The Language Diaries, Part 1 - Luamavan

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Samples

 

The Language Bird Demonstrates Grammar (With A Little Help From Its Friends)

Na Baj Jolimauevan Muzzin'ti'sik Ezziu (Nat Lete Je Dolsina'tian)

 

Na baj gua’ti oldu.

‘The bird is red.’

 

Na baja guam’tia oldua.

‘The birds were red.’

 

Na baj guafi’ti oldu.

‘The bird is not red.’

 

Gua'be baj oldu.

‘I am a red bird.’

 

Guafi'u baj oldu.

‘You are not a red bird.’

 

Guafi'ua baja oldua.

‘None of you are red birds.’

 

Na baja sola’tia soleru.

‘The birds sing a song.’

 

Na baja solazir’tia soleru.

‘The birds will sing a song.’

 

Other Sentences

 

Lirube’ben gua’ho ku?

‘How’s my accent?’

 

Ji dud’ben gua’ho onoriobu.

‘And my house is full of roses.’

 

Iskibuind kodo khom’ti jilu’tin guam’sik Eustace Clarence Scrubb, ji nomadfa ustom’ti’sik.

‘There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.’

 

Is pov isin rold kuduk emlalm’ti.

‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’

 

Summary

This is the first language I settled down to invent, in about ninth grade, before I knew that anyone else did this sort of thing.  It was made for the sprites in my stories as a sort of common language, influenced by two main protolanguages.  Its syntax is very Indo-European, a lot like English and Spanish, because it seemed like a good way to start a hobby I knew nothing about.  I figured I’d work my way toward ones less like my native language later.  It is meant to sound beautiful, so it has classic round vowels and all of my favorite consonants—a lot of K’s, B’s, L’s, and J’s, which I really like.  I find the roundness of it especially pleasing—the conlangs hailed as most euphonious, Tolkien’s, sound sort of anemic to me—not that they’re incomplete, probably they’re more complete than mine—but the sounds are skinny.  If that makes any sense.  Luamavan’s a good language to sing, and it has a lot of rhymes.  It’s my most complete, too—I have a bunch of songs and stories in it, and can do the most things with it.  It even has a protolanguage, though the infamous John Ronald’s etymologies could still eat this one for breakfast.  But I love it because it’s my first real one, and because it sounds so good.

Comments

[gondolinchick01.livejournal.com]

I love how it has a word for "hobbit." ^_^ Also all of the random apostrophes. Loads of fun for any language.

[enigmania.livejournal.com]

So how do the apostrophes work? Do they just separate congugation?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

Fascinating. I don't have much free time these days, so my reading of this isn't as thorough as it could be otherwise, but I'm glad you're sharing it all the same. It brings fond memories of my old linguistics classes back when life was simpler and easier, and I tried inventing a language of clicks and hisses for a race of reptilian creatures (which were mostly on the side of good, for once) in the novel I was attempting to write at the time. :-)