Language, do some words have to have translations?

[Eccentric Iconoclast]

Well, these are just the Lisfirim, which are one among many concultures.

I've also got the Mazdrivonians (who, for the most part, have their own language; Aquénandi is just spoken by one tiny village in the northern mountains), who, unlike the Lisfirim, are not immortal, do not have an overwhelming tendency towards mental illness and only ever try to drown people on their birthdays; and the Arbitians, who often ingest far too much fermented wild rice but are otherwise perfectly nice people; and the Prutts, who enjoy rubbing themselves in glow-in-the-dark cave fungi and dancing naked around fires on the new moon but are otherwise considerably more technologically advanced than the surrounding civilizations.

Uh, never mind.  

[Goddess Rukus]

Eccentric Iconoclast

Well, these are just the Lisfirim, which are one among many concultures.

I've also got the Mazdrivonians (who, for the most part, have their own language; Aquénandi is just spoken by one tiny village in the northern mountains), who, unlike the Lisfirim, are not immortal, do not have an overwhelming tendency towards mental illness and only ever try to drown people on their birthdays; and the Arbitians, who often ingest far too much fermented wild rice but are otherwise perfectly nice people; and the Prutts, who enjoy rubbing themselves in glow-in-the-dark cave fungi and dancing naked around fires on the new moon but are otherwise considerably more technologically advanced than the surrounding civilizations.

Uh, never mind.

xD

I think you should write a book, it would be really interesting. xD  

[Eccentric Iconoclast]

I'm going to write a collection of myths from around my conworld, but I'm not really the author type.  

[Goddess Rukus]

Eccentric Iconoclast

I'm going to write a collection of myths from around my conworld, but I'm not really the author type.

Ah, I see. =)
(I love to write, my problem is coming up with good material. All my stuff ends up cliché.)  

[419scambaiterKoko]

Koküssen- It's a very conceptual language with an abundance of particles, tag words, descriptors etc.

So the word "Hurricane" would be translated like so: {Ocean} {water movement particle] {storm} {ending indicating severe danger}.

-Kostrejakos are the largest Koküssen speaking ethnic group due to the large size of the country and the countries sounding it that it controlled (similar to the Soviet Union, except there were no mass killings) So it is spoken in 20 differents countries on the same continent. There are many dialects of it and each country has it's own separate language. (Vykos (speakers of Vykosteni) eliminated the use of Koküssen except in on region in their country after they achieved independence.)  

[Shen Trey]

Koko.Dk

Koküssen- It's a very conceptual language with an abundance of particles, tag words, descriptors etc.

So the word "Hurricane" would be translated like so: {Ocean} {water movement particle] {storm} {ending indicating severe danger}.

-Kostrejakos are the largest Koküssen speaking ethnic group due to the large size of the country and the countries sounding it that it controlled (similar to the Soviet Union, except there were no mass killings) So it is spoken in 20 differents countries on the same continent. There are many dialects of it and each country has it's own separate language. (Vykos (speakers of Vykosteni) eliminated the use of Koküssen except in on region in their country after they achieved independence.)

I had a language somewhat like that 0.o though it was entirely based on suffixes and prefixes that would laps together and create words, though to create entire words out of advanced complicated structures I would have to add an additional vowel or "midfixe" to the word to make it work right. now that language is used as a Ancient form of one of my more complete works lol  

[The Quail]

I do have a word I use often (naum, usually in the adjective form naumið) that corresponds in the latter form to "pathetic" or "idiotic". Not the nicest thing to call someone... The verb derived from that stem, naumod (infinitive form), would mean something like "to scorn".

Then, since most words are made from word stems, a lot of odd words are theoretically possible if you just inflect the stem correctly. For example, the stem eusr- means "sky" as a noun. It could become the adverb eusrolu or the sentence "I skied." as Eusrel.. I don't know if that would actually mean anything...

I haven't developed the culture associated with the fictional humans and large intelligent talking quails that speak my language at all, though, so it doesn't have a wealth of untranslatable cultural terms.  

[Shen Trey]

The Quail

I do have a word I use often (naum, usually in the adjective form naumið) that corresponds in the latter form to "pathetic" or "idiotic". Not the nicest thing to call someone... The verb derived from that stem, naumod (infinitive form), would mean something like "to scorn".

Then, since most words are made from word stems, a lot of odd words are theoretically possible if you just inflect the stem correctly. For example, the stem eusr- means "sky" as a noun. It could become the adverb eusrolu or the sentence "I skied." as Eusrel.. I don't know if that would actually mean anything...

I haven't developed the culture associated with the fictional humans and large intelligent talking quails that speak my language at all, though, so it doesn't have a wealth of untranslatable cultural terms.

untranslatable cultural terms lol I have so many of those, mostly dance styles and terms and a few food items, though there are lots of actual words that have no exact meaning in Tokeil that I use as often as I use the word "the" or "and" lol  

[419scambaiterKoko]

Kawazoe Michiyo

Koko.Dk

Koküssen- It's a very conceptual language with an abundance of particles, tag words, descriptors etc.

So the word "Hurricane" would be translated like so: {Ocean} {water movement particle] {storm} {ending indicating severe danger}.

-Kostrejakos are the largest Koküssen speaking ethnic group due to the large size of the country and the countries sounding it that it controlled (similar to the Soviet Union, except there were no mass killings) So it is spoken in 20 differents countries on the same continent. There are many dialects of it and each country has it's own separate language. (Vykos (speakers of Vykosteni) eliminated the use of Koküssen except in on region in their country after they achieved independence.)

I had a language somewhat like that 0.o though it was entirely based on suffixes and prefixes that would laps together and create words, though to create entire words out of advanced complicated structures I would have to add an additional vowel or "midfixe" to the word to make it work right. now that language is used as a Ancient form of one of my more complete works lol

Tólkóšlædí? (really?)
Mine uses particles, suffixes, prefixes, movement verbs, movement words, and other difficult terms to express things.
For example: you can use 'defålčkü' which is a word that has no real meaning other than "default" to emphasize, strengthen meaning, merge sentences together, or just leave it floating on the end of a sentence.  

[Pistil]

When I read this thread, the one word from my language that immediately came to mind was 'nemen' which means.... well that's the problem, it can mean so many things I just can't translate it properly. In lamest terms... it's used when somethings is reflected back... so it can mean "reflection", "return", "echo", "mirror", "again", "et cetera", etc. sweatdrop

There's no indication on which way it's meant, but it always seems to makes sense to speakers of Etiktik, it just really uncomfortable when translated to English or for people that are learning the language. Like if you were to translate "I looked at myself in the mirror" would be "I reflected my reflection in the reflector" except that there's no real inflections (?) and such in Etiktik, so it actually be "I reflect my reflect in the reflect"... but Etiktik also lacks most 'filler' words, so a direct translation would be (with proper word placement) "Enemen nemen kōpōn nemen" or "My-reflect reflect within reflect" as a direct translation, or would probably be loosely re-translated to English as "My reflection is reflected in the mirror"

But to be honest, they could just as easily say "Egi^ kōpōn nemen" (My image within mirror) but would actually prefer the first way because it's more formal/proper.  

[Shameless Faggotry]

They don't have to, I just think it's easier if they do.

I'm like the OP. I have some words with mean lots.

Vøjgn to view/watch/look/stare/admire.

Zkrïld a message/order/letter/a metaphor similar to "get the picture?"/to make something obvious/a bulletin/an advert.