Conlangers

feveka

• (v.) to be really exhausted
• (adj.) drained
• (n.) extreme exhaustion

A feveka ei.
“I’m drained.”

Notes: I’m back from Palm Springs, and I feel like I been drug behind a semi. Or that feeling you get after a long day at the beach. The problem is, there is much, much to do this week. Busy, busy, busy…

Here’s a shot of Palm Springs out my hotel window:

It was a nice enough hotel, but their “policy” regarding wifi is ridiculous. Basically, it costs $14 a day for an individual device (not for a person) to have wifi. So if you have a laptop and a smart phone, that’s $28 a day if you want to get wifi on both. This is 2011, not 1999: That practice is absurd. Thank goodness for the Edge network, or I would’ve gotten nothing done…

Well, here we go again. Let’s see what this week holds in store for me. First step: Calling the HOA people to replace the drywall they took out to spray for termites…

ōraen

We’re on this sentence in the 17th Conlang Relay Text:

se jarūlōn to jakērþe ī ñi jakērþi ōraen rā xō;
The horse made a loud cry and then…ñi jakērþi ōraen rā xō;

ōraen is another number. It means 10,000 in base 8, which is 4096 in base ten, but really it’s not that exact, and “thousands” is a good translation. “and then thousands of horses went to there”. “came/went to there” is the literal translation, but “arrived” also works.

se jarūlōn to jakērþe ī ñi jakērþi ōraen rā xō;
The horse made a loud cry and then thousands of horses arrived.

jarūlōn

The next sentence in the 17th Conlang Relay Text is:

se jarūlōn to jakērþe ī ñi jakērþi ōraen rā xō;

The first clause is a se clause and says that the horse was the source of jarūlōn, which means “a loud cry” or “a shout”. So the horse made a loud horse-sound and then… tune in tomorrow.

fiale

• (v.) to return (to a place one has left)
• (n.) return, returning
• (adj.) returning

Ka fiale ei i palei!
“I’ve returned home!”

Notes: And I’m back! Hooray! Wow, to me it seems like the trip took no longer than, say, ten minutes—precisely as much time as it took to do the last two words of the day… Funny that.

Also funny that I’m doing fiale before ale. There should be a word for this… I’ll have to think about that.

xō

The next sentence in the 17th Conlang Relay Text is:

ñamma jarāka rū xō ā macūma ānen antānre;

The only unfamiliar word is xō, which means “there, that place”. So this sentence translates to: “The man made steps from there with quickness” or “The man moved quickly away.”

katava

• (n.) palm tree
• (v.) to be tall
• (adj.) tall

Ala ei ie paleumi o katava.
“I’m in the city of palms.”

Notes: Indeed, I’m in Palm Springs for the 2011 CAG Conference. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve been to Palm Springs once before, and what I remember is not enough palm trees and virtually no springs. What a downer. I’ll see what I can find this time around.

I figured if “tall” was going to come from somewhere (as opposed to nowhere), it should come from “palm tree”, since palm trees are mighty tall. I’m also a big fan. To me, palm trees let me know I’m home, and places without them seem alien and menacing.

anñāka 

The next sentence in the 17th Conlang Relay Text is:

ē ñi jakērþe rū macūma pēxa ī ñi sāen mañāka;

Again, mostly straightforward. “And the horse moved away from the man, and then he (the man) became” mañāka. mañāka is the animate singular form of the attribute anñāka, which means “attacked”. That makes this sentence “And the horse moved away from the man, and then he (the man) became attacked” or “And the horse moved away from the man and then attacked him.”

aoao

• (v.) to peek, to peek (out) at, to glance at secretly
• (n.) (a/the) peek
• (adj.) sneaky

A aoao kaneko iu emi po iwola li nea.
“The cat peeks out at the humans from her hiding spot.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!

So the story behind this is that I opened up my sock drawer, and Keli was fascinated. So I picked her up and put her in. She was confused at first and poked around, but pretty soon, she decided to go into the little cave. And then, not long after that, she was peeking out at us from inside. It was adorable!

Regarding this word, it’s a reduplication of ao, which has no meaning, but does have an iku. There are a couple word/sound/things like that. I think this is the first we’ve come across. There will be others, though. Indeed, there will be others.