Over the past month or two I’ve been sketching out another language belonging to the Borvic family–the same family to which Keševan, my main conlang, belongs. The new language is tentatively called Erčemnian, and it’s branch of the Borvic family is Kodian (Kodian is a placeholder name, though I might end up keeping it. Like many of my placeholders it is named for a friend.)
Some features of Erčemnian and the Kodian languages:
- retention of the Proto-Borvic glottal plosive, written as < h > in Erčemnian.
- A large class of pronouns, particularly 1st person plural pronouns, which distinguish not just clusivity but also the number of the respective parties.
- a large number of loanwords
- Though the case and TAM systems are simple, nouns and verbs fall into a large number of subtly differing declensional/conjugational classes that must be memorized.
I have written two sample texts, translations of Schleicher’s Fable and “The King and the God” (the latter features the same god as my Calintese translation). A few pronunciation notes:
- < h > is pronounced as in English word-initially, as a glottal stop elsewhere.
- vowels are as in Spanish in open syllables, laxed in closed ones, except for the digraph < ie >, which is always [i]
- < j > is as in English, a voiced affricate
Nuš u zurs
The Sheep and the Horse
Mik luro nuš iwaj lenno taja zursasah,
on hill-obl sheep not-with wool-obl see-past.3s horse-p.acc
On a hill, a sheep that had no wool saw horses,
i čau čei i tavin zuga wanke zum,
from rel-obl one from 3-p.obl pull-past.3s wagon-acc heavy
one of them pulling a heavy wagon,
čei so solye zun,
one carry-past.3s load-acc big
one carrying a big load,
u čei so hante rinwas.
and one carry-past.3s person-acc quick-adv
and one carrying a man quickly.
Nuš su zursavin:
sheep say-past.3s horse-p.obl
The sheep said to the horses:
“Ne wai rieh nau kah na taj hante če ta lin zursasah.”
1s.poss heart hurt 1s-obl when 1s see person-acc rel 3s drive horse-p.acc
“My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses.”
Zurso suwd: “Erfú, nuš, se wayu riehad sau kah sa tajin ate:
horse-p say-past.3p / listen-imp.2s sheep 1p.poss heart-p hurt-3p 1p.obl when 3p see-3p this-acc
The horses said: “Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this:
hant, hetel, towud i lenno nušo vule veg erne atoč.
person master make from wool-obl sheep-obl garment-acc warm for refl-obl
a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself.
U nuš ven iwaj lenno.”
and sheep become not.with wool-obl
And the sheep has no wool.”
Nuš ihuhi reši wurino kah ta erfú ate.
sheep flee-past.3s into plain-obl when 3s hear-ant.3s this-acc
Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.
****
Panta u hieha
The King and the God
Adi panta.
be-ant.3s king
Once there was a king.
Ta adi iwaj zurvin. Panta lei zuri.
3s be-ant.3s not-with child-obl.p / king want-ant.3s son-acc
He was childless. The king wanted a son.
Ta vawa vosčo: “Zur venši wudat nau!”
3s ask-past.3s priest-obl / son become-opt.3s give.birth-pass.part 1s-obl
He asked his priest: “May a son be born to me!”
Vosč su pantro: “Of Mendo hiewwo.”
priest say-past.3s king-obl / pray-imp Mendu-obl god-obl
The priest said to the king: “Pray to the god Mendu.”
Panta erlik Mende hielle erkah ofiši yieh hiewwo
king approach-past.3s Mendu-acc god-acc in.order.to pray-opt.3s now god-obl
The king approached the god Mendu to pray now to the god.
“Erfú ni, Mend zaw!”
hear-imp 1s.acc Mendu father
“Hear me, father Mendu!”
Mend hieha tweti i ehabo.
Mendu god descend-past.3s from sky-obl
The god Mendu came down from heaven.
“Heye wa leim?” “Na le zuri.”
what-acc 2s want-2s / 1s want-1s son-acc
“What do you want?” “I want a son.”
“At venši,” Mend hieha yeim so.
that become-opt.3s / Mendu god bright say-past.3s
“Let this be so,” said the bright god Mendu.
Miv pantro wuda zuri.
wife king-obl give.birth-past.3s son-acc
The king’s lady bore a son.
****
A selection of cognates in Keševan and Erčemnian respectively, which should demonstrate some of the varied changes that have separated these two languages and their respective branches since their divergence from Proto-Borvic:
- epse ‘give’ / imiš ‘give’
- fi ‘water’ / ih ‘water’
- košše ‘stand’ / kuhiš ‘stand’
- laž ‘breast’ / wai ‘heart’
- mai ‘yellow’ / mell ‘white’
- par ‘star’ / sefa ‘star’
- ram ‘salt’ / herm ‘salt’
- sol ‘black’ / čil ‘black’
- ša ‘one’ / čei ‘one’
- takse ‘follow’ / tajiš ‘see’
- uîse ‘smell’ / uhieš ‘think’
- za ‘you (sing.)’ / wa ‘you (sing.)
- žum ‘white’ / yeim ‘bright’
Bibliotheca Yalenskaya 