Category: conlangs

A conlanging Odyssey

Calintese, conlangs

For the past couple weeks I’ve been participating in a translation challenge on the r/conlangs subreddit to translate Fitzgerald’s translation of the Odyssey, with a few new lines given every few days. (The latest post is here.)  Here is my progress so far, beginning partway through Book 1:

Yàuti yú yelé bavànco ènitie yá.
love-M.SG 3-M.SG.ACC much-INS father=1s give-PFV-M.SG 3-N.SG.ACC
My father gave it, for he loved him well.

Co ústie hìxi amattònei déyin ròsin áexi hònaye amattús.
1SG wish-M.SG this-GEN.PL man-GEN.PL-N.ACC able-INF meet-INF that-GEN.PL day-GEN.PL-M.ACC man-ACC=ART
I wish these men could meet the man of those days

Ya grieccáziae navàziaego àstorápra: uscèi alefá.
3-M.PL quick-FUT-M.PL know-FUT-M.PL=and fortune-ACC=3PL cold-N.SG.ACC bed-ACC
They would know their fortune quickly: a cold bed.

O! la aestònienis ílieni orgéansa
Ay but god-GEN.PL-F.PL.LOC=ART great-F.PL.LOC knees-PL.LOC=ART
Ay! but on the gods’ great knees

càtei yúve dèyin páyin dèxingo àstiná
lie-N.SG 3-GEN.SG-N able-INF return-INF make-INF=and outcome-ACC
lies his ability to return to force a reckoning

prùvemi hiettetí
REFL-GEN.SG-N.SG.LOC house-LOC
in his own home

Cu ru, co dexázie yèstinié plùvaedirra hiàu amattún
1SG-M.INS 2SG-M.INS 1SG make-FUT-M.SG beginning-N.PL.ACC scatter-INF-DAT this-M.PL.ACC man-PL.ACC
If I were you, I should take steps to make these men disperse

Lastí, hàuvie, tleimígo imuèis cu,
listen-IMP now heed-MP=and say-PASS.N.SG.=ART 1SG-INS
Listen, now, and attend to what I say:

texínie oefí tòladún rosòrara,
dawn-INS call-IMP islander-PL.ACC assembly-DAT
At daybreak call the islanders to assembly,

yeccanígo ustinàra, oefígo aestún àrirra:
speak-IMP=and will-ACC=2SG call-IMP=and god-PL.ACC see-INF-DAT
And speak your will, and call the gods to witness:

canadòden àstin plùvaedongo hiettétranpra.
suitor-PL.DAT depart-INF scatter-PASS-INF=and house-PL.DAT=REFL
The suitors must go scattering to their homes.

Ahàuvie rózi ròdi hèa, ru yeyóu:
then path 2SG-M.DAT be.here-F.SG, 2SG-INS agree-M.SG-INS
Then here’s a course for you, if you agree:

exí stalè címu mòsloneá pesnixéral
take-INF strong-M.SG.ACC ship-ACC oar-PL.GEN-N.SG.INS twenty-INS=with
get a sound craft afloat with twenty oars

àstígo clàttígo banòtixa bavánayimiro bestìnara–
go-INF=ART travel-INF=ART father-GEN-N.SG.DAT=2SG news-DAT
and go abroad for news of your lost father—

dè clàttaduvimi imiòdi, grèvaradi
perhaps traveller-GEN-M.SG.DAT story-DAT, rumor-DAT=or
perhaps a traveller’s tale, or rumored fame

Zenuò clàttimi amattònieni lònéan.
Zeus-ABL travel-M.SG.ABL man-PL.GEN-N.PL.LOC land-PL.LOC
issued from Zeus abroad in the world of men.

Yeccaní áemi iximi mòdrimi Pulúa Nestoròdi,
speak-IMP that-M.SG.DAT noble-M.SG.DAT wise-M.SG.SAT Pylos-LOC Nestor-DAT
Talk to that noble sage at Pylos, Nestor,

àstígo Menalaùdi, rieggimi oránòdis
go-IMP=and Menelaos-DAT, red.haired-M.DAT.SG king-DAT=ART
then go to Meneláos, the red-haired king

Spartéa, axayònexa haláyimi òlmimi amattòdis géitimi hiettètra.
Sparta-LOC, Akhaian-PL.GEN-N.SG.GEN all-GEN-M.SG.DAT last-M.SG.DAT man-DAT=ART come-PFV-M.SG.DAT house-DAT
at Sparta, last man home of all the Akhaians.

Xàdditi bavanayèi rèmin
know-PFV-M.SG father-GEN-N.SG.ACC live-INF
If you should learn your father is alive

géingo hiettètra, ro deyázie cèdi payàulie.
come-INF=and home-DAT, 2SG-M can-FUT-M.SG remain-INF year-INS.
and coming home, you could hold out a year.

A brief review of my conlangs so far…

Calintese, conlangs, Keševan

Seeing as this blog began very in medias res, what follows is a brief description of my conlangs and their current states, both in external and internal history.

Despite the fact that my first few posts here are in Calintese, it is actually only the latest of my languages to be fleshed out (despite its syntax slumbering in my head for a number of years). My main conlang is Keševan, on which I’ve worked for over a decade. And though it might seem disappointingly unexotic to other conlangers–very few of the language’s features are particularly un-European–I hold Keševan very close to my heart. It is by far the most developed of my languages, with a vocabulary of over 1700 entries, complete with etymologies and morphological breakdowns.

A taste of Keševan, a translation of the opening lines of Nerval’s Sylvie:

Na arlatsa le karze, eče, amma lumma, na lušissa se ša le kóšgalma katma, sevulta zarme vúlneže burle santákuže. Šangam or čat ota, šangam vag. 

(Stress on the penult unless marked, nasalize vowels before nasal consonants, unround unstressed back vowels, and you should be pretty good to go.)

Keševan has a couple sisters sketched out in light detail. They would be spoken in fictional countries adjacent to Keševa. One of the sisters is called Bolnese, the other is still searching for a name and needs to grow into herself.

Keševan and her sisters are descended from an ancient tongue called variously either Old Keševan or Old Kešefan or Rasal (the lattermost is what I’ve come to stick with). In the real world, it grew up simultaneously with its daughter Keševan, perhaps even earlier, but I’ve left it fallow for a very long time. I keep a running tally of words, features, etc. to revamp that I constantly promise I’ll get around to adding to the master document. Rasal and its daughters are all members of a language family sprawling across the northern edge of their continent.

My next major family lies far to the south in more tropical climes. Gapašan is a conscious attempt to break out of standard European linguistic models: Gapašan’s daughters stand out with thorough animacy-based split ergativity and some quite un-English phonologies. It is also a very recent attempt, dating back only a year. Gapašan’s daughters lie in three groups: Northwest Gapašic, which consists only of Irpan, of which I have only a few paragraphs of information; Central Gapašic, which contains Curonese, Agwenese, and Mejaguese; and South-East Gapašic, consisting of Yoronese, Kavan, and one or two other languages. Of this family Mejaguese is the most developed, with a couple hundred words of vocabulary and a grammar sketch. Out of the other Gapašic languages, only Yoronese approaches Mejaguese in its level of development.

A sample of Mejaguese: Ga si-oj ma qagbe čiyag siřu römorre. “The man loves the scholar whose father sits on the council.” q is /q/, j is /ʤ/, and ř /ʀ/.

In addition to these I have some very brief sketches of other non-Gapašic languages of the island of Gapaša. These little languages are effectively my sandboxes to play with whatever linguistic features I’ve recently read about.

Lastly and lately, Calintese, which I envision as belonging to an expansive “Proto-Southern” family growing in parallel with–and often at the expense of–Keševan’s Northern family. Calintese is an ancient language, a contemporary of Rasal, and in-world has a status not unlike Greek or Hebrew. I also imagine a close sister of Calintese under the working title of Meritic, which right now consists of some sound-change laws and a handful of words. Calintese’s modern descendant will be highly Keševized in vocabulary.

That’s how things stand at the moment. Regions to develop include the regions to the west of Keševa, about whose languages I have vague inklings of genetic affiliation but not much else.

Ilich-Svitych’s Nostratic poem

Calintese, conlangs

Another Calintese translation exercise, this time of Ilich-Svitych’s little poem in his proposed reconstruction of Nostratic.

Xútto pàttuavemi céxarastra oxèsmen
tongue time-GEN-N.DAT river-DAT=ART=through crossing
Language is a ford through the river of time

bièdeigo aná àstitixis hiettétras
lead-N.SG=and 1PL-N.ACC depart-PFV-N.GEN.PL=ART house-DAT=ART
and leads us to the dwelling of the departed

la górris puddá crìlie géyeva éara
but fear-M.SG=ART deep-F.ACC.SG water-ACC go-M.SG=NEG that-N.DAT.SG
but he does not arrive there who is afraid of deep water.

Note the usage of the dative as an allative case and how a subjectless verb may be understood to be modify an indefinite subject when the article is attached: górris “the fearing one” or “he who fears”, i.e., “whoever fears.”

Schleicher’s Fable in Calintese Analyzed and Commentated

Calintese, conlangs

As promised, a gloss of the translation in my last post of Shleicher’s Fable into Calintese.

Máfi=s raùcco=s=go
sheep=ART horse=ART=and
The Sheep and the Horse

Articles are suffixed onto the preceding noun. The clitic -go ‘and’ I borrowed from Latin -que.

Hey-éa craùrm-Ø–a-va máfi ar-ìt-ea raucc-ún,
hill-LOC woolly-PRS-F.S-NEG sheep see-PFV-F.S horse-ACC.P
On a hill a sheep without wool saw horses

There are no true adjectives in Calintese–they are subsumed by the category of verbs. Thus, there is not “woolly” but rather a verb “be woolly,” and placed in attributive position before a noun it takes participial meaning: “a being-woolly sheep.” In certain classes of verbs the ending differs between attributive and predicative functions. In this example, -a and -ea both mark that the subject of the verb is feminine and singular (and nominative, only subjects can govern predicate verbals anyways), but the long form is used in the predicate or main verb. Diachronically, the long forms are reduplicated endings changed by vowel dissimilation. Originally, the reduplicated part must have been an entire copula. (Calintese lacks an overt copula. Thus one could alternately analyze the verbal system as consisting entirely of participles, which, in predicate, post-subject position are understood to be accompanied by an implicit “is” or “are”.)

These verbal adjectives can be marked for any nominal case. The entire system is largely inspired by the Russian past tense, though instead of just -л, -ла, -ло, -ли, I expanded the system to include the analogues of the marginally existent -лого, -лому, etc.–what the forms would be in the other, non-nominative cases.

Note also that the present tense has no overt marker, unlike the past perfective and imperfective.

xi é bièd-il-ei il-èi treàul-á,
and one lead-IPFV-N.S great-PRS.ACC.N.S cart-ACC.N.S
and one was pulling a big cart,

é nó-el-ei il-èi nost-á,
one bear-IPFV-N.S great-PRS.ACC.N.S burden-ACC.N.S
one was carrying a big load,

égo nó-el-ei amatt-ú griècc-il-ei-go.
one=and bear-IPFV-N.S person-ACC.S quick-IPFV-N.S=and
and one was carrying a person quickly.

I have decided that adverbs can’t be straightforwardly derived from verbal adjectives. The strategy Calintese instead employs can be seen in the above sentence: literally, “was carrying and was quick”. Compare English, in which someone can “come running” but not “come runningly.”

Máfi-s im-ìt-ea raucc-òden=sa,
sheep=ART say-PFV-F.S horse-DAT.P=ART
The sheep said to the horses,

“Dlàtta=ca métt-Ø-e ar-Ø-àu biètt-Ø-e raucc-ún amatt-ú c-é.”
heart-1S hurt-PRS-N.S see-PRS-ACC.F.S drive-PRS-ACC.M.S horse-ACC.P person-ACC.S 1S-ACC.F
“My heart hurts me seeing a man driving horses.”

Note that biètte ‘driving’ is accusative, just as all predicative verb-adjectives can be considered nominative. Ample verbal case agreement obviates most need for relative pronouns, Calintese instead liberally using participial phrases.

Ráucc-a-s im-ìt-iae, “Last-í, màfi, dlàtt-ae=na métt-Ø-iei aunet-ú, àr-Ø-ia é-a:
horse-P=ART say-PFV-M.P listen-IMP sheep heart-PL=1P hurt-PRS-N.P 1P.EXCL-ACC see-PRS-M.P this-ACC.N
The horses said, “Listen, sheep, our hearts hurt us, seeing this:

amátto, hiettél=so, dèx-Ø-i memm-Ø-èi éyal maf-ev-á=s craùr-ie=s pr-òdi,
person, master=ART, make-PRS-M.S warm-PRS-ACC.N garment sheep-GEN-INS.F=ART wool-INS=ART REFL-DAT.M
a man, the master, makes a warm garment for himself from the sheep’s wool,

The genitive case takes Suffixaufnahme, i.e., verbal endings to agree with its head (subject) noun. This also means it can take tense! We could say that the wool was mafevila “formerly of the sheep.” I feel justified in calling the genitive a case and not a derivational morpheme in that its form differs among the nominal declension classes.

xi máfi=s craùrm-Ø-a-va. Last-ít-a é-a màfi=s plùv-it-ea lurín-ara=s.
and sheep=ART woolly-PRS-F.S-NEG. listen-PFV-F.S this-ACC.N sheep=ART flee-PFV-F.S plain-DAT=ART
and the sheep is without wool.” Having heard this the sheep fled into the plain.

Schleicher’s Fable in Calintese

Calintese, conlangs

For now, a brief inaugural post. Interlinear gloss and commentary to come later. For the curious, <x> represents /x/, <oe> /oj/, and <ae> /aj/. The diacritics represent pitch accent.

Máfis raùccosgo
Heyéa craùrmava máfi arìtea rauccún, xi é bièdilei ilèi treàulá, é nóelei ilèi nostá, égo nóelei amattú grieccìleigo. Máfis imìtea rauccòdensa, “Dlàttaca métte aràu biètte rauccún amattú cé.” Ráuccas imìtiae, “Lastí, màfi, dlàttaena méttiei aunetú, ària éa: amátto, hiettélso, dèxi memmèi éyal mafevás craùries pròdi, xi máfis craùrmava. Lastíla éa màfis plùvitea lurínaras.

The Sheep and the Horse
On a hill, a sheep without wool saw horses, and one was leading a big wagon, one was carrying a big burden, and one was carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses, “My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses.” The horses said, “Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself, and the sheep has no wool.” Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

update: corrected some grammatical errors