrwowang urrgryyr. [Seen/heard fast-quality they-clanmate-contain.] "She’s big."

"Morrwo" is part of a set with "Eeb" (small) and "Nyarra" (average).

Urr’rr boe gabpwang mwrrgryyr. [Whisker-felt strength-quality they-rogue-contain.] "She’s very strong."

Now, let’s see how you can describe someone with more than one attribute!

Bab boe gabpwang om boe morrwowang rarrgryrr. [Heard-say very strong-quality and very big-quality outsider-they-contain.] "She is very strong and very big."

Bab boe gabp-om-morrwowang rarrgryrr. [Heard-say very strong-and-big-quality outsider-they-contain.] "She is very strong and very big."

These two sentences may look completely equivalent, but the constructions used here actually convey two different shades of meaning.

In the first sentence, the qualities of strength and bigness are understood to not be related to each other. The size is unrelated to her strength. Perhaps she’s big as in fluffy rather than physically imposing! The second construction indicates very much the opposite, that the bigness and strength are related attributes.

Now you may notice by this point that there’s a little word at the beginning of most sentences. It is called an…

- Opening Particle

Opening particles are used to indicate many things such as where the information conveyed is coming from, that the sentence is a question or command, or even that the sentence is a hypothetical being posited.

In statements that denote facts, there are 5 such particles, indicating the way by which this knowledge was acquired. They are:

Bab Used for information the speaker does not have first-hand knowledge of. Anything that someone has heard from someone else such as news, gossip, or a report falls into this category. Information in this category is considered the least reliable of all categories.

Yass Used for information acquired through the smell, taste, or the use of Jacobson’s organ. Metaphorically, it has also been extended to things one believes or thinks, and logical deductions. In its metaphorical capacity it is considered second least reliable.

Urr’rr Used for information acquired through one’s whiskers. Metaphorically, it also extends to emotions, intuition, and other such feelings. Considered the second most reliable source of information when used as such.

Pi Used for information one has seen or heard directly. Considered the most reliable form of information in most situations. When it comes to information acquired through multiple sources, if visual or auditory sensations are included “pi” will almost always be preferred.

Ssoen Used by StarClan it indicates information they have access to by virtue of their alleged omniscience. Used by a regular Clan cat it is used to quote the words of a prophecy or to give one’s words the same weight as StarClan’s. In this second usage, it is most often used to give blessings, such as the phrase Troutfur used to congratulate Bonefall.

The lack of a particle can in a way be thought of as a particle in itself too! This indicates that some piece of information is self-evident to the speaker. Examples of when it is appropriate to omit sentence-starting particles have been explored before: introducing oneself, correcting pronoun usage, stating one’s gender, all concerning the self.

Let’s see some examples in practice!

Bab mwrrworrwang Raorgabrrl mwrrgryyr. [Heard-say murder-quality Lionblaze he-rogue-contains.] "I’ve heard that Lionblaze is a murderous rogue."

Yass woo nyyrwang mwrrgryyr. [Smelled/tasted mouse rotten-quality they-rogue-contain.] "I have smelled/tasted that the mouse is rotting."

Urr’rr rrarpabrpabrpabr. [Whisker-felt he-outsider-pummeled.] "He pummeled (me), I felt with my whiskers."

Pi powsh pabparra Ssbass-ulnyams rarrakachka. [Saw/heard trout patrol-amount RiverClan they-outsider-hunted.] "I saw a RiverClan patrol catching trout."

Ssoen ulnyams kafyar-ul ssarshefpa. [Prophetic clan wild-fire-only they-natural-force-will-rescue.] "Fire alone will save the Clans."

There are 3 other important particles to introduce; Karrl, Hassayyr, and Pryyp

“Karrl” indicates that a statement is a command.

Bonfaf, karrl piagorrl urrsshaiwo. [Stonefur, command learning-rank you-clanmate-star-will-kill.] "Stonefur, execute the apprentices."

“Hassayyr” indicates that a statement is a “what if”.

Hassayyr om pyrrs papp. [What-if with you-noncombatant (I-)will-walk.] "What if we went for a walk?"

“Pryyp” indicates that a statement is a question.

Pryyp mew wissuff? [Question kitten they-harmless-suckle?] "Are the kittens suckling?"

We will talk more about “pryyp” and asking questions a bit later, but first we’ve got to discuss…

- Possession

The simplest and easiest way to say that a person is in possession of something is to use their name as a pronoun like so;

Pi woomoerr'pbum Yywayashaiwrah [Seen/heard food-hole-bread Harestar-owns.] "I see the tunnelbun that Harestar owns."

This is only possible for simple statements, and is possible because 'wrah' is a rare, irregular single-stem verb. But more of that will come in another lesson!

There are more common ways to phrase possession. Compare the following two sentences:

Pi woomoerr’pbum Yywayashai urrwrah. [Seen/heard food-hole-bread Harestar he-owns.] "I see that my clanmate Harestar has a tunnelbun."

Pi Yywayashai urrwrah woomoerr’pbm Hrra’aborrl urrnomna. [Seen/heard Harestar he-owns food-hole-bread Breezepelt he-eats.] "I see that my clanmate Breezepelt is eating my Clanmate Harestar’s tunnelbun."

In the second sentence, the phrase “Harestar’s tunnelbun” is constructed with the same words of the sentence “Harestar has a tunnelbun”, however, the opening particle is dropped and not repeated. The difference is that the object (“woomoerr’pbum”) has been moved to the end.

Thus the phrase “Yywayashai urrwrah” (“Harestar he-owns”) can be understood in this situation to be an adjective that modifies “tunnelbun” in the second sentence. This construction is not limited only to statements about possession, but this is the most common case in which it is used.

You can make possession even clearer with the connecting particle, "en." For example,

Pi Yywayashai-en-woomoerr’pbum Hrra’aborrl urrnomna. [Seen/heard Harestar-’s-tunnelbun Breezepelt he-eats.] "I see that my clanmate Breezepelt is eating the tunnelbun-of-Harestar."

All of these phrasings are perfectly grammatical. The use of a shorter, more explicit construction is a function of style and clarity. It is similar to how the idea could in English be expressed equally with the phrasings “Harestar’s tunnelbun”or “the tunnelbun of Harestar”.

Next, we will learn to ask simple questions.

- Simple Questions

“Pryyp” is a very useful particle! In front of a simple statement, it makes it into a yes-no question. For example:

Pryyp Yywayashai woomoerr’pbum urrwrah? [Question Harestar food-hole-bread he-has?] "Does Harestar have a Tunnelbun?"

To answer you have a couple options. You could restate the verb along with an opening particle to specify how you know:

Pi urrwrah. [Seen/heard he-has.] "He does, I’ve seen."

But what if he doesn't have one? You can negate the verb with the prefix “nyar”! Make sure to place in front of the verb but after the pronoun:

Pi urrnyarwrah. [Seen/heard he-not-have.] "He does not, I’ve seen."

Or you could respond with your opening particle, and a simple yes or no:

Pi mwyr/nyar. [Seen/heard yes/no.] "Yes/no, I saw."

But it isn’t the only type of question you can ask with Clanmew. In conjunction with a question word in the appropriate place, you can ask more open ended questions. Let’s see an example conversation from WindClan camp:

Hrra’aborrl: Pryyp woomoerr’pbum yar urrwrah? [Breezepelt: Question food-hole-rabbit who they-have?] Yywayashai: Pi Ipipfbafba pyrrswrah. [Harestar: Seen/heard Kestrelflight he-has.]

In English,

Breezepelt: "Who has the tunnelbun?" Harestar: "I saw Kestrelflight has it."

In this construction we see some interesting aspects of the grammar. The pronoun “yar” (“who”) replaces the subject in the first sentence, but the verb is still conjugated with “urr”.

This shows that Breezepelt assumes that the answer to his question is going to be a battle-capable clanmate. When Harestar answers though, he uses the “pyrrs” pronoun, as is appropriate when talking about a cleric such as Kestrelflight. Because of how the grammar works, Breezepelt is forced to make an assumption as to what his answer would be and Harestar automatically corrects it.

Harestar could have also answered:

Yywayashai: Pi pyrrswrah. [Harestar: Seen/heard he-has.]

Which is roughly translated to:

Harestar: "He has it."

With this answer Harestar is assuming Breezepelt will be able to figure out which noncombatant has it... but remember; clerics, apprentices, elders, and even close friends of the speaker are all encompassed by “pyrrs”. It may not be as clear as Harestar thinks it is!

To ask a multiple-choice question using “pryyp”, you could do it like this:

Wishwash: Pryyp woomoerr’pbum wragyr nyom Yywayashai nyom Ipipfbafba mwrrwrah? [Heathertail: Question food-hole-bread boar or Harestar or Kestrelflight they-rogue-have?] Hrra’aborrl: Pi (wragyr) mwrrwrah [Breezepelt: Seen/heard (boar) they-rogue-has.]

Which would translate to:

Heathertail: Who has the tunnelbun, a boar, Harestar, or Kestrelflight? Breezepelt: "I saw the boar has it."

Without “pryyp”, Heathertail’s question would be understood as a statement. “Either the boar, Harestar, or Kestrelflight has the tunnelbun.” But by starting the sentence with the appropriate particle she was able to convey it was a multiple choice question.

Breezepelt can also choose if he wants to specify "boar," or simply use the rogue pronoun in this situation. Harestar and Kestrelflight are not enemies, and so simply saying "Pi mwrrwrah" would make it clear that the boar has it.

This sentence also brings up the question of pronoun agreement when there’s more than one subject. Remember this; the pronoun of the most dangerous subject always has priority.

We've come a long way and learned a lot! Next, we'll cover the complicated way that Clan cats count and measure.

- Counting

We arrive in WindClan near the end of a harrowing scene. Cloudrunner's mate Larksplash has died in childbirth, and he has been told that because of complications, the litter has a sole survivor.

Hainyoopa: Ul-arra nyams wi? Ul-arra mew-ul wi? Ul-arra arkoor shai ssarakichkar om Ul-arramew ssaryorru! [Cloudrunner: Whole-amount kin baby-they? Whole-amount kitten only baby-they? Whole-amount existence stars natural-force-they-grab and whole-fraction-kitten natural-force-they-left!] Cloudrunner: "He’s my whole kin? He, who is only a single kitten? StarClan took everything and left me Onekit!"

With these dramatic words, Cloudrunner declared his son's name; Onekit.

The nuances of this expression of grief are hard to grasp unless one has an understanding of the counting system of the Clans. Clanmew does not count with straightforward numbers; instead, they have fractions associated with a given concept.

Arra = Between 1 and 4 = Amount of pieces of prey that can fit in a mouth. Used for small quantities of concrete things. This fraction is the closest Clanmew gets to simple counting.

Rarra = 5 = Amount of claws on one paw, amount of Clans. Used to count body parts or the amount of warriors in a usual patrol.

Pabparra = 9 = Amount of a full day's patrol assignments. Used to count groups of cats, enough to patrol a territory or run a Clan.

Husskarra = 12 = Amount of whiskers on one side of the face. Used to count a day’s work, things that are being sensed in large amounts.

Shomarra = Around 30 = Amount of days in a lunar cycle. Used to count amounts of time longer than a day.

These five “fraction words” are almost always preceded by an adverb specifying how much of that amount. The adverbs paired with the amount words are:

Prra = Beginning, usually one but can be any amount under a “warl”

Warl = Quarter

Yosh = Half

Ark = Three-quarters

Ul = Entire

When they are not preceded by a prefix, they aren’t meant to be taken as an exact number, but as an estimation. Clanmew does not value exactness.

Finally there are two useful phrases that can modify these numbers:

Om owar = And another

Nyo owar = Less another

The choice of number word is based on what is being counted, not what is mathematically most convenient. “Om owar” and “nyo owar” thus are very useful phrases to express quantities over what the usual number for the appropriate counting word is. More rarely they are used to express the concept of “+1” and “-1”. This usage is rare because Clan cats don’t really care that much about precision, especially for amounts over four.

Let’s see some examples:

Ul-pabparra om owar ul-pabparra arrlur. [Whole-patrol-amount and whole patrol I-compelled.] "I sent out two patrol’s worth of cats." Karrl arlkatch praa-shomarra om owar om owar om owar. [Command will-fight beginning-moon-amount and another and another and another.] "We will fight 3 days from now." Shomarra nyo owar ssar. [Moon-amount less another they-natural-force.] "The month is a day shorter."

And now let’s see an example of numbers in a brief conversation:

Bayabkach: Pi pishkaf pabparra Hwoo-ulnyams rarrkachka. [Brambleclaw: Seen/heard red-squirrel patrol-amount Wind-Clan they-outsider-hunted.] Fofnanfaf: Pryyp arra rarr? [Brackenfur: Question amount they-outsider?] Bayabkach: Pi rarra, yosh piagorrl om yosh kachgorrl, rarr. [Brambleclaw: Seen/heard outsider-amount, half learning-rank and half claw-rank they-outsider.] Brambleclaw: "I saw a WindClan patrol hunting squirrels." Brackenfur: "How many?" Brambleclaw: "An outsider-amount, a quarter apprentices and a quarter warriors."

In this exchange when Brambleclaw says “an outsider-amount” he means a standard 5-member patrol. When he further specifies half warriors and half apprentices he specifies about 2 or 3 are warriors and another 2 or 3 are apprentices.

Here’s another conversation that happened in the middle of a ShadowClan patrol:

Rarrlurfaf: Pryyp woo urrpi? [Russetfur: Question food you-clanmate-perceive] Uboshai: Mwyr, pi ark-arra amam pipa. [Blackstar: Yes, perceive three-quarters-amount toad hear.] Russetfur: "Do you sense/see/perceive any prey?" Blackstar: "Yes, I hear three toads."

In this sentence “ark-arra” implies three toads but there may be more. If Blackstar wanted to specify there’s three and only three toads, he could have said “ark-arra ul” (three-quarter-amount only).

There are also numerous very useful idiomatic expressions using the number systems! Let’s look at a few of them.

Gryyr ul-arra arrl! [I-contain whole-amount I-must!] "I must do everything myself!" Gryyr huskarra om owar huskarra arrl! [I-contain whisker-amount and another whisker-amount I-must!] "This is all overwhelming!"

Finally, let’s examine briefly why Cloudrunner’s lament about his kit was so despairing.

As you can see from above “ul-arra” would mean “whole amount”. That may not sound particularly emotional but for a Clan cat, for whom life is fundamentally communal, the implication of the whole amount of the smallest possible fraction brings to mind the idea of loneliness.

The names Onekit, Onewhisker, and Onestar (“Ul-arramew”, “Ul-arrahussk”, and “Ul-arrashai”) could very well have been translated as Lonekit, Lonewhisker, and Lonestar.

- Vocabulary:

Down below you will find a vocabulary list used in this lesson.

Particles, threat level pronouns, and number words have been omitted as they are explained at length in the text above.

Some verbs used in tenses other than the present are only given in the present tense. Correct use of the past, present, and future and of different verb forms will be explored in a future lesson.

[If you're craving even more vocabulary, check out the Lexicon]

Common Nouns:

Arrkoor: The universe, existence

Baben: Bone

Bayab: Bramble; blackberry plant (Rubus fruticosus)

Bon: Stone

Borrl: Pelt, skin and the fur on it

Faf: Fur

Fofnan: Bracken

Hrra'a: Breeze

Hussk: Whisker

Ipa: Ear

Ipip: Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Ipo: Eye

Kach: Claw

Kafyar: Wildfire

Mew: Kitten

Nyams: Kin

Pabparra: Patrol

Pishkaf: Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

Powsh: Common brown trout (Salmo trutta)

Pwyr: Toebean; The -paw suffix, used to indicate the rank of apprentice

Raor: Lion

Shai: Star

Skurss: Tyrant; the name of the ThunderClan warrior Iceheart when he was leader of BloodClan

Swash: Tail

Wask: Holly

Wish: Bell heather (Erica cinerea)

Woo: Mouse; Food

Woomoerr'pbum: Tunnelbun

Wragyr: Boar (sus scrofa)

Yywaya: Brown hare (Lepus europaeus)

The Clans:

Ulnyams: Clan

Hwoo-ulnyams: WindClan

Krraka-ulnyams: ThunderClan

Sbass-ulnyams: RiverClan

Washa-ulnyams: ShadowClan

Yaawrl-ulnyams: SkyClan

Ranks:

Gorrl: Rank

Shaigorrl: Leader

Arrlgorrl: Deputy

Shomgorrl: Cleric

Kachgorrl: Warrior

Piagorrl: Apprentice

Shompiagorrl: Cleric apprentice

Pronouns:

Owar: Another

Yar: Who

Verbs: NOTE: All verbs given are present tense.

Akach: Hunts

Akichka: Grapples, grabs

Arrl: Compels, orders; Must

Arrlkatchya: Fights

Babun: Beats (of a heart); In names sometimes translated as the -heart suffix such as Kafyarbabun (Fireheart)

Few: Falls

Fbafba: Flies, is flying (of a bird or winged animal)

Gabrrl: Crackles (of fire)

Gryyr: Contains

Nomna: Eats

Nyoopab: Gallops, running fast

Pabrpabr: Pummels

Pappa: Walks

Pi: To see or hear, to perceive generally

Pipa: To hear

Pipo: To see

Shefpash: Rescues

Shemi: Shines

Sskif: Wants

Ssuff: Suckles

Worr: Kills

Mwrrworr: Kills dishonorably, commits murder

Shaiworr: Executes, kills in StarClan's name

Wrah: Owns

Yorr: To leave behind

Suffixes:

-ul: Only, by itself

-wang: -ness, the quality of being like a thing.

Adjectives:

Eeb: Small

Gabp: Strong

Meewa: De-sexed, genderless

Morrwo: Fast

Nyarra: Of average size

Nyyr: Rotting; Bad

Osk: White

Rarrlur: Russet

Shem: Shining; Good

Ssuf: Male

Ubo: Black

Yaow: Female

Adverbs:

Boe: Very

Mwyr: Yes

Nyar: No

Conjunctions:

Nyo: Less, minus

Nyom: Or

Om: And, plus

Expressions:

-meer: Hello! (Always used with a pronoun prefix)

Ssoen wowa [2nd person pronoun] shai ssarshemi!: Congratulations!

Gryyr ul-arra arrl!: I must do everything myself!

Gryyr huskarra om owar huskarra arrl!: This is all overwhelming!

Try it yourself!

Below are ten open-ended exercises so you can practice and test your knowledge. Feel free to reference the vocabulary list and the main text of the lesson as much as you need. For an extra challenge you can try responding without looking at them or making new sentences of your own!

You’ve just been accepted into a Clan, and even though your leader hasn’t granted you a warrior name yet, they trust you enough to take you to a gathering. How would you introduce yourself to the Cats of the other Clans?

During a patrol you encounter the treacherous and murderous exile Liontail. He tries to appeal to your friendship, but you’re a loyal cat of your Clan so of course you won’t hear this rogue out! Correct his pronoun usage so he knows you’re a threat to him.

You approach the fresh kill pile and smell a rotting squirrel carcass. How would you warn your clanmates?

You are an apprentice and your mentor tells you to check for scents. You can make out 3 unique smells; two strange cats, and a toad. How do you report this to your mentor?

Your clanmate has trouble telling Snowpelt and Whitefur apart. They’re both blue-eyed white cats but while Snowpelt is large and a molly, Whitefur is small and a tom. How would you tell your clanmate this?

Your friend is describing the feared BloodClan leader Scourge, and says they are both small and strong. You want to interject and point out that Scourge was strong because he was small, and often underestimated. How do you phrase this?

While hunting, a rogue attacks your patrol! After the scuffle is over, you notice that the mice you were carrying are gone! Ask your clanmates who has the mice; them, or the rogue.

A RiverClan cat offers you some of the food they brought for the gathering. You know they brought both mice and trouts and you want to make sure you don’t eat any of those smelly fish they are so fond of. Ask them whether they have a mouse or a trout.

You are a RiverClan warrior who just offered a cat from another Clan some of the food you brought to the gathering. The cat in question just asked whether you have a mouse or a trout. It seems kind of obvious to you but it’s only polite to reply. Tell them that you’ve got a trout.

You are the deputy, and you are assigning patrols. At the end, you have 3 cats left over (Kestrelclaw, Hollyheart, and Snowear), and you must ask your leader which of these cats they would like to patrol with.

Once you'd tried them out on your own, you can check your answers over here!

#Clanmew #Conlang #constructed language #grammar #Clan Culture #Warrior Cats #Better Bones AU #Exercises #language #wc #Funfact OSV is the rarest grammatical format #And it's the format Yoda uses when he speaks #We didn't realize it at the time we picked it. It just felt right to emphasise the action last #Linguistics

695 notes · View notes