|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:16 am
Last Updated: 15 April 2007 [Originally posted on FLG] Amurdla ixala Kintarasesa?
Yoi deu averq me'n!
1) Intro (this post)
2) Pronunciation
3) Sample vocab (Pronunciation practice)
4) Parts of Speech
5) Grammar
6) Vocabulary
7) Vocabulary #2 + Numbers + Telling Time
8) Handy Phrases
9) Strange PhrasesKintarasesa GDNeed to find a word in particular? Until (and after) I get my vocab sorted, you can use the Find (ctrl + F) function to search for a word you need biggrin Axoi! It's not actually done, but it occurred to me that it might be interesting to teach what I've made so far... and see what happens. Sort of a miniature linguistic experiment--what happens when a bunch of people have the same base and use it... OK, so we figure it'll make very different dialects, but it could be fun anyway biggrin The language is called Kintaran, and has very simple pronunciation and grammar. It started as a language that I used for a sort of before-we-knew-what-paper-rpgs-were paper RPG, but I redid it so that it has a real linguistic base. I can cover more if anyone's interested biggrin I might anyway, just for the sake of doing it. It'll help me learn it too sweatdrop I have it all typed up in transliteration, since I'm far too lazy to learn the *new* alphabet and make a font and make images and... yeah. Btw, at the top, it says "Want to learn Kintaran? Now you can!"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:17 am
Pronunciation For more help, use the vocab list as a guide and go hereI'm using transliteration, so it should be fairly simple to remember the sounds and the "replacement letters" ***An accent mark over a consonant ( apostrophe after, when typed) makes a "hard" sound, and over a vowel, moves the accent of the word. ***An asterisk (*) placed over a consonant is a soften mark when the sound can't be transliterated seperately (used mainly on s). [D and G are technically t and k softened, but I transiterate those directly.] Vowels are like Spanish or Japanese, most consonants are like in English. Now you can click the letter and hear the sound!! biggrin a - ah b - b (as in English) d - d (as in English, but softens like Spanish--explained below**) e - eh/ay (either is fine--ENG short e or long a) f - f ( Slightly softer than English) g - g--always the hard g, as in grandi - ee--English long e, Spanish i j - zh -- soft j, as in French j or as in English words like a zure, plea sure k - k (same as English, never like kh or ch!) l - l (same as English) m - m (same as English) n - n (same as English) o - o/oh (long o in English, o in Spanish) p - p (same as English) *q - aspirated ch (as in German, Irish, etc. It's similar to a VERY hard H sound) r - r* (more like the unrolled Spanish r--lightly more l-like, but still retaining the r sound. Sort of more frontal sound.) s - s (same as English)*** notes below, s is kind of odd t - t (same as English) u - u / oo (long u English, u Spanish) v - like a cross between v and w; it's softer than v and harder than w. It goes back and forth between the two a little bit. *x - sh, very soft. y - y (ENG), ALWAYS consonant *z - th (usually soft, as in thought; accent makes it hard, as in "there") *replacement letters--I wanted single letters for sounds, and there are some letters missing from Kintaran, so I used them. **The letter 'D' D is like English, but more like Spanish because it is softened some depending on where it is in the word (though *slightly* less): Beginning of word: hard d. Middle of word, between consonants: softened slightly, as though being said more quietly. If you were to call D a form of T, then it'd be the D-equivalent of a soft th. End of word--slightly softer than the middle (but not always all-but-omitted, as in Spanish.) If you're not sure, overpronouncing will definitely get the sound across wink ***The letter 'S' Isn't as screwy as I probably made it seem with all these asterisks. However, it's the MOST SOFTENABLE/HARDENABLE of the consonant sounds. It can go from very sharp (think how you'd hiss at someone you were mad at) to very soft (still harder than x, but getting there) Once again, if in doubt, stick with the middle of the sound, which is almost identical to how English s is pronounced in the word "es" (as in, the letter's name lol ). IT NEVER SOUNDS LIKE ENGLISH Z. And that's it! Not bad, huh? A few oddballs that aren't really all that odd, I just wanted to be really specific sweatdrop Letters section has moved to its own post biggrin
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:18 am
Some Vocab Mostly for speaking practice smile Ar -- I / me (yes, it's the same word) -- say it like the English letter's name, but with the lilted r. Oxklel -- yesterday -- say it like "Osh-kle-el". It's only 2 syllables, but both l's have to get in there! It sounds spiffy, I think... but I'm weird. Remember the long O, we're not selling overalls. (I bet no one got that... lol) Verq -- night -- Here's a tricky one for you! V/W... at the beginning of the word, it's usually nearer a V. At the end of the word, q can soften a *little* bit. It's not VerKH, it's Verh'. Kind of cough the r, I guess sweatdrop When I say it, it often comes out a little nasal on the e, like in French. Veuv -- darkness/dark, to become dark, nightfall -- Oh noes, 2 v's! At the beginning it's close to V.. and at the end it's close to w. BUT it's still halfwayish! So it's not "View", it's "Vay-uwv". Be sure to pronounce all the vowels! Qelelajdra -- flower -- "h'ay-lay-lazh-drah". It, like all of these, is pronounced as it's spelled, but the q at the beginning and all the l's makes it a little tricky to say at first. (Q')serk -- What!?!, No way!, "Really!?" (exclamation of surprise) -- This word... is hard to say without laughing. No really, you need to laugh to include the q' part. Sort of laugh as though someone just said the second funniest joke ever [Monty Python Reference], then say "Serk". If you're just talking and it's not that extreme, you'd probably just say "serk" though. And that's all for now, but if I find a particularly tricky word, I'll let you know smile
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:19 am
Grammar -- parts of speech, etc. Words are.. wierd.. in Kintaran. For one thing, if you are lacking a word, it's very easy to come up with a new one through compounding, even though it's a polysyllabic language (not based on a scheme of syllables of meaning). So I could say "svayef" and mean "who", but literally it's "What it [animate]". Keep an eye out for that when you're reading or when you need a word that isn't here wink Sometimes there are other words around, so if you post one over in the GD that doesn't exist, I'll correct you, no problem smile The main trickiness: Parts of speech aren't divided well. Example: siulquom "Siulqom" means (all at once): to tire, tired, etc. Any modification of the verb "to tire" except "to be tired". Why not this one? You use the nonexistent "to be" to say that. Previously, I posted "Veuv" It means: darkness/dark, to become dark, nightfall, etc. Most words can act as a verb, noun, or adjective. Wowzy. Ar me'n siulqom. "I am tired." Ar siulqom me'n. "I tire." Basically, it's the same thing... there's the same connotational difference as there is in English, really. Yef veuv me'n. "It['s getting] dark." (lit "It becomes dark.") Yef me'n veuv. "It's dark" OR "It's nightfall." So that basically covers that. If you're utterly confused... you can ask.. But that's really my best explanation. I tend to list the main possible meanings of words with the words, so when I get the vocab list up, it should work much better for you sweatdrop
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:20 am
*quick note--I know that I can use accents, but I know that they act up sometimes, since I use unicode. I can't use alt because I have a laptop, which has no number pad. Except for the one that is supposed to work by using the function key, but doesn't. Grammar VERBSY'know all that conjugating you have to do when you learn a language? Con: It takes a while to get used to it, so you struggle for the first bit. Pro: You can drop the subject. Kintaran doesn't have all that. Pro: You don't have to learn it. Con: You can very rarely drop the subject. So, basically: No "to be". If you want to say that something is somesuch, you only use the tense marker. Otherwise: Present Tense: VERB + me'n Past Tense: VERB + ma'n Future: VERB + mo'n Command: VERB + mo'l (no subject needed here--"you" is assumed subject) "Desire" Command: Verb + mola' Another quick note--You may have noticed that the first post has no tense markers, even though it has the verb "ixala" (to learn). If a question does not require an implied time, you don't put any tense marker in it. So, when I ask "Do you want to learn Kintaran?", I don't say "Do you want to now learn Kintaran" Or "Do you want to someday learn Kintaran?". Basically, if it's a broad question, there's no tense. However, this does NOT apply to all questions. "Where are you going?", for example. "Deu velar me'n velsva?" and "Velsva deu velar me'n" are both correct because I am asking where you are going right this minute. If I just said "Deu velar velsva?", it could mean "Where are you going", "Where did you go", or "Where will you go". Scary, yes? Word OrderGenerally, it's S-V-O. That really sums it up. Actually, I think that covers it completely. Moving on... Phrases/Prepositions/Other stuffThis is much like vocab, but since these are done in phrases, I figure it'd be better to go ahead and teach it here... "sa' [name] --" = "I heard it from [name] that --" All of these are placed on the end of the word: -on = in -ja = as -in = of Examples: xaaxaaja (as [the] wind) [yeah, I picked it for how it sounds. laugh.] vranvalieron (in [a] month) amiqdain (of fire) PronounsIt's kind of important to know these... Ar -- I yef -- it [animate] yefni -- it [INanimate] qara -- female qano -- male. Usually, you will refer to a person as "it". If you need to make the distinction, you just say the gender. Seriously. PluralsTo make the plural of a noun, you just take the word and tack on an N. Well, that's if the word ends in a vowel. If it doesn't end in a vowel, you take the last vowel in it, put that in front of the N, then tack it on. Examples: Ar (I) >> Aran (we) Qelelajdra (flower) >> Qelelajdran (flowers)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:21 am
Vocabulary You can follow the Kintaran words in this list for pronunciation *z = "th", x = "sh", v = "v"/"w", q = aspirated "ch" here! biggrin [[ Kintarasesa English]] ar I, me yef it (animate/human) fer leave (exit) siulqom to tire, tired tak walk kel speak (word) yefni it (inanimate/inhuman) nin not/no kelna write (letter) oxka past oxklel yesterday verq night lev light, to become light / to dawn veuv darkness/dark, to become dark, nightfall deu you yoi now / present time śa_____- "I heard it from ____ that-" -mén present tense marker -mán past tense marker -mo'n future tense marker -mól command marker/command subject (deu isn't required here--assumed subject) yerta new qara female qano male qel tree (or very large plant) -laz, -elaz little (lath if word does not end in l, elath if does) qelelaz small plant (shaped similar to tree--stem and leaf, etc) qelyer leaf, paper -dra pretty, beautiful qelelajdra flower qarda gold, golden selivran silver, of silver valeu down, to go down, to fall leu up, to rise axoi hello xelva goodbye ___-on in ____ xaaxaa wind jigara bird gare wing (linguistic note: gare used to be the word for bird but literally meant "winged" and could refer to anything with wings.) gaji bug/insect qez green varqar wheat, wheat-colored varqera bread (made of wheat) era to make / something manufactured (q')serk! "Really?!" "No way!" (exclamation of surprise) note: the q' may not always be written beuldavra year vranvalier month daqlier day vranva moon daq sun beul long beurla infinite, many, uncountable ___-ja as ___-in of ___-en on amiqda fire betvra ice ixala to study, to learn sva What? (Question word in general--who, what, when, where, how, huh? **not why) xva alternate form of sva, usually for "huh?" or confusion in general. len yes -n, -#n plural. Explained in grammar. amurdla to want, desire [can possibly be used for envy] Kintarasesa Kintaran [language] velar to go averq to be able to [can] s'aaq help ledrava good, expression of happiness enksa thanks, thank you karnvil to eat karn food Some of the words have been made since I was trying to translate Galadriel's Lament from the English translation into Kintaran, and then to a literal translation and compare razz . I'm weird like that. Colors!black veik white leik blue xeik green qeik yellow beik red meik purple reik All others are by "what they look like". Orange would be reddish yellow or yellowish red. A brown could be a dark red/yellow, reddish green (or greenish red), yellowish purple, etc. These are combined by simple attachment... light blue would be leik-xeik for a very pale blue, or xeik-leik for just a lightened blue. The weak color is second to the strong color.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:23 am
Vocabulary #2 minga to like, interest, to be interested (This does not necessarily use a verb tense at all) ijnauv to think, thought (think cannot be used as believe, as it is in English) kren to believe, a belief kemel head valaun to drop, to let fall -ya possessive marker ('s) amqeri weapon i and baour to surrender, to give up sesa language doma sorry, apologize niq but, however ijal to hear, a sound tyen to have, a belonging qelko fruit ijaleri ear svayef who (lit what it/person) amgalir to need, a necessity kinejund world, the world (not earth, actually) kine "god" (but not really...), spirit (similar in meaning to Japanese "kami") ei there is, there are (to exist) xelverqe good night viulz bathroom, restroom, etc velsva where Sva da? How are you? [derives directly from "Svai me deuz", the old way of saying it] qurak sick, unwell ninledra bad veil here baal there inveilta away, elsewhere, not here baongo stupid, foolish, idiot kirte fox ziq if yarmij to call, a name sesaiyo to scream, to cry out jedo sit __-ven to [a place] qil part, piece, portion s*a to understand, "y'know?" tag question mer love (friendship, etc) mijur love (sex) mijao love (both) merla love (closer than friendship, but not necessarily physical) mingur love (extreme like of something, but not a person) kaijalun the universe, space, etc kelvren aluminium (note--higher value than silver, which is FAR higher than gold in this society.) -ili similar to the ending "-like" on a word truni tool, device. possibly a loanword (dunno what from yet...) ganman later, after vikilu to look, see, appearance uilkarn drink, to drink jivui sweet, sugar ixalauf student yifal to live, life is*auk to know, knowledge sesavik writing, to write, written word ver to [as in the infinitive "to", like in " to be"] ___-mil with levre to give karnlevre to feed ___-xe for ___ zork heart esu hand yigi blood teln skin kemin face qimpq throat s*iels*ik fingernails, claws sujx to kiss vriep wrap around [something], to be wrapped around [something] jet deep qiru to wonder, ask a question utuev other, another javarn ne to seem or appear [no tense marker in present] seul sleep kim while/as ninyai nothing [this is almost slang; you'd probably say it while yelling] kiled cool (usually exclaimed) ___-qolt about ___ selo to laugh ta'fuil insane takki run Numbersnilu zero* taiai number ain one / 1 tain two / 2 sat three / 3 tra four / 4 gal five / 5 gal ain six / 6 gal tain seven / 7 gal sat eight / 8 gal tra nine / 9 tain gal ten / 10 ...see the pattern?... *Zero DOES NOT FOLLOW the pattern, so don't worry about making it fit. galvra fifty / 50 I don't feel like going higher. I'll get the written version up as soon as I can.
[Note: I used a linguistic theory I learned in a book on Pi--that first we learned one and two, then the rest. biggrin ]How to USE the numbers: Kintarasesa is a base 5 system; in other words it uses fives to count. Note that six is "5 1", seven and up, etc. then past ten it's "2 5 1" and on. This pattern continues. Fairly simple, I think. The tricky thing is that the sheer number of words adds up much faster than base 10 x.x Telling TimeThe Kintaran day (and in fact, the day of Kinejund) is divided into fiftieths. Yes, you have to count to big numbers. I seem to have condemned myself already... The numbers start at dawn and end the next dawn, so it's a little iffy, but "nilu galvra-in" (lit zero fifty-of, or zero o'clock) is roughly 6 am in Earth time... but days are a bit longer. Each piece is a little over half an hour, to a total of probably 28 hours (ROUGHLY). Time zones? Oh noes... Kintara is a fairly large country... but they're organised enough to handle it biggrin It's based on when dawn is. At some point there was a survey--a bunch of people were sent out to wait around till dawn, then march back to the capit(a/o?)l. Well, it worked, and they figured that the difference was no more than three pieces cross-country, so they did the major-city thing and called it good. Don't worry about that too much. So yeah. Zero is dawn, fifty is dawn, ergo 0 = 1. Yay. Ask for the piece of the day to ask the time, say # fifty-of to say the time. Simple? yeah. Learn them numbahs! domokun
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:24 am
Handy Phrases IN PROGRESS; feel free to request biggrin These are kind of "standard" phrases... well, pretty much rolleyes Hello AxoiGoodbye XelvaGood morning
Good day
Good afternoon
Good evening [not really used] Good night (as in, "I'm going to bed now, night-night!") XelverqeWhere's the restroom? Viulz me'n velsva?How are you? Sva da?I'm fine. Ar me'n ledrava. (in response, ledrava would suffice, just as in English) I'm not well. Ar nin me'n ledrava. (lit I'm not well) / Ar me'n ninledra. (lit I'm bad) / Ar me'n qurak (lit I'm sick, unwell) Where is [insert noun here]? [insert noun here] me'n velsva?How do I get to [insert noun here]? Please amurdyaThank you Enksa**** off and die! [if you don't know what the word is, you don't need to sweatdrop ] I'm a rabid tourist, pay me no mind. I'm a tourist, please don't hurt me. I NO SPEAK YOU LANGUAGE!! AR NIN SESA DEU SESA!!(To be correct, "I don't speak your language" is "Ar nin sesa deuya sesa") What is [insert word here] in [insert language here]? [word] me'n sva kintarasesaon? / Sva me'n [word] kintarasesaon?Do you speak [insert language here]? Deu sesa [language]?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:25 am
Strange Phrases Feel free to request!//IN PROGRESS// Sorry but I cannot hear you, I have a banana in my ear. Doma, niq nin averq me'n ijal deu. Ar tyen me'n qelko ijalerion. NOTE: qelko means fruit. Banana would be a loan word... Drop your weapons and surrender! " Valaun mól dauya amqerin i baour mól!" ( Spoken more slowly here) We're not learning for school, but for life. To err is human. (Various 'your mother' insults.) Life is beautiful. But squirrels don't eat chicken! Who needs alcohol? Svayef amgalir alkoqol? (Alkoqol being translit of alcohol) There are stars in the sky. The world wants to kill me. The concept of: "Off the wall". "Karnvil sesaiyon" "Eating screams" (you'd need to conjugate karnvil) -->"He's off the wall" >> "He eats screams" >> "Yef karnvil me'n sesayon" I love my language! Ar mingur arya sesa! Today's god is tomorrow's devil. Knowledge is the key to the future. Life or death. Nobody can make you feel inferiour without your consent. So what if it expired a week ago? That's what your immune system is for! <-- (talking about a cake) You're only 14? Gosh, Raquel, you're a baby! IT'S A PLEASURE TO THE TIPS~! Oh, God! There's an axe in my head! A, kine! Ei me'n aqks arya kemelon!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:26 am
Writing Letters  After the alphabet, the symbols are: accent, soften mark, o-accent (ignore it--it no longer exists! it used to be used in the future tense, and that's about it.), comma (the dot only), period (the line only), exclamation point (line & circle), question mark (crossed line). You may notice that some letters are missing... To make: D: soften over T G: soften over K That is probably what the print system would look like, but it sure is hard to write quickly, isn't it? That's where the notepad came in wink See some handwritten Kintarasesa! (along with random scribbling) (This is a photo. I'll put up a scanned version when I have access to my scanner again biggrin ) NamesHow to write a name in Kintaran: #1: If not already Kintarasesa, transliterate based on phonetics. #2: If it's just a single name you're done. If not... Attach name wiht hyphens. No, really. So Eccentric Iconoclast here would be Eksentrek-Aikanoklast, while I would be Forjdan. Richard Kruspe would be Rixard-Krospa. Mary Jane Smith would be Meri-Jen-Smiz. Etc. Etc. Moving on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:11 pm
Could someone please post suggestions for more vocab? I need to come up with a theme to get in groups sweatdrop
The first set will stand alone though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:42 pm
How about verbs of being, such as 'to like', 'to think', and so on?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eccentric Iconoclast Captain
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:48 pm
Eccentric Iconoclast How about verbs of being, such as 'to like', 'to think', and so on? A, ledrava! Enksa! *runs off to make stuffs*
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:48 pm
A few words have been added, but I'm still going.
I really need to organise the vocab into chunks that go together... stare
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
