bloodyrosemccoy | The Language Diaries, Part 2

Childermas/Holy Innocents Day

Pledge of Allegiance Day

Card Playing Day

National Chocolate Day

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

A-uwa ptk < kakuu!it sekkwo ai te*saao, > *tuu* tko tatuuta ptk < tp te*pa-a!a-a-a-ae-eoo >

Kiatù!ik ptk < sekkwo i aip*eet >

‘The bird is red.’

Kiatù!ik ptk < sekkwo suuit aiaip*ee-eet >

‘The birds were red.’

Kiatù!ik ptk <sekkwo i ai*tuup*eet >

‘The bird is not red.’

Ihwuuù ptk < sekkwo i te-e*aiaiwuu-uuha-ahwuu-uu >

‘The birds sing a song.’

Ihwuuù ptk < sekkwo ee-e te-e*aiaiwuu-uuha-ahwuu-uu >

‘The birds will sing a song.’

Other Sentences

What is your name?

!ituu aawoi < aawoi!it *ouu i tep*eeto >

My name is ___.

Kk ptk < ___ kkit *ouu i tep*eeto. >

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveller came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

Tektpita ptk < suuit hwuuss ùkkuu!p ! *uutapei ke*tka*o*o>, peppo haakpeaat *uu!it *tuu* paaùkit suu*eet ptk < suuit *asso >

Summary

A language for merpeople, with clicks and whistles and sounds that would be heard easily underwater. (I invented a whole biology for them too, that would allow them to speak without exhaling and recycling oxygen. In case you’re curious, they’re totally mammalian, and they’re hardly simply half-human, half-sea-mammal. But that’s a whole other ballpark …)

This one needs work—I haven’t really written out a comprehensive syntax yet, so I have to keep looking back at my sample sentences to make sure everything is consistent. The orthography also needs work; I decided to represent the large number of vowels with diphthongs, which may have been a mistake. The hyphens are to separate the correct sounds—three e’s in a row without one would have three different possible pronunciations, but ee-e is easy enough to read as a long e and a short e sound.* This also shows that some of those hideous words above with the tons of hyphens aren’t really made of a million syllables; if two of the same vowel sound are next to each other, that means that they’re lengthened.

Hu*eetp also employs tones—changing the tone of the predicate shows the person of the subject. This is my first use of tone, which I’m kinda scared of.

I’m a little amazed at how much of the lexicon I have; I seem to recall checking out a book on things found in the ocean and compiling a list of stuff merpeople need names for. But the syntax is a little shaky.

*I’m not sure if Livejournal supports the IPA font, and it’s not like everybody understands those, anyway, so I’ll stick with this explanation.