Dixingese: the conlang
16 Dec 2019 20:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinSo, sylleblahsome was interested in what I'd managed to conlang up for my soulmates fic. Now, since as it turns out, I wrote a soulmate AU just so I could show off my conlang, I have conlang notes!
Phonetic inventory
(Yeah, v is in the wrong row with the fricatives instead of with the approximants, and the alveolar fricatives should split off dental þ and postalveolar š. Sorry, my willingness to HTML table has its limits.) The r is a trill.
Vowels: ie ei e /ɤ/, and r and n can also be syllabic in unstressed syllables.
Syllables must begin with a consonant, and that consonant cannot be n.
Grammar
Subject Object Verb word order. There are three grammatic numbers: singular, paucal (few; here from 2-10), and plural (11+). Number is reflected in verb endings solely. There are a plethora of grammatical cases, reflected in case endings. The nominative is unmarked.
Accusative: -k
Genetive: -n
Exessive: -þr
Translative: -tk
Illative: -hf
Allative: -fr
Third person verb endings have also been attested:
Singular: -drk
Paucal: -drš
Plural: -drh
(For first person, swap d for k. For second person, swap d for f.)
Names
Traditionally, Dixingian society was matrilineal and matriarchal. Children were named by their grandmother or great-grandmother (if she was alive), and in more formal contexts introduced themselves as Mothersname's Ownname. (This matronymic accounting could stretch back as many generations as desired, though usually great-grandmothers would only be listed if they were famous by some measure.) Names were traditionally a full sentence, though some particularly daring name-givers might omit the verb if they felt it was sufficiently implied. A corpus of six names, covering four generations of the same family, exists. Let us go through them in order. Generations have been marked off with Roman numerals. The two boys in generation IV are the sons of Šeǧndieþhftervdrš.
I
Ǧieškvedn’eirfr ("soft rain falls onto the face")
ǧiešk-vedn-’eir-fr
soft-water-face-ALL
II
Kernkiešvieþvezdrk ("ozone comes before lightning")
ker-n-kieš-vieþ-vez-drk
lightning-GEN-front-ozone-come-3s
III
Riehdkeþkveišdrk ("the storm embraces the mountain")
riehd-keþ-k-veiš-drk
storm-mountain-ACC-surround/embrace-3s
Šeǧndieþhftervdrš ("fingers sink into the earth")
šeǧn-dieþ-hf-terv-drš
fingers-earth-ILL-sink-3pau
IV
Veifþrkehtkvezdrk ("colors become dark")
veif-þr-keh-tk-vez-drk
color-EXESS-dark-TRANSL-come-3s
’iedznrvezdrk ("first light will come")
’ied-znr-vez-drk
first-light-come-3s
Of note is that in this family, the mother – perhaps intentionally – gave the younger twin the name better suited for the elder. Names aren't gendered, though boys are generally given simpler names than girls, seen here as well – the twin boys are given names that are poetic ways to say Dusk and Dawn respectively, while the women's names express more complicated concepts.
The eventual death knell of the Dixingian naming traditions was widespread language shift to the Chinese spoken by the much more plentiful humans. While Kernkiešvieþvezdrk was fully bilingual and literate in both languages, her grandsons were heritage speakers cut off from the language by the meteor strike; other families transitioned languages much sooner.
Other attested names
Kerdieþkverhdrk (who chose to translate her name as 船闪迹 rather than transliterate it) "lightning scars the ground"
Tieþrfeǧkheþrdrh "the sky bleeds"
Feǧtznrdieþkheiǧdrk "red light paints the ground"
Šeǧtiehrkveišdrš "the fists grasp knowledge"
Dieþriehdkveddrk "the earth drinks the storm"
Vocabulary
General vocabulary:
Family terms:
(The ones with the trailing -e are babytalk/childish. Adults would call their mother ’et instead of ’ete, for example.)
Additional vocabulary:
’ied "first"
ner "second, other, step-, adoptive" (e.g. ner’ete adoptive mother)
(I do have another fic idea that'd involve this language – namely, a bunch of Shen Wei's relatives waking up from meteor shelter stasis – but I have a load of other WIPs to clear out first.)
And here, have the script!
Sound to glyph correspondencies, with IPA and standard transliteratory character given.
Usage examples: Ǧieškvedn’eirfrn Kernkiešvieþvezdrkn Šeǧndieþhftervdršn Veifþrkehtkvezdrk, i.e. Shen Wei's Dixingese name in all its matronymic-listing glory. I also considered how one might transcribe "Zhao Yunlan" into such a script.
If you wish to hear the names out loud, go to this IPA reader, paste in a transcription of the names in IPA, select Tatyana [Russian], and press play. The format they accept is ʃɤɣndi͡eθħftɤrvdrʃn ʋe͡ifθrkɤħtkʋɤzdrk.
Phonetic inventory
| Labiodental | Alveolar | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal |
| n | ||||
| t d | k | ’ /ʔ/ | ||
| f v /ʋ/ | þ /θ/; s z; š /ʃ/ | ǧ /ɣ/ | h /ħ/ | |
| r |
(Yeah, v is in the wrong row with the fricatives instead of with the approximants, and the alveolar fricatives should split off dental þ and postalveolar š. Sorry, my willingness to HTML table has its limits.) The r is a trill.
Vowels: ie ei e /ɤ/, and r and n can also be syllabic in unstressed syllables.
Syllables must begin with a consonant, and that consonant cannot be n.
Grammar
Subject Object Verb word order. There are three grammatic numbers: singular, paucal (few; here from 2-10), and plural (11+). Number is reflected in verb endings solely. There are a plethora of grammatical cases, reflected in case endings. The nominative is unmarked.
Accusative: -k
Genetive: -n
Exessive: -þr
Translative: -tk
Illative: -hf
Allative: -fr
Third person verb endings have also been attested:
Singular: -drk
Paucal: -drš
Plural: -drh
(For first person, swap d for k. For second person, swap d for f.)
Names
Traditionally, Dixingian society was matrilineal and matriarchal. Children were named by their grandmother or great-grandmother (if she was alive), and in more formal contexts introduced themselves as Mothersname's Ownname. (This matronymic accounting could stretch back as many generations as desired, though usually great-grandmothers would only be listed if they were famous by some measure.) Names were traditionally a full sentence, though some particularly daring name-givers might omit the verb if they felt it was sufficiently implied. A corpus of six names, covering four generations of the same family, exists. Let us go through them in order. Generations have been marked off with Roman numerals. The two boys in generation IV are the sons of Šeǧndieþhftervdrš.
I
Ǧieškvedn’eirfr ("soft rain falls onto the face")
ǧiešk-vedn-’eir-fr
soft-water-face-ALL
II
Kernkiešvieþvezdrk ("ozone comes before lightning")
ker-n-kieš-vieþ-vez-drk
lightning-GEN-front-ozone-come-3s
III
Riehdkeþkveišdrk ("the storm embraces the mountain")
riehd-keþ-k-veiš-drk
storm-mountain-ACC-surround/embrace-3s
Šeǧndieþhftervdrš ("fingers sink into the earth")
šeǧn-dieþ-hf-terv-drš
fingers-earth-ILL-sink-3pau
IV
Veifþrkehtkvezdrk ("colors become dark")
veif-þr-keh-tk-vez-drk
color-EXESS-dark-TRANSL-come-3s
’iedznrvezdrk ("first light will come")
’ied-znr-vez-drk
first-light-come-3s
Of note is that in this family, the mother – perhaps intentionally – gave the younger twin the name better suited for the elder. Names aren't gendered, though boys are generally given simpler names than girls, seen here as well – the twin boys are given names that are poetic ways to say Dusk and Dawn respectively, while the women's names express more complicated concepts.
The eventual death knell of the Dixingian naming traditions was widespread language shift to the Chinese spoken by the much more plentiful humans. While Kernkiešvieþvezdrk was fully bilingual and literate in both languages, her grandsons were heritage speakers cut off from the language by the meteor strike; other families transitioned languages much sooner.
Other attested names
Kerdieþkverhdrk (who chose to translate her name as 船闪迹 rather than transliterate it) "lightning scars the ground"
Tieþrfeǧkheþrdrh "the sky bleeds"
Feǧtznrdieþkheiǧdrk "red light paints the ground"
Šeǧtiehrkveišdrš "the fists grasp knowledge"
Dieþriehdkveddrk "the earth drinks the storm"
Vocabulary
General vocabulary:
| diend | nose |
| dieþ | earth, soil, ground |
| ’eir | face |
| feǧ | blood |
| feǧt | red, orange; blood-colored |
| ǧiesk | soft, gentle |
| heiǧ | paint, color (v) |
| heþr | bleed, emit, leak |
| keh | dark |
| keht | black; dark unsaturated colors |
| ker | lightning |
| keþ | mountain |
| kieš | front, before |
| ren | human |
| riehd | storm |
| srf | spin, rotate |
| šeǧ | fist, hand |
| šeǧn | finger(s) |
| terv | sink |
| tie | sky |
| tiehr | know |
| tiehrk | knowledge |
| tieþt | tongue |
| ved | drink |
| vedn | water |
| vedt | blue, blue-green, aqua, water-colored |
| veif | color; green; saturated colors |
| veiš | grasp, embrace, surround |
| verh | scar, mark |
| vez | come |
| vieþ | ozone |
| znr | white, light, bright |
| þeiþf | teeth |
Family terms:
(The ones with the trailing -e are babytalk/childish. Adults would call their mother ’et instead of ’ete, for example.)
| ’ete | mom |
| dede | mother's brother |
| tiete | mom's older sister |
| reite | mom's younger sister |
| keke | brother |
| zeze | younger sister |
| nene | older sister |
| ǧeif | father |
| šer | son |
| keir | daughter |
| keǧ | big, grand- (keǧ’ete grandmother) |
| fied | small, grand- (fiedkeir granddaughter) |
Additional vocabulary:
’ied "first"
ner "second, other, step-, adoptive" (e.g. ner’ete adoptive mother)
(I do have another fic idea that'd involve this language – namely, a bunch of Shen Wei's relatives waking up from meteor shelter stasis – but I have a load of other WIPs to clear out first.)
And here, have the script!
Sound to glyph correspondencies, with IPA and standard transliteratory character given.
Usage examples: Ǧieškvedn’eirfrn Kernkiešvieþvezdrkn Šeǧndieþhftervdršn Veifþrkehtkvezdrk, i.e. Shen Wei's Dixingese name in all its matronymic-listing glory. I also considered how one might transcribe "Zhao Yunlan" into such a script.
If you wish to hear the names out loud, go to this IPA reader, paste in a transcription of the names in IPA, select Tatyana [Russian], and press play. The format they accept is ʃɤɣndi͡eθħftɤrvdrʃn ʋe͡ifθrkɤħtkʋɤzdrk.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-16 18:50 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-16 19:05 (UTC)Writing poetry would require stuff like figuring out how Dixingian poetry worked, so, uh, I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader. :P
no subject
Date: 2019-12-16 19:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-16 19:48 (UTC)