Conlang Year: Week 25
I'm back to the language farm after a wonderful weekend at Gencon, where I was able to meet up with friends I don't get to see very often, including some fellow conlangers. This week I get back to it as I continue to work on naming. As always, the prompts are here.
Day 169 - Create place names for communities
I came up with a few new verbs because I thought they'd be helpful in creating compound words.
| IPA | Definition |
|---|---|
| puɾ | to increase/to multiply |
| aɪɾ | to decrease |
| ɢøŋz | to trade |
| ut.pɛɪ | to gather |
Using those, I came up with the following for some settlement-related words:
| IPA | Definition |
|---|---|
| θɛʎ | fence, boundary |
| θyp.puɾ | village (literally house-to increase) |
| ɢøŋ.zaɪŋ | town/city, market (literally to trade-field) |
| θɛʎ.θɛʎ | walled town/city (great fence) |
| θyp.sɛɪ | high house, palace |
| qaɪ.θɛʎ | fortress, citadel |
| ut.pɛɪŋ | plaza, square |
| θyp.ɾɪm.ʃθoŋ | clan house |
Day 170 - Explore strategies for personal names
Most Thekkish names invoke a god or one of the Sacred Ones, the ascended masters of the religion that is most common in Thek. Sometimes these names can get rather lengthy, so they get trimmed down for every day use. You'll see names that might translate as "god is with me," "breath of X's wisdom," "truth and beauty of Y," or "Z protect me." There aren't surnames as we understand them in modern Western society, but when necessary, components listing where someone is from or what clan they hail from may be appended to the end of the name. It's also not uncommon for people to have more than one name they use in different social settings. Nicknames consisting of personal attributes or animal names are common.
Day 171 - Plan the forms you need for personal names
Most of what I'm going to need here are verbs, nouns, and adjectives that might be used in the theophoric names I mentioned on Day 170. I also haven't written up the names of the gods or Sacred Ones yet, so I'm simply going to be using "ʃy," the general term for a god.
Day 172 - Create forms needed to make your first names
I decided to start by making the forms I'd need to create the sample names I used on Day 170.
| IPA | Definition |
|---|---|
| dʌʃ.ʃɛɪ | to breathe |
| ta.dʌʃ.ʃɛɪ | breath |
| ta.nɪs.qa | wisdom |
| dɛʎɢ | to protect, to defend |
Day 173 - Create a few personal names for your speakers
| IPA | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ʒɛx.ɪ.xʃan ʃy.ɾa sɪn ɛɪ.ɪm | god is with me |
| ta.dʌʃ.ʃɛɪ sɪn ta.nɪs.qa.ɾaɪm ʃy.ɾat | breath of god's wisdom |
| ɢyɾ.ɪ.nɛð sɪn ʃy.ɾaɪm | truth and beauty of god |
| ʒɛx.ɪ.dɛʎɢ ʃy.ɾa ɛɪ.oŋ | god protect me |
I'm debating whether verbs in a name should be conjugated. It seems like it could get quite repetitive as I plan to have them always be present tense, so that prefix could simply be assumed.
Day 174 - Consider how names will interact with inflections
Personal names are already complex enough with individual pieces that have their cases marked. In practical use, they'll get shortened and slurred together, but I'm not going to add additional case or class marking on top of that. Place names will be inflected as any other noun.
Vocative case can be indicated by putting the name at the head of the sentence, rather than the verb that would ordinarily be placed there.
Day 175 - Create example sentences with names
| IPA | Meaning | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| ʒɛx.ɪ.qɪð.wøŋ qyɸ Ʌθ ɢyɾ.ɪ.nɛð sɪn ʃy.ɾaɪm | He spoke to Truth and Beauty of God | 3.a.pr.SPEAK he.nom against NAME |
| ʒɛx.ɪ.xʃan ʃy.ɾa sɪn ɛɪ.ɪm, ʒɛx.ɪ.uɢ.ɾuq.ʃʌ uɢ.ɾuq.ɾaŋ θyʃ.oŋ | God is with me, fish those fish | NAME, 3.a.pr.FISH fish.acc this.acc |
| ʒɛx.ɛɪ.ʌŋʃ ta.dʌʃ.ʃɛɪ sɪn ta.nɪs.qa.ɾaɪm ʃy.ɾat nɛð.ɢaŋ | Breath of Wisdom saw the truth | 3.a.pa.SEE NAME truth.acc |
| ɛɪx.aɪ.xɛɪ.pɛɪ ɛɪ ʃxu.ɾaŋ ʒɛx.ɪ.dɛʎɢ ʃy.ɾa ɛɪ.oŋ | I will hold God Protect Me's dog | 1.a.pa.HOLD I.nom dog.acc NAME |
Well, that's another week done. I was a little late again, but better late than never! It feels good to have some personal names I can start to apply to some of the characters in the setting, though it will be quite a while before I have enough vocabulary built up that I have an extensive list of names.