Here is a new Rílin poem (well, newish), plus its audio recording. Got my h4n Zoom back so hopefully it sounds a bit better now.
Mintaka
Rílin poem + audio recording (#2)
Tag: constructedlanguages
Upcoming works are brewing…
I’m writing some mini-stories about Orikrindians that I will probably post in the future. Topics may/will include:
– An Orikrindian girl who leaves her country at age 15 and moves to Quarios, some of her thoughts, motivations, and memories (telling her story in retrospect)
– Two Orikrindian brothers who are separated due to a war with a neighboring country
– A story of the devotees of the mountain goddess and fire god who go on a pilgrimage to a great mountain. Fewer will descend that those who went up
I’m also recording new poems in Rílin now, since I am finally back in touch with my h4n Zoom audio recorder, which is higher quality than my laptop mic, unsurprisingly.
Other topics in the works: more Ori grammar, the Orikrindian pantheon, and info on Orikrindian artisanal works.
This has been a semi-update with a bunch of teasers…but I’m really excited about what I’m working on so it’s ok. 😛
Mintaka
Rílin poem + audio recording
As per the request for a recording of the latest Rílin nezeletŭ, here it is again plus its recording. My high quality recorder is currently on its way to me, so perhaps I’ll make more when I can do high quality files.
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Nezeletŭ (journey-story) poem in Rílin
And now a proper nezeletŭ (plural is nezeletŭn, btw). Written from the perspective of a Ríla who has traveled far into the north of Izoi, where the sun’s rays are visible at night in the summer. The land is beautiful–still they are reminded of what they have escaped and those who were taken from them.
Conlang/conculture: Ori(krindia): (temples, quick note on ‘s’, independent pronouns)…
Alrighty.
I am posting some photos of cliffs and mountains like this, since this is how I envisage some of the Orikrindian temples appearing, situated high in the mountains and built into the rock itself. My feeling at this point is one of their primary deities of their pantheon is a mountain goddess who is seen as a mother, supporting and giving life to many other smaller gods who represent entities that dwell on or around the mountain. I know there is a god that is represented by fire/volcanoes, since those are everywhere in Orikrindia. Somehow I want connect the fire god/mountain goddess in a kind of symbiotic relationship. I’m not sure how yet.
~
One more small note on noun cases: I failed to mention that any nouns ending in -s are a little different. I noted that nouns ending in stops (oral or nasal) got an epenthetic -i- inserted before the main case ending for their class. Other final consonants like -r and -l do not. -s however is a little different. In certain respects, it follows the pattern of -l and -r in that it doesn’t get an epenthetic -i-, but in other instances, it does. See below for examples. Note which cases use the epenthetic -i- and which do not.
Inanimate noun: holis ‘door’
Animate noun: selis ‘teacher’
Celestial noun: tus ‘beam of light’
Abstract noun: lyos ‘grief’
nom sg: holis-is OR holis-∅; selis-is/selis-is; tus-ya; lyos-yal
gen sg: holis-ni; selis-ire; tus-sye; lyos-sye
dat sg: holis-im; selis-te; tus-ilya; lyos-lu
acc sg: holis-t selis-t; tus-pya; lyos-pya
loc sg: holis-il; selis-le; tus-cya; lyos-cu
instr sg: holis-ir; selis-in; tus-cya; lyos-ce
voc sg: holis-ca; (all use -ca)
nom pl: holis-sa; selis-sa; tus-ta; lyos-ta
gen pl: holis-ni; selis-si; tus-na; lyos-nya
dat pl: holis-mi; selis-ti; tus-lo; lyos-bi
acc pl: holis-tyin; selis-tyan; tus-ig; lyos-gya
loc pl: holis-len; selis-ic; tus-id; lyos-tya
instr pl: holis-ip; selis-int; tus-id; lyos-tya
voc pl: (all use -ca)
~
So we have looked at the case system for full nouns of all classes. Now it is time to look at independent personal pronouns. Ori does mark the subject of the verb as a suffix, but it also includes personal pronouns that are not attached to the verb. See the chart below for how these pronouns exist in each case. Note that third person pronouns are irregular, and also that they exist differently for each class.
These pronouns can be made reflexive by the addition of the suffix -(i)cye:
canicye iyum cyan ‘I saw myself’
Example of pronoun use:
Cala ipalnda ‘I like them’ (lit: they are pleasing to me)
Tan yubru! ‘We see you!’
Elya abarita tresita ummultu ‘In them all blessings lie’
Maropye en eun! ‘Give it to them!’
Lye-trumat suhit ryesubru cyan na tyeli ipalir cyan ‘We sipped the red nectar and it pleased us’
Eu lye-tepet maroi cyan ‘I gave her the fruit’
~
Mintaka
Conlang: Ori (nouns and their cases)
Last time I told you about more Ori verbs and how to conjugate them. Now I will move on to nouns. As I’ve mentioned before, Ori nouns come in four classes (like grammatical genders): animate, inanimate, celestial, and abstract. Ori has noun cases that suffix to nouns to show their grammatical role in the sentence. There are singular and plural, and different cases depending on the class of the noun. Below are the case endings for singular animate and inanimate nouns. The column that says -C stop contains suffixes for nouns that end in an oral or nasal stop (-t, -p, -c, -b, -d, -g, -m, -n). These nouns get a little epenthetic -i- inserted before the case suffix, as you can see below.
- Note that the blue shaded rows are where the cases for both animate and inanimate are the same.
So what do these cases mean?
Nom = nominative: this marks the subject of a verb. Example: tu-porin-is merir ‘the shepherd is dancing’
Gen = genitive: nouns in the genitive case show possession or relation. Example: lye-bus tu-ema-re ‘the house of the woman; the woman’s house’
Dat = dative: nouns in the dative case are the indirect object of a verb. In English, this would be often marked with the preposition to or for. Example: maropye tu-porit tu-ema-te ‘give the sheep to the woman’
Acc = accusative: nouns in the accusative case are the direct object of a verb. Example: tepe-t cyepu cyan ‘I took the fruit’
Loc = locative: nouns in the locative case show that something is located in, at, or on a thing. Example: bu-le ummum ‘I am staying at home’
Instr = instrumental: the instrumental case is used to show that something was done by means of some noun–that this noun is the instrument. Example: restin-ir lye-holist ayalnda ‘they are opening the door with a key’
Voc = vocative: this case is used when you mean to call out to someone or something. Example: Oa, porin-ca! ‘Hey, shepherd!’
The cases for other classes (singulars and plurals) are below.
So let’s look at some examples of these cases in action–in actual phrases and sentences.
Hilucul-ya bellu ‘The sky is wide’
Caru-s roru-sye ‘A world of darkness’
Sesta-lu maro ‘Give [something] to life’
A hilacul-ca! ‘O, heaven!’
Yupye ti-yutar-pya! ‘Look at the cloud!’
Hustu-ce ‘by means of trust’
Hilacul-cya ‘in the sky’
Bu-s ti-hiluma-na ‘a house of the priestess’
I’ll have more examples of Ori sentences soon…
Mintaka
Conlang: Ori, continued (more verbs, tense/aspect particles)…
Last time we looked at some ways to conjugate verbs in Ori--specifically verbs ending in -i or in alveolar sounds (-t, -d, -n, -s, -l, -r). Some examples of these:
merir ‘he/she/it dances’ (animate, inanimate)
boltimbra ‘we keep’ (boltin- + -bra)
lalta ‘they laugh’ (celestial, abstract) (lar- + -lta)
As you can see from some of the above verbs, sometimes there is variation in stem or ending, as per phonotactic constraints.
Today I want to show the 2nd and 3rd conjugations, which will wrap up all of the regular verbal classes.
The first class, as we saw, includes verbs ending in -i and in alveolars. The second class includes verbs ending in -e, -a, and velar consonants (-c and -g).
cuhe- ‘cleave’
syeg- ‘steal’
ta- ‘speak’
plec- ‘fall’
Note differences in endings in bold.
cuhe-ni ‘I cleave’
cuhe-ti ‘you cleave’
cuhe-ri ‘he/she/it cleaves’ (an, inan)
cuhe-li ‘he/she/it cleaves’ (cel, abs)
cuhe-ce ‘we cleave’
cuhe-cya ‘you all cleave’
cuhe-cyo ‘they cleave’ (an, inan)
cuhe-cyon ‘they cleave’ (cel, abs)
ta-ni ‘I speak’
ta-ti ‘you speak’
ta-ri ‘he/she/it speaks’ (an, inan)
ta-li ‘he/she/it peaks’ (cel, abs)
ta-ce ‘we speak’
ta-cya ‘you all speak
ta-cyo ‘they speak’ (an, inan)
ta-cyon ‘they speak’ (cel, abs)
syeg-i ‘I steal’
syeg-it ‘you steal’
syeg-ir ‘he/she/it steals’ (an, inan)
syeg-il ‘he/she/it steals’ (cel, abs)
syeg-e ‘we steal’
syeg-ya ‘you all steal’
syeg-yo ‘they steal’ (an, inan)
syeg-yon ‘they steal’ (cel, abs)
plec-i ‘I fall’
plec-it ‘you fall’
plec-ir ‘he/she/it falls’ (an, inan)
plec-il ‘he/she/it falls’ (cel, abs)
plec-e ‘we fall’
plec-ya ‘you all fall’
plec-yo ‘they fall’ (an, inan)
plec-yon ‘they fall’ (cel, abs)
~
The 3rd, and final regular verb conjugation includes verbs ending in -o, -u, and labial consonants (-b, -p, and -m).
pellum- ‘count’
cyep- ‘take, grab’
lyab- ‘lick’
brelo- ‘nuzzle against’
ryesu- ‘sip’
Once again, note changes in stem or ending marked in bold.
ryesu-m ‘I sip
ryesu-tu ‘you sip
ryesu-ru ‘he/she/it sips’ (an, inan)
ryesu-lu ‘he/she/it sips’ (cel, abs)
ryesu-bru ‘we sip’
ryesu-ru ‘you all sip
ryesu-bu ‘they sip’ (an, inan)
ryesu-ltu ‘they sip’ (cel, abs)
(Verbs ending in -o, such as brelo- ‘nuzzle against’ conjugate exactly the same way as those verbs in -u.)
pellum-u ‘I count’
pellun-tu ‘you count’
pellur-ru ‘he/she/it counts’ (an, inan)
pellul-lu ‘he/she/it counts’ (cel, abs)
pellum-bru ‘we count’
pellum-ru ‘you all count’
pellum-bu ‘they count’ (an, inan)
pellul–tu ‘they count’ (cel, abs)
cyep-u ‘I take’
cyep-pu ‘you take’
cyep-ru ‘he/she/it takes’ (an, inan)
cyep-lu ‘he/she/it takes’ (cel, abs)
cyep-pru ‘we take’
cyep-ru ‘you all take’
cyeb-bu ‘they take’ (an, inan)
cyel-tu ‘they take’ (cel, abs)
lyab-u ‘I lick’
lyab-du ‘you lick’
lyab-ru ‘he/she/it licks’ (an, inan)
lyab-lu ‘he/she/it licks’ (cel, abs)
lyab-bru ‘we lick’
lyab-ru ‘you all lick’
lyab-bu ‘they lick’ (an, inan)
lyal-tu ‘they lick’ (cel, abs)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Ok, so that is it for present conjugation of regular verbs. You may wonder about other tenses. Ori is pretty light on the morphological tense. It uses some different particles that follow the verb to indicate various tenses and aspects, though.
cyan — past perfect
Ex.: Es lyab-u cyan
3sg.inan.acc lick-1sg pst.prf
‘I licked it’
Tun-pori-tyan cyep-pru cyan
def.art.an.pl sheep-acc.an.pl-1pl pst.prf
‘We took the sheep (pl)’
lyes — past imperfective/habitual
This particle also indicates past tense, but the aspect is different. Instead of perfect, like cyan, lyes indicates an incompleted action in the past or a habitual action in the past (that happened many times).
Ex.: Gotebinur-ipya ta-ri lyes
Gotevian-acc.abs.sg speak-3sg.an pst.hab
‘She used to speak Gotevian’
bil — modal
This modal particle indicates a speaker;s uncertainty that the statement is true.
Ex.: En cyep-ru bil.
3pl.inan.acc take-3sg.an mod
‘He might be taking them’ / ‘Maybe he is taking them’
The modal bil particle can also be combined with the other particles:
Ex.: En cyep-ru cyan bil.
3pl.inan.acc take-3sg.an pst.prf mod
‘He might have taken them’
Ok, that is a lot of info for one post, so I will continue later! Question if anyone cares–do you want to see more linguistic info on Ori, or should I break it up with some cultural info? Shall I stick to Ori for a while or visit some other places/people/languages?
Mintaka
Conlang: Ori, continued
Image here is the kind of flower I always envisaged as the national symbol of Orikrindia.
Last time I showed you some Ori verbs and how they are conjugated. I mentioned that there are essentially three ways to conjugate verbs (1st, 2nd, 3rd conjugations), and showed you some verbs from the 1st class of those verbs. I kind of lied, as it is not quite as simple as that sounds. Despite all verbs ending in -i and in all alveolars being grouped as one class, there is a little variation inside the conjugation, depending what the individual sound in the verb stem ends in. I go into a little more detail for the 1st conjugation below. Note some of the differences marked in bold where there are some variations in the stems and endings.
Verbs in –i
meri-m ‘I dance’
meri-t ‘you dance’
meri-r ‘he/she/it dances’ (animate, inanimate)
meri-l ‘he/she/it dances’ (celestial, abstract)
meri-bra ‘we dance’
meri-dra ‘you all dance’
meri-nda ‘they (an, inan) dance’
meri-lta ‘they (cel, abs) dance’
–
Verbs in -n
Note difference in some endings/stems.
boltin-im ‘I keep’
boltin-it ‘you keep’
boltin-ir ‘he/she/it keeps’ (an, inan)
boltinil ‘he/she/it keeps’ (celestial, abstract)
boltim-bra ‘we keep’
boltin-dra ‘you all keep’
boltin-da ‘they keep’ (an, inan)
bolti-lta ‘they keep’ (cel, abs)
Verbs in -l
Note changed suffix:
potil-im ‘I think’
potil-it ‘you think’
potil-ir ‘he/she/it thinks’ (an, inan)
potil-il ‘he/she/it thinks’ (cel, abs)
potil-bra ‘we think’
potil-dra ‘you all think’
potil-nda ‘they think’ (an, inan)
potil-ta ‘they think’ (cel, abs)
Verbs in -s
Note devoicing on plural endings with verbs ending with unvoiced consonants
cetis-im ‘I cut’
cetis-it ‘you cut’
cetis-ir ‘he/she/it cuts’ (an, inan)
cetis-il ‘he/she/it cuts’ (cel, abs)
cetis-pra ‘we cut’
cetis-tra ‘you all cut’
cetis-ta ‘they cut’ (an, inan)
cetis-ta ‘they cut’ (cel, abs)
Verbs in -d
Note some stem changes.
trellid-im ‘I walk’
trellid-it ‘you walk’
trellid-ir ‘he/she/it walks’ (an, inan)
trellid-il ‘he/she/it walks’ (cel, abs)
trellim-bra ‘we walk’
trellid-ra ‘you all walk’
trelli-nda ‘they walk’ (an, inan)
trelli-lta ‘they walk’ (cel, abs)
Verbs in -t
Note differences in stems and endings.
grasit-im ‘I scrape’
grasit-it ‘you scrape’
grasit-ir ‘he/she/it scrapes’ (an, inan)
grasit-il ‘he/she/it scrapes’ (cel, abs)
grasi-pra ‘we scrape’
grasi-tra ‘you all scrape’
grasi-nda ‘they scrape’ (an, inan)
grasi-lta ‘they scrape’ (cel, abs)
Verbs in -r
Note difference in some stem forms.
lar-im ‘I laugh’
lar-it ‘you laugh’
lar-ir ‘he/she/it laughs’ (an, inan)
lar-il ‘he/she/it laughs’ (cel, abs)
lar-bra ‘we laugh’
lar-dra ‘you all laugh’
lar-nda ‘they laugh’ (an, inan)
la-lta ‘they laugh’ (cel, abs)
~
Alright, that’s it for the regular 1st conjugation verbs. Many of the variations in these verbs are mirrored elsewhere and are probably results of semi-regular morphophonotactic rules…but I’ll need to figure out exactly what those appear to be later on.
Another Ori topic I wanted to talk about are definite articles. Ori has them. It doesn’t have any other articles (like indefinite artcles, e.g. English ‘a/an’, French ‘un(e), des’). These definite articles are roughly equivalent to English ‘the’, but the usage varies in Ori and may not always align with English usage (i.e. you might see an Ori article where you wouldn’t in English (or whatever other language), and vice versa). In Ori, the definite articles are proclitics. They are written with a hypen before the noun, and like other things in Ori, they have to agree with the noun class of the noun. See some examples below.
tu-syalanyas ‘the queen’ (animate, singular)
tun-hilunyan ‘the merchats’ (animate, plural)
ti-yutar ‘the cloud’ (celestial, singular)
tin-celunyas ‘the priests’ (celestial, plural)
lye-buni ‘[of] the house’ (inanimate, singular)
lyen-kapyan ‘the desks’ (inanimate, plural)
co-sestas ‘the life’ (abstract, singular)
con-gerumin ‘the deaths’ (abstract, plural)
As you can see, the plural forms of these articles are made by adding -n to the end. You can get a little preview of some of the case system for nouns too in the above examples….soon we’ll see the rest!
Mintaka
Conlang: Ori (Verbs and Noun classes)
I wanted to develop the language of the Orikrindians. I knew their language was called Ori, but I wasn’t inspired to flesh it out until recently.
~
Ori is a nominative/accusative language (like Indo-European languages tend to be). It uses suffixes to indicate different persons/numbers on verbs. There are three different ways to conjugate verbs, depending on the what sound the verbs stem ends with.
The first conjugation includes verbs ending in -i as well as all alveolar sounds (-t, -d, -n, -s, -l, -r). Some of these verbs are below:
meri ‘dance’
boltin ‘keep, save, guard’
culi ‘avoid, go away’
tistit ‘whisper’
pyalir ‘see via divine gift’
sullin ‘flow’
The first conjugation endings determine the subject of the verb. For the first conjugation, the endings are:
-m (1st person singular) meri-m ‘I dance’
-t (2nd person singular) meri-t ‘you dance’
-r (3rd person singular, animate/inanimate) meri-r ‘he/she/it dances’
-l (3rd person singular, celestial/abstract) meri-l ‘he/she/it dances’
-bra (1st person plural) meri-bra ‘we dance’
-dra (2nd person plural) meri-dra ‘you all dance’
-nda (3rd person plural, animate/inanimate) meri-nda ‘they dance’
-lta (3rd person plural, celestial/abstract) meri-lta ‘they dance’
You will notice that in the 3rd person, there are different forms, one for “animate/inanimate” nouns and the other for “celestial/abstract” nouns. These are different forms that agree with different noun cases that Ori has. These are like grammatical genders in some languages (e.g. Spanish, French, German) but come in four varieties: animate class includes animals and people (generally), while inanimate includes any type of inanimate object or thing. However, the other classes complicate things a bit. Abstract class includes most concepts that have no direct physical manifestation (necessarily): death, life, love, enjoyment, resentment, disdain, joy, etc. Celestial is a somewhat special class. It includes things that naturally exist “up” or in the sky, such as: the sun, moon, clouds, stars, the sky itself, wind, light, darkness, planets, etc. But it also includes anything and anyone related to spirituality or religion–anything sacred as well. Such things as: priests, temples, gods, altars, devotions, faith (note this is included here and not in abstract), holy garments, holy places, chants, hymns, sacred objects, etc. These nouns are grammatical categories, lexically determined, but they have semantic origins.
So with verbs, you have to make sure the verb form agrees with the class of the noun you are using. So if you want to say “the priest is dancing” vs “the queen is dancing”, the form of “dance” is different: ti-celunyas meril vs. tu-syalanyas merir. Note the difference of the forms of meri ‘dance’
Examples of nouns in the animate class:
etyu ‘bird’
lyuha ‘dog’
ori ‘person’
cama ‘horse’
syalanya ‘queen’
porin ‘shepherd’
Inanimate nouns:
bu ‘house’
kapya ‘desk’
pyen ‘blade’
Abstract nouns:
gerum ‘death’
sesta ‘life’
hustu ‘trust’
Celestial nouns:
cul ‘moon’
aster ‘light’
tellen ‘star’
lya ‘sun’
yutar ‘cloud’
roru ‘darkness’
hilacul ‘sky’
belta ‘wind; air; breath’
comul ‘spirit’
nelca ‘deity’
galacil ‘smoke’
apya ‘fire’
helta ‘voice’
Aeniith: A Constructed World 