
Word derivation for "flint" :
Basque = sukarri, Finnish = piikivi
Miresua = sikiri
Flint is a type of rock that can be chipped into stone weapons and tools. Flint and steel can be used to spark a fire.
Like all projects (and languages), ‘Umu is being pulled in different directions at different times. I’m introducing a few changes to ‘Umu morphology and orthography.
No More Word Class
Probably the best feature of the whole damned language, word classes by means of initial radicals are being phased out for two reasons:
1) Limiting all words to only 10 initials produces rather boring looking glyphs and fails to take advantage of all of pseudoglyph’s design features.
2) I’m caught in a problem of compounds. Initially, redicals only came alive when the word was being modified but, at the moment, I’m having trouble drawing the line between whether a word is being modified or whether a word is a compound… and what would happen if a (nomial) compound were being modified (which may be a compound itself).
I’m going to step back a second and figure out what this structure looks like before trying to throw in some type of mutation.
No More Vowel Shift
This change is also because of the above reason. There’s nothing to stop these features from coming back (in fact, I want them to) but I would rather solidify the basics before embellishing.
Simplified Glyph Building
Tratidionally, all ‘Umu words written with pseudoglyphs were built on a 3×6 grid, with your basic syllable being 3×3 and your basic word having two syllables. However, this arrangement produced several configurations that were difficult to codify into a standardized glyph set.
To fix this, words will now be build on a 3×5 grid, with each syllable overlapping one segment. This not only solves the problem but also produces interesting design variations that were previously impossible.
I could wax about some fictitious orthography reform a la Traditionaly/Simplified Chinese, but I’ll leave this to our collective imaginations. The end result is that we’re going to start seeing some very interesting looking glyphs start to appear.
To give you a better understanding of this change, I’ve written the word for tedu river using the old system, then the new, then the new system again only without the initial radical. I’d be interested to hear your feedback, now and as glyphs continue to unfold.
ankeþāwa
Line 10 of the Kēlen Jabberwocky:
ñi sāen marūsa ramāra nīkan sōlle jakeþāwa ānen anhēnārtānre nā;
(See Nov 7th’s post for an introduction.)
ankeþāwa is the attribute of being separated. ñi sāen marūsa ramāra nīkan sōlle jakeþāwa is “He returned home together with the separated head”. I will discuss ānen anhēnārtānre nā tomorrow.
il ōrralon ñi jarewēλecāwāŋŋi ā jawēlrūlri rū jaxēwepōma āñ;
se jarāŋŋen mo jatēññāntetūrāŋŋeni; ñi japiēlkāhi tō jarōhāþi lā;
sere jakewāla to macāppacāe sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla nā;
to makīmaþālen masāknenūren to macūcū matū ñi ma rū ma pēxa cī;
il jahōλa ñamma masēnre maxōsa ā sāen japērnō jaλāten nīkamma sakū;
tō jāo sema jaþēλa mo sāen ma ñi maþārre matōrja sū jasātsātena tā;
il jīla þō ñi macāppacāe matāλisse rā xō rā jamēþena jaxēla kiē;
ānen sarōña janāola ñi jaxīra ñe ankālli ankālleni anūmi nā;
āniþ ēnne; āniþ ēnne; ñamma jatāŋŋi ŋō tō jēste jarūsīsse rā ma kiē;
ñi sāen marūsa ramāra nīkan sōlle jakeþāwa ānen anhēnārtānre nā;
In the afternoon, the circular lizards did gyre and gimble around the shadow-stick.
The easily-annoyed thin-winged bird-spiders were annoyed.
The lost chicken-pigs make cough-cries!
Beware macāppacāe, its biting teeth, its many catching claws,
the frumious makīmaþālen, the macūcū bird
Be away from them.
For 1/8th of a day, he searched for his enemy, a deadly blade in his hand.
Therefore, leaning and still, he thought under the jasātsātena.
At that moment, mercurial macāppacāe came to there through the dark woods.
With flaming eyes, he made a noise like very loud popping bubbles.
One, two. One, two. The swinging knife made very many piercings through him.
He returned home with the separated head…
umu
A kavi umu o ia!
“Your lip is big!”
Notes: Presumably from a fight. I think umu is an iku’ume. I mean, that seems right. Looks pretty good, for what it is. Not much else to say, other than iTunes won’t play right now, so I’m restarting my computer. So take that.
tiráng- (transitive verb), imperfective tirángaram: to wound, injure; to knife, stabbed.
ca-rupercánder tayat tiráng-ucá rattamec
my-NEG.wish.SOC earlier injure.MID-POT.1 battle.INESS
“I do not wish to be injured before the battle”
lia
Male fineli ia i ipe lia.
“You’re gonna lose that girl.”
Notes: One of my all-time favorite Beatles songs! If you’re unfamiliar, give it a listen.
This is one of those words I thought I’d done. After all, it’s pretty basic, and a foma. The iku’s a little funny. It incorporates li, but it’s kind of built off of part of live, the word for “coyote”. It’s done so it looks human (the iku), but beyond that, I can’t say why it looks the way it does. An old one, though.
ŋō
Line 9 of the Kēlen Jabberwocky:
āniþ ēnne; āniþ ēnne; ñamma jatāŋŋi ŋō tō jēste jarūsīsse rā ma kiē;
(See Nov 7th’s post for an introduction.)
I blogged this word before, too, on March 2nd, 2011 as the number 140 octal, 96 decimal. The other meaning of this word is as an exaggerated many or very many. jatāŋŋi ŋō is therefore either 96 piercings (or cuts) or very many (hundreds of) piercings. jēste jarūsīsse is the instrument making the cuts. anrūsīsse is “back and forth”, as in swinging like a pendulum. And rā ma kiē means “through him/her/them”. So the swinging knife made very many piercings through him.
il ōrralon ñi jarewēλecāwāŋŋi ā jawēlrūlri rū jaxēwepōma āñ;
se jarāŋŋen mo jatēññāntetūrāŋŋeni; ñi japiēlkāhi tō jarōhāþi lā;
sere jakewāla to macāppacāe sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla nā;
to makīmaþālen masāknenūren to macūcū matū ñi ma rū ma pēxa cī;
il jahōλa ñamma masēnre maxōsa ā sāen japērnō jaλāten nīkamma sakū;
tō jāo sema jaþēλa mo sāen ma ñi maþārre matōrja sū jasātsātena tā;
il jīla þō ñi macāppacāe matāλisse rā xō rā jamēþena jaxēla kiē;
ānen sarōña janāola ñi jaxīra ñe ankālli ankālleni anūmi nā;
āniþ ēnne; āniþ ēnne; ñamma jatāŋŋi ŋō tō jēste jarūsīsse rā ma kiē;
In the afternoon, the circular lizards did gyre and gimble around the shadow-stick.
The easily-annoyed thin-winged bird-spiders were annoyed.
The lost chicken-pigs make cough-cries!
Beware macāppacāe, its biting teeth, its many catching claws,
the frumious makīmaþālen, the macūcū bird
Be away from them.
For 1/8th of a day, he searched for his enemy, a deadly blade in his hand.
Therefore, leaning and still, he thought under the jasātsātena.
At that moment, mercurial macāppacāe came to there through the dark woods.
With flaming eyes, he made a noise like very loud popping bubbles.
One, two. One, two. The swinging knife made very many piercings through him.