Category: ori

New words in Ori + examples

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 1 Comment

Dropping in to note that I am in fact not dead. I have been super busy with stuff related to doing my doctorate! But I am still conlanging, worldbuilding, etc.
#Lextreme2018 and #Lexathon are my continuing daily lexicography conlang project via twitter (https://twitter.com/MintakaGlow). Here are yesterday’s and today’s words, plus example sentences!

Nov 20
Ori: [adj] milon- /’milon/ ‘slow, unhurried; easy; soft’

Nov 21
Ori: [n, inan] pilya-s /’pilʲas/ ‘tear, teardrop’

Examples:

Abbreviation key:

1 = 1st person

2 = 2nd person

3 = 3rd person

nom = nominative

sg = singular

an = animate class

in = inanimate class

adv = adverbial

pst = past tense

perf = perfect aspect

q = question (interrogtive) particle

acc = accusative

pl = plural

hab = habitual aspect

Pilyas eun syolle miloni plecir cyan
pilya-s eun syol-le milon-i plec-ir cyan
tear-nom.sg.in 3sg.an.dat face-loc.sg.in slow-adv fall-3sg.in pst.perf
‘A tear fell slowly down his cheek’

Nasya milonis ti ma?
nasya milon-is ti ma
why slow-nom.sg.an you.are q
‘Why are you being slow?’

Eme! pilyatyin cityin bayalbra lyes
eme  pilya-tyin ci-tyin bayal-bra lyes
alas  tear-acc.pl.in many-acc.pl.in weep-1pl pst.hab
‘Alas! we cried so many tears’

Ori poem

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 2 Comments

A poem in Ori. I use poetry to expand on my lexicon and grammar, as well as invent new ways of doing metaphor.

~

Clidolyal

Catyin-gae nalistityin tyae

Calin natin nalepa can iyutu cyan

Yullacu tyuhacu

Bane cohace

Nye nalemasye

 

Catyin eltrutyin tyae

Na lyen-tatyin tyo

Ilu cyalace

Na syutace

Milis cuheo bumi

Na misuhile lunin cyon-lastilen

Bine

Nyilleya hatanulya.

 

 

A false vow

But you knew my reasons

You never saw me how you should

Every year

We would slip further

From the truth.

 

You know my ways

And I know yours

We come together again

And split apart

A tree cloven in two

And from the sap running from our wounds

Perhaps

A new story.

Conlang: Ori (prepositions!)

~ mnransdellgreen ~ Leave a comment

More developements in Ori grammar…

 

Prepositions

 Although Ori uses cases to show location in many situations (typically by use of the dative, locative, or instrumental cases), it also uses prepositions to further indicate more specific location or relationships.

bulu ‘through’

menya ‘across’

nye ‘out of, from, away from’

nela ‘amongst, midst’

amo ‘around, surrounding’

ebel ‘for the sake of’

dranme ‘thanks to’

he ‘by, next to, near, with, close to’

pa ‘beneath, under(neath)’

pel ‘during’

casya ‘without’

nimi ‘inside (of), in’

 

These prepositions maybe used with nouns in various cases: it depends on the preposition.

Prepositions with the locative case:

bulu ti-mulyurati ‘through the forest’

menya embete ‘across a river’

nelanyendac ‘amongst friends’

amo oltacya ‘around a tomb’

pa bestiti ‘under ground’

 

Prepositions with the genitive case:

nye ti-tyagalpan ‘away from the storm’

pel plenyullasye ‘during the autumn’

 

 

Prepositions with the dative case:

ebel calya nimalya ‘for the sake of my mother’

dranme tate tyollate ‘thanks to your younger brother’

 

Some prepositions may be used with different cases, which give different shades of meaning.

nimi ti-mulyurati ‘inside the forest’ (used with locative): implies deep within the forest, perhaps out of sight

nimi ti-mulyurato ‘into the forest’ (used with accusative): implies movement to and through the forest

Ori needed more declensions?

~ mnransdellgreen ~ Leave a comment

I decided Ori needs more nouns declensions. 😛

So here are two new celestial class declensions.

2nd declension (celestial)

These nouns often end in -n or -m.

Btw, the -∅ symbol in linguistics means ‘null’ or ‘nothing’. So that means the nom. sg. forms don’t add a suffix.

image

Using Calcurassen’s name as an example (in the singular, of course–there is only one of the God of Justice):

Calcurassen ryintat trulali ‘Calcurassen drinks wine’

Ti-clespes Calcurasseni astere lya. ‘Calcurassen’s jewel is bright’

Murlinis Calcurassene iyuru ‘A raven sees Calcurassen’

Hensapya Calcurassena maroi cyan ‘I gave praise to Calcurassen’

Calcurassenul minim cyan nalemapya peli. ‘By means of Calcurassen, I was able to find justice’

Hestinyal Calcurassenul lya. ‘Hope lies with Calcurassen’

Oa, Calcurassene! Maropye tyeli abarig! ‘Oh, Calcurassen! Give us blessings.’

~

The next declension is also for celestial nouns–most of these ending in vowels.

3rd celestial declension

image

Examples:

Ti-hembe lilya rya. ‘The body of fresh water is small’ (Note that ‘small’ still agrees with embe–it just uses a different celestial (nom sg. suffix, the one from the very first celestial declension I introduced, which is -ya rather than -∅.)

Culleryal caben bellu. ‘The expanse of the world is wide’

Gilupye yalutyin tatyin ti-trahellet ‘Turn your eyes to the meteor shower’

…

Ok, you get the idea. 🙂

~

Mintaka

Orikrindian pantheon (pt 3)

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 4 Comments

Next installment of the Orikrindian pantheon. This one focuses on the sea goddess and her half-mortal son.

One thing I want to note is the pervasiveness of the pantheon. These gods are recognized not only in Orikrindia itself, but also across eastern Ei. Some in Quarios also worship these gods, especially Orikrindian immigrants (such as Elucuna, of course). They did, however, originate with the native inhabits of Orikrindia (the island, rather before the “nation” itself was a thing), so they are referred to as gods of Orikrindia in Aeniith itself (as I will continue to call them in meta-documentation too). Worship practices do vary per region. My descriptions here apply to traditional methods in Orikrindia.

~

Lumaya

Lumaya is a goddess who has domain over water. Primarily, she is associated with the sea, although her influence extends over all bodies of water. She is said to be the younger sister of Hestaya and Moltirin.

In Orikrindian depictions, she has pale blue skin and hair of seagrass. Sometimes she takes the form of a seal, and it is for this reason that Orikrindians, unlike some neighbors, do not eat the flesh of certain species of seals.

One of the powers of Lumaya are her eyes, which appear like swirls of abalone and are thought to be able to enchant those who stare into them. This is the origin of Orikrindian belief that gazing into the sea for too long can be dangerous to mental health.

Lumaya has temples by the edges of the sea. They are usually decorated with items that reflect the local maritime life and culture: carved driftwood, sea glass, shells, pearls, and other findings from nearby the temple. The priestesses of Lumaya are known to be “sponsored” by the national navy of Orikrindia.

Prayers to Lumaya are offered especially during certain very strong tides. She is revered by all mariners, who usually have an altar to her in their homes. Since most mariners in Orikrindia are men, this is probably the one female goddess that is worshipped mostly by men in Orikrindia. The devotees of Lumaya are some of the most vocal and open, possibly due to the island nature of Orikrindia as a country. Naval military successes are frequently credited to Lumaya’s blessing.

Epithets: Halumaya (Lumaya the Great, lit. ‘Great Water’), Ti-Hendessaya Cacalsaya (’The Infinite Sea’), Tu-Hemas Heltasye Plesstolsye (’the Lady of the Cerulean Voice’), Co-Lyosyal Tun-Golinorisi ‘The Grief of the Weak’), Syalanyas Culimyenya (’Queen of Journeys’), Tu-Syalanyas Yalunt Tellened (’The Queen of Star-eyes’), Tu-Hemas Estolis (’The Blue Lady’).

Giessembe (demi-god)

This is the child of Lumaya, Giessembe, who has control over bodies of fresh water. He is often depicted as a small child, a demi-god, who was conceived by Lumaya with a mortal man. The story of their meeting and relationship is told in the Ori epic poem Ti-Clespes Endessonisye na Bestini (’The Jewel of the Great Sea and the Earth’).

Giessembe’s name means ‘calm fresh water’, with embe being the word for any general body of fresh water.

In Orikrindian legend, Giessembe was sent to prove himself as an adult divine being, since he was weak as a baby, despite being a half-god. He was challenged by Apyolus, god of fire, to quell the fires of the mighty Cetispeltaya, a volcano whose summit cut through the fabric of the heavens. To accomplish this, he asked his mother to cause the sea to evaporate into clouds above the world, and a great rain fell for ten days without cease, and filled the fresh water streams and rivers. He then called on Moltirin to cause the trees of the forests to lie on their bellies so that his waters could flow freely around the world. Peltas (of the Twin Gods) was asked to make time flow quickly along the rivers so all the waters would surge across the land. Thus was Giessembe able to seep his waters down inside the earth (with the help of Hestaya) and extinguish the mighty volcano from the inside out.

Giessembe used his method of extinguishing the fires as a living hymn and tribute to the gods who had helped him, impressing Apyolus so much that he granted Giessembe the greater powers that were due him as a fully grown demi-god.

Epithets: Tu-Plenis (’The Half’), Tu-Prastanes (’The Clever’)

~

Mintaka

Legend and Lore: The children of Hestaya (a poem)

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 1 Comment

In Orikrindian myth, Hestaya (the mother goddess, the goddess of the mountains and earth) bore 12 infants, which were conceived beneath the hardest rock in the earth, fathered by the fire god, whose life blood flows under the world as magma. The twelve children were born upon twelve hills that encircle the island of Orikrindia. In legend, the children were found by nomads of a group called the Lost Ones. The queen of this people, Crestellin, was the first to find one of these children, and then, one by one, she and her handmaidens found all twelve. She was a childless queen before this moment, but adopted the babies into her family and raised them as her own. According to legend, these demigod children grew into the founders of the twelve great cities of Orikrindia.

This poem is about Crestellin finding the first of the children of Hestaya.

~

Moving like a green snake

In the dewdrops

A fragmented line of tiny sighs

Blooming life along the dusty horizon.

 

Clinging still to mother

Unwilling to relinquish

That summer warm smell

Of newborns and flowers and vegetables

Singing in the sweltering heat

Humming with an old life

 

You know who they were

The ones who came before

The earthy faces digging themselves out from under hills and mounds

Stones in the dusk

In the distance,

They approached

Farther and farther

Until we heard their breath

Whispering and scraping in the evening air

Like leaves against your cheek.

 

We took them in

Opened our wings

And drew in these

Infants.

 

We gave them the instincts

We had left,

Pretending

To be mothers

Pretending

To understand beyond the eons

What we were doing.

 

The children of the stone

The babies found

In the earth                            

Creeping into humanity

Latching onto a nipple

They were lucky to find

 

Vines covering the tomb

An ancient space

Threshold to a world beyond

We remained and named the children

After the wish of the Mother,

Hestaya.

 

~

Mintaka

 

Orikrindian Lore and Legend: The Horn of Ellessia

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 2 Comments

In the northern-most reaches of Orikrindia is a region called Ellessia. It is one of the six provinces of the county. It is known for its very harsh and cold climate, including bitter sea storms from the northern coast. The people who live there must be not only tough and resilient, but also extremely skilled and knowledgeable about the land and their environment. Along this frigid northern coat was found an ancient artefact, called the Horn of Ellessia. It is a battle horn from eons past, found in the burial tomb of a long-forgotten king.

Soon after the horn’s rediscovery, it went missing. The earl of Ellessia, assuming the horn belonged to some ancestor of his, put out a reward for its recovery. This led to a long and bloody conflict, however.

So great was the reward for the Horn of Ellessia, that many forgeries were made, and various dishonest persons tried to claim the reward money, subsequently ending up in the Ellessian dungeons for their trouble.

In fact, the forgery problem became so widespread, that the earl started to have his men invade the workshops of armorers and craftsmen who were even suspected of forgery. Properties were destroyed, people were injured, and a few even were killed. Thus was the brutality of the Ellessian soldiers.

This continued for a few weeks until a riot broke out in the main city of Ellessia, and even more were killed.

Finally, after much strife, the actual Horn of Ellessia was recovered, by a woman called Ecnasia. She sent a detailed painting of the horn to the earl, and such was her skill and the level of detail in the depiction that there was no doubt she was in possession of the real item. She claimed, via a letter, to have been the original theft of the Horn, and also claimed to have been the one who started giving instruction to various artisans to try and replicate the Horn in an accurate way—but just inaccurate enough that they would be sure to be caught. Thus, she explained, she eliminated many artisans and armorers who were her competitors in the market, as female armorers were not popular in Orikrindia.

Ecnasia agreed to relinquish the desired horn only upon condition that she be given full pardon for her crimes and that no word of her machinations be made public to hurt her business in Orikrindia. The earl, being possessed of cruelty but moreso of greed and a lust for glory to his name, agreed.

The Horn was returned to the earl and Ecnasia returned to her business, short quite a few competitors.

However, 20 years later, the Horn disappeared once again from the palace of the earl, and has not been found since. Rumors surround its disappearance, and people speak of a curse of the ancient king whose grave it was robbed from. No one knows where the Horn May lie today, but few are willing to speak of it for all the strife it caused before.

Mintaka

Orikrindian lore and legend

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 2 Comments

I want to do a new segment about Orikrindian lore and legend (which may expand to other cultures), small little blurbs about ideas that have been floating around my head for a while. They don’t really have a home yet so we’ll see what becomes of them.

~

Today’s is about the Song of Esala. The word is not originally Ori, but comes from a nearby language from the mainland of Ei to the west. The word was originally Ashal, but changed over time and to fit Ori phonology a bit more closely.

The Song of Esala is a song that is supposedly divine in nature, or at least somehow supernatural. It is said to be heard in the wilderness when one is completely alone and can neither see, hear, nor sense in any way another person. It is at this time that one may hear the Song of Esala. What Esala is or means is not clear. There are competing etymological theories, variously saying that it is the name of a person, a place, or a concept.

To hear the Song of Esala is a disturbing experience. The listener will think they are going mad and may run even deeper into the wilderness, always avoiding the proximity of any other person. It is thought that this leads them to wander permanently and live like a wild person until a certain, unspecified time before their death, during which they will be released from the hold of the Song and “wake up” from their fervor or delirium. This time is usually months to years after first hearing the Song.

The Song is thought by some in Orikrindia to be a curse of the goddess Moltirin put upon those who have displeased her in some way. Others, however, consider it a kind of intense blessing given by the spirits of animals in the wild that have found a soul that they deem kindred to their own and wish to draw it in amongst themselves. This view is the predominant idea in Behr Gehen (country of the Ei Lands, west of Orikrindia). Those who return from being held by the Song are considered holy and are given special treatment upon their return to society.

Whatever the nature of the Song of Esala, it is a part of folklore that is commonly understood as one of the many risks of venturing into the wilds alone for lengths of time, both across Orikrindia and the Ei Lands.

~

Mintaka

Ori derivational morphology

~ mnransdellgreen ~ Leave a comment

So this is obviously a work in progress, BUT here are some new Ori derivational morphemes! Yay! I like them.

Derivational Morphemes

-u

This morpheme comes from the word hu‘one’, and it often added to adjectives to create a noun.

 

lil ‘small’ –> lilu ‘small one’

truma ‘red’ –> trumu ‘red one’

 

It can also be used with other nouns, however:

 

cleppa ‘poison’ –> cleppu ‘poisoned one’

 

-ya

 

-ya is a gerund marker; it nominalizes a verb (transitive or intransitive):

 

ta ‘speak’ –> taya ‘speaking’

aste ‘reckon’ –> asteya ‘mathematics’

pra ‘listen’ –> praya ‘listening; educational lecture’

lyeppe ‘enjoy’ –> lyeppeya ‘enjoyment’

clasin ‘become flat’ –> clasinya ‘flattening; (of a person) becoming boring’

 

 

-uya

 

-uya is a suffix that indicates ‘beginning of V/N’, meaning it can attach to either a verb or a noun.

 

Note that if there is a vowel at the end of the bound morpheme, that first vowel is deleted before -uya.

 

lyannis ‘make a pilgrimage’ –> lyannisuya ‘beginning of a pilgrimage’

ta ‘speak’ –> tuya ‘beginning of a speech’

syala ‘rule, reign’ –> syaluya ‘beginning of the reign of a king’

becul ‘cave’ –> beculuya ‘antechamber of a cave’

besti ‘earth, ground’ –> bestuya ‘top layer of soil’

cul ‘moon’ –> culuya ‘new moon’

Sometimes the meaning of this suffix implies smallness due to something being “only the beginning of [and no more]” V/N:

 

lar ‘laugh’ –> laruya ‘a short laugh, a clipped laugh’

lubela ‘secret’ –> lubeluya ‘just a little secret’

 

-on

 

-on is an augmentative suffix that applies to nouns.

 

lyuha ‘dog’ –> lyuhon ‘large dog’

ori ‘man’ –> orion ‘big man’

mil ‘tree’ –> milon ‘large tree’

 

-li

 

-li is the opposite of -on, a diminutive suffix for nouns.

 

lyuha ‘dog’ –> lyuhali ‘puppy’

bistraya ‘flower’ –> bistrayali ‘bud, small blossom’

coru ‘rock’ –> coruli ‘pebble’

bu ‘house’ –> buli ‘room inside a house, chamber’

hesta ‘mountain’ –> hestali ‘hill’

 

–e

-e is a common ending for adjectives (e.g. nale ‘true’, clippe ‘rotten’, balnye ‘great’). It can also function as a derivative morpheme for adjectivization from nouns.

 

Usually, if there is a final vowel on the base noun, it is replaced by -e.

 

hustu ‘belief, trust’ –> huste ‘trusting’

cleppa ‘poison’ –> cleppe ‘poisonous’

galacil ‘smoke’ –> galacile ‘smoky’

lubela ‘secret’ –> lubele ‘secret (adj.)’

roru ‘darkness’ –> rore ‘dark’

 

cli-/clip-

This is a pejorative prefix that usually affixes to nouns. It comes from the adjective clippe‘rotten, sour’. The cli- form precedes consonant-initial words, whereas the clip- form is used with vowel-initial words.

 

prasta ‘mind, thoughts; behavior, actions’ –> cliprasta ‘betrayal; treason’

olta ‘tomb’ –> clipolta ‘a badly made or ritualistically wrong or unclean burial’

gerum ‘death’ –> cligerum ‘a dishonorable death’

ha-

 

This prefix can be used as either an augmentative or an ameliorative (“good N”) prefix.

 

pyelli ‘pain’ –> hapyelli ‘great pain’

selis ‘teacher’ –> haselis ‘a good teacher’

lyuha ‘dog’ –> halyuha ‘a particularly loyal dog’

bela ‘word’ –> habela ‘eloquence’

belta ‘wind’ –> habelta ‘a sudden warm wind in the winter’

 

Mintaka2

~ mnransdellgreen ~ 3 Comments

Working on the pantheon of Orikrindia. This is part 1, the first three members.

~

Orikrindian pantheon

Apyolus– Father God – God of Fire, Lava, Volcanoes, War, Season of Summer, the Sun (Worshipped as Force of Creation, as a Progenitor of all life, a driving mechanism of all living things)

Epithets: Ti-Hasterya Apyasye (The Light of Fire), Ti-Lyaya Iyutreseya (The All-seeing Sun), Yalus (Eye), Tetuya Huseya (First Father), Ti-Hupuse (The Knowing), Yoris (Watcher)

Apyolus is worshipped as a creator of life, a driver of existence. Without Apyolus it is believed all things would be as dead and empty husks, existing the likeness of life but without the crucial spark of consciousness.

The priesthood is Apyolus is all-male and open to those who have fathered at least one child. Their temples tend in be in cities, at the feet of volcanoes, and in the southern most reaches of Orikrindia. In the summer is the Festival of Fire, wherein people make material sacrifices to the fire in hopes of gaining such boons as: fertility/children, health good crops, warmer weather in winter, renewed physical and mental vigor.

Hestaya: Mother Goddess – Goddess of the Mountains, Air, Wind, Cold Weather, Snow, Ice (Worshipped as a stable force in the world, a protector, defender) –

Epithets include: Ti-Nimaya (the Mother), Ti-Nimaya Balnyeya (the Great Mother), Nimaya Coruni (Mother of Stone), Corus Cacalsas (Undying Stone), Crestenya Astersye (Kindler of Light [e.g. lightning via storms])

Prayer to Hestaya:

‘The solidness of the mountain

of stone

of ice

the movement of wind

the forbidding power of storms

the threat of winter

the protective blanket of snow covering the earth,

this our Mother

the Mighty

and the True

the One Who Covers,

The Kindler of Light

The Mother of Stone,

Undying and Eternal

Her light will find you

In the dark

Her stones surround you

Where no enemy can pierce’

Moltirin– Goddess of the Forest:also matron goddess of mysteries, vengeance, the past, memory, rebirth/reawakening, justice, lost things, women who have died in childbirth, dead children, men who have died in battle, storms, and those who have been wronged.

Associated with: birds of prey (especially ravens and vultures and other carrion creatures), wolves, snakes, spiders, vines/plants/trees, the color green/black/grey

Epithets: Ti-Roruya (The Dark), Cyentas Nastas (Wise Aunt), Emas Tin-Mulyurana (Woman of the Forests), Cyeltenalenya (Revenger), Murlinis (Raven)

Moltirin is equally feared and loved. She is the sister of Hestaya, who is married to Apyolus.

She inhabits all forests and is a very mysterious figure, rarely responding to the entreaties of humankind. When she does, though, it is with ferocity and sincerity. Moltirin may take the form of a young or very old woman. Prayers to Moltirin are given by those who have been wronged, those who are lost, who are pariahs, those whose honor has been destroyed (either by themselves or others). She is a protector of women and children, occasionally protecting them via deception or violence. She keeps the souls of those who die within her woods, as well as the souls of the drowned. These spirits are said to wander the places where they died, as it is there that they are with Moltirin.

Devotees to Moltirin often live in forests as hermits or wise women. They, like their goddess, are both feared and respected. Many work as apothecaries as well, specializing in both healing substances and poisons. In Orikrindia, one might visit a Woman of the Woods (as they’re typically called) to procure a less-than-legal concoction for whatever need.