It's that time of the year again, when I take a look what happened in the development of Teliya Nevashi over the last 12 months (+/-) and set a course for the coming year.
The development of the language has continued to be slow, in fits and starts, but there are now over 300 words in the vocabulary file. There have been quite a few developments in colloquial/idiomatic usage over the year. It has been used in status messages on Facebook and for about half of my cards for the Conlang Card Exchange. (The other half were ea-luna cards.)
Onward to the future!
There are three things I hope to accomplish with this language this year:
1. I'd like to write some lessons. I've had a couple of people ask, for one thing, and it might be a good thing for developing the language.
2. I'd like to do more translations and writing, for the sake of developing the vocabulary and grammar, as well as getting more practice using it myself.
3. I'd like to revise and expand the grammar.
I am cautiously hopeful about my chances of accomplishing substantive progress this year.
Regarding my other conlangs, I'd like to finish the vocabulary file for ea-luna and try to recreate as many of the lost compound words as possible. If I get around to it, I'd like to try to describe the grammar, or at least collect enough model sentences together in one place that someone else could, if they felt some strange, burning need that the antibiotics didn't fix.
I would also like to start another language using the ideas that have been coalescing in my head for the last 6 months or so. This would be a collaborative project, in theory.
And, lastly, regarding other conlangs that are not mine, I plan on spending the next few months really learning to use Esperanto, and then going to the Landa Kongreso, which will be in Washington, DC-- conveniently close! I just think it would be a fun life experience.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
One small adjustment to a single word
Marigold, the flower formerly known as tajíta, is now called tají.
Somewhere in an earlier entry, when I was translating sentences, there was someone called "Little Marigold"--
Was: Tajítsha
Is: Tajísha
This is a legitimate name for a Nevashi girl-- both Tají and its diminutive, Tajísha-- although there is probably some teasing around how close it is to taje ("husband") by the meaner children.
Somewhere in an earlier entry, when I was translating sentences, there was someone called "Little Marigold"--
Was: Tajítsha
Is: Tajísha
This is a legitimate name for a Nevashi girl-- both Tají and its diminutive, Tajísha-- although there is probably some teasing around how close it is to taje ("husband") by the meaner children.
Nevashi In Action: Congratulations
I had an occasion to congratulate someone, but Nevashi came up short. I have since remedied that.
First, I looked up the etymology of "congratulation" and then searched out and considered how other languages handle congratulations. In the end, I found that I already had the words I wanted: Anta jeya! ("There is happiness!" or maybe "It is a joy!")
So, there is no verb "to congratulate", but you might say something like, Za twen ea-jeyam voz. (1st+past+give share happiness-acc his/her.), "I shared his or her happiness.") or perhaps just ja tel vosh, "anta jeya" (1st-past-speech speak (3rd person-epicene-dative-pronoun), "There-is happiness".; "I told him/her "congratulations".)
A note in passing...
There are not separate words for 'speak', 'talk', and 'say' in Nevashi at this point. There are variations on the one word, tel, that mean to talk loudly, to whisper, or to talk a lot, and there are different words that specifically mean "shout" (magan), "tell a story, recite, or make a speech" (hlal) and "pray" (nedh), but there is yet no distinction as made in English for the three words above. I think it might stay that way unless I see a pressing need to change that.
There are other parts of even the limited vocabulary it has already developed that are a lot more specific than English. (See gwelva, the variations on "love", and/or the words that might be covered by "healthy" in English.)
First, I looked up the etymology of "congratulation" and then searched out and considered how other languages handle congratulations. In the end, I found that I already had the words I wanted: Anta jeya! ("There is happiness!" or maybe "It is a joy!")
So, there is no verb "to congratulate", but you might say something like, Za twen ea-jeyam voz. (1st+past+give share happiness-acc his/her.), "I shared his or her happiness.") or perhaps just ja tel vosh, "anta jeya" (1st-past-speech speak (3rd person-epicene-dative-pronoun), "There-is happiness".; "I told him/her "congratulations".)
A note in passing...
There are not separate words for 'speak', 'talk', and 'say' in Nevashi at this point. There are variations on the one word, tel, that mean to talk loudly, to whisper, or to talk a lot, and there are different words that specifically mean "shout" (magan), "tell a story, recite, or make a speech" (hlal) and "pray" (nedh), but there is yet no distinction as made in English for the three words above. I think it might stay that way unless I see a pressing need to change that.
There are other parts of even the limited vocabulary it has already developed that are a lot more specific than English. (See gwelva, the variations on "love", and/or the words that might be covered by "healthy" in English.)
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Holiday Greeting Formula, Shufshevél Customs
I have been working on cards for the conlang card exchange, and the greeting I have settled on is Pa imev yevam, vekum, wa imlam dez gyet Shuf-shevélat! This builds on the previously formulated "pa imev...dez" ("I wish for your...") formula created for birthday greetings.
I think I might keep this as a set greeting/blessing/cursing formula and work on some grammar to handle more complex thoughts about what one person wants another person to be/do/whatever.
Shuf-shevél or Shufshevél is the Nevashi fish celebration, which is exactly that the name means. Once mainly a fishing and seafaring island culture, fish represent prosperity and fertility for the Nevashi. The symbolism remains, even for mainland Nevashi, who are mainly farmers, traders, and merchants, far removed from their roots. Blue, green, and gold are the traditional colors of this holiday, carrying much the same significance as the fish.
On Nevash, the custom is for each household to buy or make an unfired clay pot in the shape of the fish. Small token offerings, such as coins or bits of food, are placed in the mouth of the pot. There is a procession down to waterside in the morning of the first day of the celebration, where the pots are tossed into the water. Those inland on the island may go to the nearest river or lake instead. With that out of the way, the real festivities begin-- there's a lot of feasting, drinking, singing, and gift giving. Fish-shaped jewelry is a popular gift, widely believed to bring good luck.
Originally, the festival was held after the trees had lost their leaves but before freezing temperatures set in, on whatever day the local temple declared auspicious. It has become loosely associated with the winter solstice due to contact with cultures that celebrate that occasion, and the increasing centralization of religious and civil authority has led to more and more towns and villages holding their festival on the same day as the capital city. The length of the festival is determined by either the local temple or the temple in the capital city, as determined by the same sort of augury that sets the date of the start of the celebration.
Mainland Nevashi, removed from the island culture, still celebrate the festival, but with customs that have evolved to fit their circumstances. It is still a celebration with a lot of feasting, drinking, and gift-giving, with slightly different details. Those communities in close contact with solstice celebrating cultures may have both night or sun themes, in addition to the traditional fish motif, but they still call it Shuf-shevél.
Almost every mainland family owns a fish-shaped vase, which tends to be very ornately decorated in the colors of the holiday. A fish festival vase is often the gift of choice to a newly married couple from the bride's parents-- either an heirloom or a newly purchased one. Wishes are written on pieces of paper and put into the vase on the first day of the festival, which tends to run a full 5 days on the mainland. On the last day of the festival, the wishes are thrown into a fire unread-- it's considered very bad luck to read anything that goes into the vase.
The second day usually involves a blessing of tools of work, in order to bring prosperity. The remaining days each have a different theme, such as "gratitude" or "remembering Nevash", etc, varying from community to community. Every day involves parties and feasting, with menus varied to fit the theme of the day. On the last day of the festival, the wishes are thrown into a fire unread-- it's considered very bad luck to read anything that goes into the vase.
I think I might keep this as a set greeting/blessing/cursing formula and work on some grammar to handle more complex thoughts about what one person wants another person to be/do/whatever.
Shuf-shevél or Shufshevél is the Nevashi fish celebration, which is exactly that the name means. Once mainly a fishing and seafaring island culture, fish represent prosperity and fertility for the Nevashi. The symbolism remains, even for mainland Nevashi, who are mainly farmers, traders, and merchants, far removed from their roots. Blue, green, and gold are the traditional colors of this holiday, carrying much the same significance as the fish.
On Nevash, the custom is for each household to buy or make an unfired clay pot in the shape of the fish. Small token offerings, such as coins or bits of food, are placed in the mouth of the pot. There is a procession down to waterside in the morning of the first day of the celebration, where the pots are tossed into the water. Those inland on the island may go to the nearest river or lake instead. With that out of the way, the real festivities begin-- there's a lot of feasting, drinking, singing, and gift giving. Fish-shaped jewelry is a popular gift, widely believed to bring good luck.
Originally, the festival was held after the trees had lost their leaves but before freezing temperatures set in, on whatever day the local temple declared auspicious. It has become loosely associated with the winter solstice due to contact with cultures that celebrate that occasion, and the increasing centralization of religious and civil authority has led to more and more towns and villages holding their festival on the same day as the capital city. The length of the festival is determined by either the local temple or the temple in the capital city, as determined by the same sort of augury that sets the date of the start of the celebration.
Mainland Nevashi, removed from the island culture, still celebrate the festival, but with customs that have evolved to fit their circumstances. It is still a celebration with a lot of feasting, drinking, and gift-giving, with slightly different details. Those communities in close contact with solstice celebrating cultures may have both night or sun themes, in addition to the traditional fish motif, but they still call it Shuf-shevél.
Almost every mainland family owns a fish-shaped vase, which tends to be very ornately decorated in the colors of the holiday. A fish festival vase is often the gift of choice to a newly married couple from the bride's parents-- either an heirloom or a newly purchased one. Wishes are written on pieces of paper and put into the vase on the first day of the festival, which tends to run a full 5 days on the mainland. On the last day of the festival, the wishes are thrown into a fire unread-- it's considered very bad luck to read anything that goes into the vase.
The second day usually involves a blessing of tools of work, in order to bring prosperity. The remaining days each have a different theme, such as "gratitude" or "remembering Nevash", etc, varying from community to community. Every day involves parties and feasting, with menus varied to fit the theme of the day. On the last day of the festival, the wishes are thrown into a fire unread-- it's considered very bad luck to read anything that goes into the vase.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Misc.
I posted this as a Facebook status:
Eki kyudit ya hoan sanzonaz wera, cora, wa moci.
3rd-pl-go change-toward the leaves trees-gen yellow, red, and brown.
(The leaves of the trees are turning yellow, red, and brown.)
I was really unsure where to put the colors in the sentence because it felt a little weird to have the subject between the change-to verb and the things that are being changed to. 'Change' (to, from, or unspecified) is a motion verb in Nevashi, so I will have to meditate on exactly how it works with the "destination" part, and whether or not that part works differently depending on whether or not it is a noun or an adjective.
The vocabulary file is up to 297 entries. A lot of those words are related to one another, though. I am looking forward to generating a lot more useful words soon. (More in both quantity and quality.)
I made a few changes to the vocabulary file as well, adjusting the meaning of some words, and replacing 'fiosfis' with 'fiosa', still allowing 'fiosfis' as an alternate choice, along with a few other possibilities. (Fiosa, "house")
I will likely be posting the grammar as a web page soon. I just haven't decided where I will have it hosted and how I will present it. Most likely it will look just like the current document with a few changes and editing. I have more things to add to the grammar yet, but it is coming along a little at a time.
I have been working on yet another project, but it's not ready for public viewing of any sort yet. I guess I am experimenting with method at this point. This other project ('Ezedani' or 'Ezedan') is not as interesting as Teliya Nevashi, in terms of features, so far, but it has a different purpose, and I've learned a little bit about faster development through consistent use already. There's just not a lot of 'there' there yet. (That last sentence made me smile.)
Eki kyudit ya hoan sanzonaz wera, cora, wa moci.
3rd-pl-go change-toward the leaves trees-gen yellow, red, and brown.
(The leaves of the trees are turning yellow, red, and brown.)
I was really unsure where to put the colors in the sentence because it felt a little weird to have the subject between the change-to verb and the things that are being changed to. 'Change' (to, from, or unspecified) is a motion verb in Nevashi, so I will have to meditate on exactly how it works with the "destination" part, and whether or not that part works differently depending on whether or not it is a noun or an adjective.
The vocabulary file is up to 297 entries. A lot of those words are related to one another, though. I am looking forward to generating a lot more useful words soon. (More in both quantity and quality.)
I made a few changes to the vocabulary file as well, adjusting the meaning of some words, and replacing 'fiosfis' with 'fiosa', still allowing 'fiosfis' as an alternate choice, along with a few other possibilities. (Fiosa, "house")
I will likely be posting the grammar as a web page soon. I just haven't decided where I will have it hosted and how I will present it. Most likely it will look just like the current document with a few changes and editing. I have more things to add to the grammar yet, but it is coming along a little at a time.
I have been working on yet another project, but it's not ready for public viewing of any sort yet. I guess I am experimenting with method at this point. This other project ('Ezedani' or 'Ezedan') is not as interesting as Teliya Nevashi, in terms of features, so far, but it has a different purpose, and I've learned a little bit about faster development through consistent use already. There's just not a lot of 'there' there yet. (That last sentence made me smile.)
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Need to do updates
I have created some additional vocabulary on paper that needs to make it into the lexicon spreadsheet. I have some grammar that's evolved that needs to be described. I am promising myself to do all that on Thursday.
I have also been working a little bit on ea-luna, as well. I'm reconstructing it from what I can find and what's in the notebook. The grammar was never written down beyond sets of sample sentences showing the solutions to problems I encountered. There's a pretty set formula for sentences (that is also mirrored in clauses within sentences), so it's not really difficult to learn. It's either made simpler or made far more complicated, depending on your point of view, by all the things that can potentially be omitted if the speaker believes they are reasonably obvious from the context. Not to mention the things that are usually omitted!
Anyway, in the midst of all of this, I've been giving some thought to my methods, what has worked and what hasn't worked so well for me. My efforts may be changing a bit as I move toward producing more language-in-use rather than spending too much time producing more desciption of how it should work in theory.
I have also been working a little bit on ea-luna, as well. I'm reconstructing it from what I can find and what's in the notebook. The grammar was never written down beyond sets of sample sentences showing the solutions to problems I encountered. There's a pretty set formula for sentences (that is also mirrored in clauses within sentences), so it's not really difficult to learn. It's either made simpler or made far more complicated, depending on your point of view, by all the things that can potentially be omitted if the speaker believes they are reasonably obvious from the context. Not to mention the things that are usually omitted!
Anyway, in the midst of all of this, I've been giving some thought to my methods, what has worked and what hasn't worked so well for me. My efforts may be changing a bit as I move toward producing more language-in-use rather than spending too much time producing more desciption of how it should work in theory.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
6 days short of a year later...
When I make changes to the Nevashi grammar, I include the date of the addition or change. Today I added the causative+imperative in order to make "start the car" and "turn on the light" possible with the vocabulary that already exists, and I noticed that I added the regular imperative on 4/29/08. That's where the title of this post comes from.
And here's the new bit:
I haven't had time to work on the language much lately. I hope I'll get some work done on it this week. I'm going to continue doing translations and addressing grammar issues as they arise. I've got tentative solutions to a few problems I've encountered that also need to be documented and road tested.
Also, I'll be working on creating new words, both in the course of translation and by categorical lists. While I am at it, I need to find a way to work zabli and ovni into the language. Zabli is a nonsense word my 10-year-old daughter was saying recently, and then I was flipping through channels on the TV and passed a show about UFOs, which made me think (one meandering path of thought later) that ovni sounds like a Nevashi word. So does "ufo" for that matter.
And here's the new bit:
Imperative+causative. -(i)xi, s.; i- -(i)xi, pl., e.g. "muzhuxi ya otomom", "start the car" (run+causative_imperative the car-acc.)or "isivixi ya ombam", "Turn on the lamp, y'all." (pl-be active-causative_imperative the lamp-acc.)
Unlike the -shi imperative, the final i is never dropped. [Added 4/23/2009]
I haven't had time to work on the language much lately. I hope I'll get some work done on it this week. I'm going to continue doing translations and addressing grammar issues as they arise. I've got tentative solutions to a few problems I've encountered that also need to be documented and road tested.
Also, I'll be working on creating new words, both in the course of translation and by categorical lists. While I am at it, I need to find a way to work zabli and ovni into the language. Zabli is a nonsense word my 10-year-old daughter was saying recently, and then I was flipping through channels on the TV and passed a show about UFOs, which made me think (one meandering path of thought later) that ovni sounds like a Nevashi word. So does "ufo" for that matter.
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