The ZBB "Historical Telephone" game involves a group of conlangers deriving daughters from a single parent language, which remains secret while another group attempts to reconstruct the parent language from the daughters. This is one of the daughter-languages for Team 2. All of the below information is less complete than I'd like, and almost certainly contains errors, but conlanging under a deadline can have such results.
Naidda is the language of Kasca, which comprises the broad delta of the Ja River (called the Eige, in Farálo) and its surrounding region, that lies across the southern border of the Huyfárah Empire. Kasca has no political unity in itself; instead, it's split between the northern half, controlled by Huyfárah, and the southern half, a patchwork of city-states and country baronies. The heartland of Kasca is the swampy region of the deep delta, but the most powerful of the city-states, Pawe, lies across the bay to the south. Naidda is the dominant language in the delta and south of the border, and a minority language elsewhere in southwestern Huyfárah.
The distant history of Kasca is told best by the Farálo scholar known as Zompist. He calls the land Kazegad and its people the Edák, but tells the story better than this writer can.
The area's recent history is dominated by the growing influence of Huyfárah, which over the last couple centuries has had control over a majority of Kasca, waxing and waning with the fortunes of the empire. Currently the border includes the central delta and north coast areas, while the south coast and the upriver lands remain free and divided among eternally squabbling barons. Given the modern imperial expansion it remains to be seen how long these areas remain independent. Their days are probably numbered.
Kasca is not what you'd call a powerful, rich, or vibrant land. Instead it is a backwater, albeit densely populated, dominated by endless swamps and the occasional decrepit and badly managed city-state. The overwhelming majority of the people are little better than serfs, spending their lives in backbreaking toil in the fertile fields that are Kasca's only major natural resource. Those that live in the cities are as poor, except for the occasional successful shopkeeper or merchant, but have more varied lives. The cities tend to be run-down, dirty, and gradually crumbling away. The Kascans are not a generally happy people, although they do the best they can and try to make the most of the few bright spots in their lives. They tend toward cynicism and apathy as a major cultural trait.
1. Upriver dialect: a rather divergent form of Naidda with heavy influence from Ndok Aiso. The area has only one town of any note, a mid-river trading post between Kasca and the lands upriver from it. Historically considered to be part of Kasca, but no major ties beyond language are in evidence in modern times.
2. Delta dialect: one of the more conservative dialects, spoken by more than half the Kascan population - but considered "rural" by others. This region over history has continually fallen under and escaped from Huyfárah political control, which currently is theoretically in effect but not enforced heavily, as this is a backwater region relatively unimportant except for its farming.
3. Momuva'e dialect: Momuva'e was once Kasca's largest city, and is still quite large by most standards - but crumbling and having lost its status as the regional center long ago... much like Rome had become a few hundred years ago ago before it was revived. The speakers of the local dialect preserve a few older morphological forms no longer seen in other dialects, and have innovated some pronunciations (including a major vowel shift). It's otherwise still quite close to Delta speech. Momuva'e has no political unity or control whatsoever for the time being; its citizens live their own lives unruled by any government or power, with anarchy and general lawlessness making the place rather unsafe. Generals rise to take control of it, or it gets conquered by another city state, from time to time... but nobody really wants it and such arrangements invariably wither away.
4. Southern dialect: the prestige dialect and the one treated in this description of Naidda. The city of Pawe is now the largest in Kasca, and for a few hundred years has maintained its independence from any other powers and fiefdom over much of the land south of the delta - but always shakily, with the Huyfárah empire so close. The only notable arts of "high culture" in Kasca are practiced here. Their speech is similar to the Delta dialect except for a few minor sound changes and a higher dependence on a system of "animacy hierarchy" (explained below).
5. Mid-Coast dialect: these areas, having easy access to and from the sea and stronger economies than the inland parts of Kasca, have been politically consolidated into Huyfárah long since. Their speech is heavily influenced by Farálo but still clearly Naidda. Mutual intelligibility with the rest of Naidda is waning, but some of the Delta sound changes have spread here. Culturally these people identify much more closely with Huyfárah than Kasca and are very dependent on the Huyfárah empire.
6. Naidda is no longer spoken in this area; it's part of Huyfárah and the citizens speak Farálo.
bilabial | labiodental | dental | postalveolar | palatal | velar | glottal | |
Stops | p b |
t d |
k g |
' | |||
Fricatives | f v |
s | sj z |
||||
Affricates | c dj |
||||||
Nasals | m | n | ñ | ng | |||
Approximants and Laterals | w | l | j | ||||
Trills | r | ||||||
Taps | dd |
The vowels are pretty much clear from the diagram, but worth noting is that all back vowels are fully rounded, while all non-back vowels are unrounded. This means the letter à corresponds to X-SAMPA /Q/, not /A/. Epsilon is /3/. The ì is /I/, but somewhat more lax than English's /I/.
Diphthongs: never phonemic. Vowels frequently occur in hiatus, and if they aren't separated by a glottal stop they freely diphthongize in normal speech.
Consonant distributions and cluster rules: so tangled I'm putting off explaining it until another day; you can get a good idea just by looking through the lexicon.
Stress: irrelevent. Naidda is syllable-timed, and though each word has a somewhat stressed syllable, the feature is neither predictable nor contrastive.
Final nasals are syllabic following /?/ and /s/. In the latter case they're orthographically represented with an epsilon between the s and n, but still pronounced [sn=].
The phoneme /r/ is an alveolar trill only before vowels. In codas and finally, the realization of /r/ depends on dialect, but is usually either [R] (as in the prestige Southern dialect) or vocalized to an unrounded mid-back vowel such as [7] or [V] or anything in between (especially in more northerly dialects). Some dialects merge /4/ and /r/.
The phoneme /f/ is a feature of the larger and more trade-oriented towns. Back-country folk typically change it to /v/.
A hyphen is used for noun clitics. See the morphology section for details of noun clitics.
return to topNouns do not inflect for any of the usual noun inflections we're accustomed to seeing in many European languages such as case, number, or gender. Instead they simply take proclitics that "determine" the noun. They point out which one (demonstratives), tell how many there are (quantifiers), or mark definiteness (articles).
no- | topic-emphasis marker |
li(j)- | vocative |
l(ε)- | definite article |
o- | indefinite article |
wi(j)- | this |
g(ε)- | that |
c(i)- | yonder |
wa- | some, a few |
om(ε)- | many |
is- | a great many |
mi- | no, none of the |
e- | all, every, each one of |
Letters in parentheses indicate those that only appear in certain environments. Vowels in parentheses appear only when the next word starts with a consonant, while j appears only when the next word starts with a vowel. It is important to note that these variants are not written. For example, in the title graphic for this page, you do not see an epsilon after the "L" in "L-mesjà". It is nevertheless pronounced.
I apologize in advance, because unlike for nouns, the morphology system for verbs is a headache.
Two types of information are conveyed by verb-complex morphology: headmarking of the participants in the sentence, and tense-aspect information. With one exception, mood is not conveyed morphologically; mood adverbs are used instead. Tense-aspect is marked by auxiliary verbs, while headmarking is suffixed to the verb or to the auxiliary verb if one is present.
First let's get transitive sentences out of the way since they're the worst of the lot. The following suffixes are used in transitive sentences:
suffix | meaning |
-li | 1st person subject, 2nd person object |
-jε | 1st person subject, 3rd person object |
-ddowε | 2sg subject, person of object unmarked |
-ddogε | 2pl subject, person of object unmarked |
-ai | 3sg subject, 1st person object |
-nge | 3pl subject, 1st person object |
-ddo | 3sg subject, 2nd person object |
-niddo | 3pl subject, 2nd person object |
-ε | 3sg subject, 3rd person object |
-ngε | 3pl subject, 3rd person object |
Notice that the number (singular or plural) of the object is not specified above. Object number is marked by adding -n after the above suffixes for singulars and omitting it for plurals.
Notice further that the paradigm is defective for first and second person subjects. For first person subjects, singular/plural is not distinguished. For second person subjects, the person of the object is not distinguished. A majority of sentences in actual usage will not have any particular need to specify the missing information, but in cases where it becomes important, a pronoun is used. See the syntax section below for more on this and how to resolve other ambiguities.
To illustrate, here is a full conjugation table for the verb to, "to eat". Reading the column and row headers is simple: rows are for person and columns for number, shown as subject-object. For instance the form for 3-1 S-P is for 3rd person singular subject and 1st person plural object.
S-S S-P P-S P-P 1-2 tolin toli (same as singular) 1-3 tojεn tojε (same as singular) 2-x toddowεn toddowε toddogεn toddogε 3-1 toain toai tongen tonge 3-2 toddon todd toniddon toniddo 3-3 toεn toε tongεn tongε
Whew. Now the nasty part's done, the intransitive headmarkers should be a breath of fresh air:
singular | plural | |
1st | -(l)e | -(w)àzè |
2nd | -(l)in | -(w)ain |
3m | -(l)ur | -(ε)mεl |
3f | -(l)as | |
3n | -(l)um |
...or maybe not. Some of those are identical to some of the transitive suffixes. Oh, and they mark gender for 3rd person singulars. Whoops. I guess you can't have everything.
Letters in parentheses indicate a consonant that appears if the suffix follows a vowel and disappears if it follows a consonant.
Auxiliary verbs are used to mark various combinations of tense and aspect. Whenever an auxiliary is used, it bears the headmarking suffix and the main verb stem is used bare of any inflection.
auxiliary | meaning |
0 | past perfective |
ste | nonfuture imperfective |
steda | nonfuture dynamic |
stesjo | infinite |
stevε | present perfect |
wè | future imperfective |
wèda | future dynamic |
wèsjo | imperative |
wèvε | future perfect |
da | past perfect |
Yes, that's right, the tense of verbs used without an auxiliary is simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite. There is no simple present tense as such, or any real present tense at all.
The "infinite" form is not the same thing as "infinitive". Naidda has no infinitive that are distinguishable from the preterite form. The infinite form means something that is eternally true, or at least always true for as much time as is relevent. A statment like "the sky is blue" would be translated using the infinite. The dynamic form just means inceptive, for action verbs, or inchoative, for stative verbs.
The final vowels of auxiliaries are usually overridden by initial vowels on headmarking suffixes.
return to topThe basic word order for sentences is Matrix Verb - Nouns. Naidda doesn't particularly care what order the nouns are arranged in; the best analysis of the sentence structure might be "a verb followed by whatever nouns are involved", at least for sentences that do not need an auxiliary. The essential point is that the auxiliary, or the main verb if there is no auxiliary, is mandatorily anchored to the beginning of the clause, and everything else follows it in whatever order the speaker finds convenient. Only adverbial information can preceed the matrix verb, which is a marked construction (see next section).
Adverbs can be placed after the auxiliary, after the verb, or at the end of the clause. All of these positions are unmarked, but there are some tendencies for which go where. General adverbs of manner tend to occur after the verb or at the end of the clause, while deictic adverbs (those saying when or where the action occurred) and those lending tight semantic modifications to the verb, such as those that mark various moods or aspects or evidentials, tend to follow the auxiliary. If multiple adverbs are used, there is a tendency for them to lump together either at the end of the clause or after the auxiliary.
Any adverb or adverbial clause can be moved to the beginning of the main clause to emphasize it, comparable to English's "Tenderly he kissed her" as opposed to the more neutral "He kissed her tenderly", although this is used much more often in Naidda than in English. Adverbial clauses consisting of a whole embedded sentence modifying the main clause, always follow the main clause unless emphasized.
There are times when verb headmarking is not enough to distinguish who's doing what to who, especially in transitive sentences; for instance, if the subject of the sentence is first person and a meaning of either "I" or "we" would make sense in the context; or if the subject is second person, and the direct object could be either a first or a third person; or if both subject and object are third person and both are singular or both are plural. In some cases, a pronoun can be introduced to specify the missing information (see the pronouns section, below, for a list).
If the pronoun isn't clear, however, or isn't enough to disambiguate roles (like when both the subject and the direct object are 3rd person singular), then a hierarchy of "animacy" takes over. Generally it works on the principle that everyone follows the same basic assumptions for who is likely to do what to who. The hierarchy is as follows:
1. anything marked as the sentence topic ->
2. first person ->
3. second person ->
4. people well known to the speaker or listener or both ->
5. other people ->
6. animals ->
7. everything else.
Note that this is highly sensitive to context, and not set in stone. If the usual order of things involves a certain action going in the "wrong" direction on the hierarchy, that is usually taken into account. For instance people are ranked higher than animals, but horses are known for kicking people while people aren't known for kicking horses. So in a sentence where there's a horse and a person and one is kicking the other, it is safe to assume the horse is doing the kicking. In the very rare case that headmarking, pronouns, animacy, and context all fail to make clear which of two nouns is the subject of the sentence, the subject can be marked as a topic.
In theory this description covers the behavior seen in daily Naidda speech; in practice, sentences that depend heavily on animacy are unlikely to be correctly understood or generated by non-native speakers. Naidda speakers trying to make themselves more understandable to non-native speakers will often use pronouns, topic-markings, and other work-around constructions that aren't strictly necessary. Non-native speakers who haven't spent a lot of time living with Naidda speakers are advised to do the same.
The usual NP order is Det Num N A Phr where Det refers to the previously described determiner clitics, Num to numerals, N to the head noun, A to one-word adjectives, and Phr to pretty much anything else: prepositional phrases, relative clauses, and the like. Anaphoric prepositions (described below) can be used as determiners in some circumstances.
This page's title graphic is an example of a noun phrase: L-mesjà Naidda. This takes the form of Det N A, a determiner (l-, the definite article) followed by the noun (mesja, "speech"), modified by an adjective (Naidda).
x | 10x | |
1 | ce | ro |
2 | ngi | ngiro |
3 | wo | woro |
4 | bu | buro |
5 | do | doro |
6 | esjε | esjro |
7 | mam | maro |
8 | ude | udero |
9 | nil | niro |
10 | ro | jεbε |
Numbers alone are sufficient as determiners, if they are used immediately before the noun. Clitics are not required in this case, but still optional; just as in English one can say "five horses" or "those five horses", in Naidda one can say either do nalor or g-do nalor.
A relative clause is an embedded sentence that modifies a noun phrase. To form a relative clause from a sentence, move the matrix verb to the end, then leave a gap where the relativized noun would be and add the relativizer rom to the beginning of the clause. Headmarking on the relativized verb is used to tell who's doing what to who within the clause. If that's insufficient, pronouns and/or animacy are used to make it clear, just as with main clauses.
Example:
l-saña rom toli
the-food that cooked-1.3PL
"the food that I/we cooked"
Whether a noun is singular or plural is marked on the verb, not on the noun, but it's important to note that unlike English, mass or "non-count" nouns, like food in the above example, are treated as plural, not singular.
Verb headmarking takes care of most cases where English would require a pronoun, but not all. The basic table of pronouns is as follows:
singular | plural | |
1st | e | wàzè |
2nd | liño | waiño |
3m | luru | wairu |
3f | lasa | waisa |
3n | lumεl | waimεl |
Note that this lines up with the intransitive verb markers. Those markers are in fact cliticized forms of these pronouns.
Pronouns are usually used in two circumstances: first, as described in previous sections, for clarifying ambiguous sentences; and second, for emphasis. Adding a pronoun that matches the sentence subject emphasized it was that person or thing, not any other, that performed the action. This is directly equivalent to the difference between English I did it and I did it myself.
Now we get into why pronouns and prepositions are discussed in the same section. Naidda's treatment of prepositions is rather odd. Like verbs, prepositions headmark for their objects (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person); stated another way, there are no prepositions, just a large list of pronouns with various oblique cases. It works like this. For a normal prepositional phrase where a noun or noun phrase is the object of a preposition, the 3rd person form is used; when the object is 1st or 2nd person, or a 3rd person noun phrase previously mentioned, the appropriate form can simply be used alone. A matching pronoun can be added after any preposition that's otherwise standing alone if more information is required, such as singular/plural, or gender.
Here is a table of the most common anaphoric prepositions. In telling the forms apart it's important to pay attention to the vowels: sometimes the only visual difference is an accent mark. 3rd person forms are in bold because they are the only forms useable with full nouns, and to make the table easier to read.
1st | 2nd | 3rd | Meaning |
εge | εddo | ε | possessive |
ume | unddo | um | genitive; nearly all other uses of English "of" beyond actual possession |
nge | nguddo | ngu | essive, appositive, "as" |
wi | woddo | wo | benefactive, "for", "concerning", "with respect to" |
kwène | kwènddo | kwèn | comitative, "with", "together with", "considered with" |
εle | εlddo | εl | abessive, "without", "besides", "except for" |
puge | puddo | pu | "per", "for each" |
si | saddo | sa | ablative, "from", "from out of", "from near" |
ne | niddo | ni | inessive, illative, "in", "into" |
εdde | εddo | εdda | allative, "to", "towards" |
we | waddo | wa | "after", "since" |
ove | oddo | o | adessive, "at", "near to", "by" as in "by the corner" |
sli | sladdo | sla | "before", "by" as in "by tomorrow" |
irede | ireddo | ire | terminative, "as far as", "as much as", "until" |
rεbe | rεbèddo | rεbè | prolative, prosecutive, "along", "via", "during" |
te | tèddo | tè | adverbializer, like the "with" in "with love" |
Some neat tricks are possible with anaphoric prepositions, like using them as determiners, which I'll explain later. There are also some non-anaphoric prepositions which much always be followed by a pronoun or full NP, but they aren't often used and will be discussed another time.
Predicate nominals and their ilk, all the constructions that require a copula instead of a full verb, follow a simple and easy pattern in Naidda. The formula is Cop - Pred - NP.
The copula itself is usually easy, you already know it from sections above. All the auxiliary verbs are different forms of the copula. In these constructions, the copula is always headmarked intransitively to agree with the NP at the end and nothing more. Choose the form that gives the appropriate tense/aspect combination.
Note: the past-perfective tense, which in normal sentences uses no auxiliary, is treated in copular constructions as a zero morpheme. This "zero copula" still takes intransitive headmarking - but, since there is nothing for the normally clitical intransitive markers to cliticize to, they regain their full pronoun forms.
Next comes the information to be predicated to the noun. This can be a noun also, like "The king is a man", or an adjective, like "The king is sad", or a prepositional phrase, like "The king is on his throne". For existential clauses, like "There is a book on the table", simply use Cop - NP with no predicated information in between.
Last comes the noun to which the previous information is predicated; any simple noun or complex noun phrase can be used here, but generally not a pronoun.
return to topA sample text in Naidda and its approximate English translation. A full gloss will added as soon as I get a chance.
Stur me Ceñan, ngu l-djaga kasjum, ngu l-djaga ε l-là um Kasca, ngu l-mèrya um l-jodol n l-ìbe, ce:
Waimεl sèljon εdde e-là sai, sla ri o l-spà ε εge mè pèle. Memεl l-là wemè sai ce: "Luru o-djaga pèra l-mè ε luru. Dalur om-là sèljon sove. Stedur cìsjo o-naga. Dal stur o-dève luru rom wisjo o l-spà ε l-mè ε luru pè stur."
Sola pèle e, ngu l-mèrya um l-jodol n l-ìbe, o l-spà ε εge mè, sla none εdda l-là sai rom sèljon εdde waimεl, none εdda wa-baidde um Ova'e. Bèñorjε waimεl n sàbàmjε εge ton εdda l-omo èvda. Mele ce:
"Li-da'e εge, ngu l-tol ε e-bi, stevεnge cuddor l-là wemè rom o-dève eminge. Cìsjo stedangε pàsto l-ka ε εddo là doden, li-da'e εge! Wèsjoddowεn èvre megudε!"
Rànddε Ova'e l-lèi ε εge màm. Sàbàmain lasa gi n cεvε εdda εge ìddwam bàvor. Sovejεn sla ro li waimεl rom pàstonge. Stevεjε èvri. Suljεn ngàidde, bo n gaivra, n pelijεn εdde l-là um Kasca.
Thus speaks Ceñan, the great king, king of the land of Kasca, brother to the sun and moon:
Before I sat on the throne of my father, all the foreign countries were hostile against me. The neighboring foreign countries spoke thus: "his father was a valiant king. He had conquered enemy countries. Then he became a god. But the one who now sits on the throne of his father is a child."
When I, brother to the sun and moon, sat on the throne of my father, even before I went to the foreign countries who were hostile against me, I went to the feasts of the mother goddess. I celebrated them and I lifted my hand toward the shining mother. I spoke thus :
"O my mistress, light of the stars, the neighboring countries who called me 'a child' have belittled me. Then, they started to attack the borders of your holy land, my mistress! Strike the heathen down!"
The mother goddess heard the words of my mouth. She rose me up and strengthened my arm. I defeated those who rose against me in ten years. I have destroyed them. I captured prisoners, oxes and sheep, and I sent them back to the land of Kasca.
return to topεddè | to stand |
εga | air |
εgwi | work of art |
εlña | to fly |
εlddo | wind |
εlmo | to steal |
εlmovo | thief |
εlvo | creator, inventor |
εlvo | to make, create |
εlvolo | craftsman's shop |
εme | fly |
εmwa | moderately, somewhat |
εndde | river |
εnddo | old |
εrnè | obscure, murky |
εrwa | fog |
εrwavo | craftsman |
εvlo | place where a murder happened |
εvwe | fruit |
èña | animal |
èñalo | animal den |
èño | to kill |
èñuvo | killer |
èbèdε | to order, arrange |
èda | the speakers of Naidda |
èddènàm | to suffer |
èdda | to fight uselessly |
èddo | to fall |
ède | mast of a ship |
ègran | to satisfy |
ègwi | blessing, benefit |
èiran | to scratch |
èjè | everyone |
èljè | clean, pure |
èlul | everywhere |
èm | to change (oneself) |
èmlo | bend in the road |
èmwèl | west |
ènàdda | to be emotional |
èpagagε | longitude, distance |
èrjèng | to hobble, limp |
èrnàrno | to do (sth.) to one's own detriment |
èrno | to seriously sicken |
èrola | to fail to perform sexually |
èrsa | to choke |
èrvàve | to accidentally succeed |
èrvo | to relax, take a break |
èrvolo | hospital, sickhouse |
èrwovo | to forget |
èsjo | always |
ètugε | the Huyfarahan religion |
èvda | to shine, glow, make light |
ève | grass |
èvre | to destroy |
èvrelo | ruins |
èvrevo | ruins |
èvur | to make a risky decision |
èvwi | light (not heavy), insubstantial |
ìddung | sea, ocean |
ìddwam | arm |
ìgwa | straight, forward, direct |
ìgwe | internal organs |
ìlje | black |
ìlmo | beautiful |
ìmlana | to flood |
ìmwa | to use |
ìmwavo | that which is used |
ìnddi | to propose, argue for |
ìve | month |
ìvle | north |
adè | keep at, continue doing |
aiño | amiss, awry, off-kilter |
ai'n | to keep |
aidda | trash |
aidde | daytime |
aiddi | to need |
ailo | ugly |
aimwa | snake |
ainlo | cemetary |
ainlo | farm |
aivo | farmer |
alèn | to split |
ale | fire, heat, warmth |
alelo | hearth, firepit |
anal | hold (of a ship) |
angèla | military |
angi | war |
ani | hungry |
avε | to break the law |
avàvo | poor city-dweller |
avai | mess |
avumo | worthless goods |
bàbo | source, anchor |
bàdèga | military commander |
bàga | ship captain |
bàing | rough |
bàlvo | sick person, patient |
bàrè | to own |
bàrvo | owner |
bàsεn | stick, staff |
bàsifa | admiral, naval commander |
bàve | to fail |
bàvolo | capitol city |
bàvor | strength, power |
bèñàsjo | estate, manor |
bèñor | respect |
bèjorvo | one who visits a grave |
bèspe | to hurt (someone) |
bèspevo | slavemaster |
bìvo | to masturbate |
ba | elite |
badju | patriarch |
baidde | feast |
baiddi | leg |
baislo | good fishing spot |
bal | to lie, recline, rest |
bani | to worship (nominally) |
banilo | temple, church |
banivo | prophet |
basε | calm, even-tempered |
bebul | genitals (male or female; considered the 'polite' term) |
bi | star |
bjusjin | unlucky, unfortunate |
boña | backside |
bo | again |
bo | ox |
bodda | xor |
bogε | stern of a ship |
boli | soil |
bonddo | to stab |
borma | wheat |
bu | rightward |
bui | warm |
bwejagε | latitude |
bwemade | astronomy, navigation |
bwesti | orgy, debauchery |
cεje | soft |
cεn | greatly, to a large extent |
cεve | to to give |
càska | queen, consort |
cè | blood |
cèl | spear |
cèsje | louse, tick |
cèze | that thing over there |
cìddo | this reason |
cìsjo | then |
cìvo | boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other |
cainglo | bathroom, washroom |
can | destructive fire |
car | moon |
ce | dog |
ce | thus |
celε | tooth |
celul | over there |
cen | to love |
cing | to wash |
coddo | dust |
cong | knee |
cove | to control |
covlo | office, planning room |
cu | nearby |
cuddor | to insult |
cure | tomorrow |
dà | dirty |
dàra | strong man |
dàslo | battlefield |
dàspo | warrior |
dè | to touch |
dèga | spirit, soul |
dèmo | to hunt |
dèmuvo | hunter |
dènam | to breathe |
dènge | finger |
dève | child |
dìddolo | smithy |
dìvo | large, fat |
da'e | goddess |
da | to fight |
daddo | male |
Dagam | islands east of Kasca |
dal | but |
dasjεm | canvas, sail |
de'o | normal |
degεlo | haunted place |
demo | weak |
di | tree |
ding | mountain |
djεbo | grease, oil |
djaga | king, emperor, ruler |
doden | holy, sacred |
doi | white |
don | pureblooded |
duε | why |
duvo | to smell |
ea | which |
eba | how |
eddε | nobleman |
egε | good, right, okay |
ei'a | domestic animal |
emi | name |
emo | head, peak |
ena | to see |
fadir | outdoors |
fado | veteran |
Faralo | Farálo (ethnonym) |
faran | a Faralo person |
fizado | rookie, newbie |
gà'n | wood |
gàja | upset, angry |
gàlul | that thing by you |
gàve | to announce |
gè'or | slave |
gèddo | skeptic |
gèva | to injure |
gìño | hard, solid, substantial |
gìm | bad, unpleasant |
gìsa | schism |
gafacε | crime (in the legal sense, not the moral) |
gaiddlo | city district that's poor, dense, and busy |
gaimlo | school |
gain | to be unambitious |
gaivra | sheep |
gan | knife |
gelo | field |
gi | egg |
gi | upward |
giddo | rabbit |
goñi | to be extremely upset |
goñi | to break |
go'o | difficult, frustrating |
go'vo | bloodthirsty priest |
go | road, path, way |
godε | dull, uninteresting |
godo | to anticipate |
gol | basis, foundation |
gom | high |
gomodu | cross-staff (for measuring angles) |
goron | arid or semiarid region |
goslo | to have difficulty with |
guddε | so, therefore |
gugo | to lie |
gugovo | liar |
gula | to enroll in the priesthood |
gulo | marketplace |
gumlo | repair shop |
guro | entrails |
guyilo | weak point |
gwìm | to vomit |
gwugo | to be irresponsible |
i'navo | (material) possession |
ibe | to freeze |
ibo | frost |
ifisana | the spirit world |
ilo | flower |
in | farm |
ina | downward |
ine | hair |
isjo | promise, contract, agreement |
isjonon | journey, voyage |
jεlana | catastrophe, disaster |
jεma | symbol, sign |
ja | good, happy, lucky |
jaso | beautiful place |
jelo | mine |
jenge | uncle |
jevo | miner |
jo | noble, lord |
jo | salient, important |
jodol | the sun |
joza | lady |
jozal | bow of a ship |
juego | dock |
juetèga | navy, fleet |
jumu | to reject |
jupa | statue |
kεwu | priest of Etuge |
kà'm | last year |
kàsjum | powerful, great |
kè | to throw, get rid of |
kèlje | dangerous |
kèng | to walk |
kènla | teacher |
kèno | to ask |
kìvi | to tie, bind |
ka | edge, border |
kaivo | student |
kalzi | retard |
kasjε | homosexual |
kiba | alcohol |
kigi | a spice from the eastern islands |
kimè | to study |
kjara | assembly |
kola | funny, humorous |
komwa | tongue |
kufa | temple (of Etuge) |
kumai | to repair, resurrect |
kusran | olive |
kwεdε | demon |
kwèdda | ready |
kwènddu | far, apart |
kwe | fingernail |
kwer | goat |
kwim | circular or spherical |
kwin | to bite, chew |
là | country, land, region |
làgwo | bone |
làn | slightly, a little |
làndda | to be expected to stop or die |
làrmi | long |
làste | healthy, whole, doing well |
lèàlvo | to write |
lèàlvo | writer, poet |
lèasjai | poem, story |
lèga | foreign language |
lèi | word |
lèrvo | to be expected to rest |
lèsjo | cold |
lìl | to flow |
labu'a | penis (polite term) |
langang | friendly, familiar, known to everyone |
le | nor |
leda | throughout |
lelo | rowboat |
lemo | to smile |
lena | to be expected to see |
li | bird |
li | year |
lisjo | to make a commitment expected of one |
lodo | to be supposed to be here |
lomo | to visit |
londdè | perfect, correct |
mε | to hate |
mε | today |
mà'n | to know |
mà'navo | wise man |
mà | short |
màda | personality |
màddè | heart |
màddo | aimlessly |
màlddo | person |
màm | mouth |
màro | tree bark |
màrwom | heavy |
màsjo | never |
màwè | to fellate |
mè | to travel |
mè | father |
mèle | to read |
mèlo | library |
mèño | heir |
mèrja | brother |
mèrom | sister |
mèsta | organized |
mèvo | among, between |
mèvo | traveler |
mìè | to sing |
mì | late |
mìske | necessary |
mìwèvo | singer |
ma | recently |
maddvεl | magnet, compass |
madugε | fantasy, spirituality |
mai'ε | cow |
maislo | pasture |
mala | where |
maldago | successful person |
malul | nowhere |
mastacε | government |
mazè | nobody, nothing |
me | or |
me | say |
megudε | bastard, asshole |
melo | auditorium, public gathering place; podium or pulpit |
mencà | prince |
mengàs | first mate |
mevo | guilty |
mi | leftward |
misjagu | holiday, day off |
mjàsko | party |
mjogadε | apprentice, cadet |
mjugε | rebel |
mo'o | harbor |
mo | small town |
moddo | to count |
modduvo | accountant, manager |
molan | awake, alert, attentive |
momìè | music |
momusjèzε | council, senate |
momwi | warm |
monddi | seed |
moro | narrow, thin |
moslo | large city |
mu | to grow |
mulε | ice |
Mulo | the Northern Mountains |
mume | (weak pejorative adjective) |
mumo | belly, underside |
munwè | to hold |
musjiddwε | philosophy, belief, ideology |
muslo | childhood home; where one comes from |
muspè | stupid |
muspo | penis |
mwaè | to push |
mwura | strange |
nà'ngè | takings, winnings, stolen goods |
nàmlul | somewhere |
nàrno | to cut |
nàvàm | small |
nàvè'm | to swell |
nàvè | someone or something |
nàvo | for some reason |
nàvo | sometime |
nèddi | wife |
nènga | page, scroll, leaf |
n | and |
na'a | east |
nabè | red |
naca | lady, noblewoman (highly formal) |
naga | god |
naja | cardamom |
naju | noodles (an eastern dish) |
nalor | horse |
nam | sick |
name | somehow |
namoe | brown, orange |
nazimèlo | fortune-teller's shop |
nen | if/then |
ngàddlo | bed |
ngàidde | prisoner |
ngàvo | sleeping person |
ngàvra | thick, big around |
ngèddè | wipe |
ngèva | toe |
ngìvo | sharp |
ngada | to sleep, die peacefully |
ngal | very |
nganè | neck |
ngango | to laugh |
ngoro | ancient |
ngura | cloves |
non | to go |
nosjavo | corpse |
nuè | smooth |
numbazi | epiphany, enlightenment |
oddè | to run |
oddam | rightward |
oddi | salt |
odo | to come |
odolo | destination |
odovo | event |
ogwa | ear |
oldda | to be be a conscripted soldier |
olddo | eye |
olddo | new |
olddo | to be excepted to accept (some unwanted fate) or fulfill (some unwanted obligation) |
oljènàn | to commit a faux pas |
oljèno | to need permission for |
olmà'n | to be expected to know |
olngango | to be serious |
olnon | to need to leave |
olnosεn | to survive (a bad/dangerous experience) |
omo | mother |
onddon | thin |
ornge | squeeze |
osa | to sacrifice |
Ova'e | ancient Mother Goddess, still worshipped by a cult |
ovo | deep |
pàlve | secret |
pàsto | attack, make war on |
pè'm | breast, teat |
pè | to sit |
pègwa | last |
pèlo | rain |
pèndda | fuckup |
pèra | brave, courageous |
pa | shield |
pa | very far away |
pabo | name |
paigwo | to fear |
pailvè | sand |
paiswa | fish |
paivèlo | beach |
pel | easy |
peli | to send |
pelvu | hourglass |
pem | low |
pi | big |
pim | to cry, whine |
po | because of |
ponì | plant |
pon | island |
pua | nose |
pumε | smoke |
purnem | blasphemous person |
ràèm | incompetently |
ràddè | heaven |
ràddè | to be drunk |
ràddèl | to hurry |
ràddèlvo | runner |
ràlña | to be insane |
ràlvo | to try to make |
rànddo | to be stupid (about sth.) |
rànddo | to hear |
rànddolo | the audience area of a melo |
rànddovo | audience |
ràvèn | instead of |
ràve | to babble or ramble |
ràwai | to confuse (an issue) |
rèm | to fail to change |
rèvur | to be drunk |
rèvur | to drown |
rìmwa | to normally use (sth.) |
rìmwa | to try to use |
rai'n | to be greedy |
raiddi | to be hooked on |
risjo | to con, falsely convince |
ro | forward |
roa | to perform |
roddè | to be cowardly |
rodo | to work toward |
rola | to make love to |
rolo | stage (for performances etc.) |
rom | feather |
rong | plain, unadorned |
rovo | musician |
ruñugo | to be a liar |
ru | man |
ruaba | to mismanage |
ruai | to be intelligent |
rubàsto | to be agressive |
rula | to be promiscuous |
rulomo | to regularly visit |
rumèle | to study |
rumo | to steal (sth. in particular) for a living |
runa | priest |
runddi | to offend |
rungada | to be lazy |
rungango | to be insensitive |
rusjan | cast aspersions on, sling mud at |
ruvàrè | to be accustomed to privelege |
ruvìvo | to masturbate excessively (negative connotation) |
sàè | water |
sàbàm | to lift |
sè'ejèn | metallurgy |
sè | snow |
sèljon | hostile |
sèrin | imperial |
sèrnadε | minister of state |
sìddalo | an inn with a brothel |
sìm | cloud |
sìmlo | sky |
sìmwi | rotten |
saña | meat |
sa | to swallow |
sa | woman |
sadugε | illusion |
sai | female |
sai | foreign |
salo | altar |
salo | butcher's shop |
saru | husband |
saze | garlic |
se'o | hammer |
seda | foreign herb |
seidda | corrupt |
semar | copper |
sercà | title of the Faralo emperoro |
si'ung | left |
si | blue |
sjan | dagger |
sjo | mountain pass |
slo | to forget |
slulo | old age |
sma | to sew |
smalo | seamstress' parlor |
snan | dry |
so | coast |
so | yesterday |
sola | when |
sovìspo | leader |
sove | defeat, be better than |
spà | throne |
spàlo | palace, castle |
spè | to feel, experience |
spe | green |
su'e | mouse |
sul | to take |
sumo | wrong, offensive |
swo | nighttime |
tε | forest |
tàsεn | surrounding |
tèε | tail |
tènddo | wide |
tèngo | to pull |
tèsεn | to float, hover |
tìño | stone |
tìddo | metal |
ta | to stop, or die suddenly |
taidde | shelter |
taim | together |
talo | funeral |
tam | south |
tasjul | to cheat |
te'en | whip |
tede | flea |
teña | punt, flatboat |
to | lake |
to | to eat |
tobi | horn, antler |
toddo | somewhat |
tol | light |
ton | hand |
tulo | table |
tulu | cinnamon |
twεdvo | overseer, supervisor |
u'mà'n | to be curious about |
u'màwè | to suck (in the English colloquial sense) |
u'mjàsko | to be joyous |
u'moddo | to be picky about |
u'no | to be suicidal |
u | soon |
uddo | cruel |
ula | to rise |
ulmi | yellow |
unddi | joke |
unddivo | comedian, joker |
unma | to play |
unsje | to blow |
unsjevo | cloud |
usa | to want to participate |
usjàve | to be horny |
usjaing | to be dirty |
usjove | to covet |
usjuddla | to deserve disdain |
Usor | capital of Huyfarah |
uvàl | to be sleepy |
uvèndda | loser, lowlife |
uvani | to worship (heartfelt) |
uwa | to taste |
uwo | rope, vine |
uzèm | to try to change (one's ways) |
uzèvur | to behave recklessly |
uzena | to search for |
wà | to dig |
wàsjavo | beggar |
wàsjlo | hole in the ground |
wèn | herb, vegetable |
wènlo | garden |
wèspìl | one deserving of punishment |
wìma | mud |
wìmalo | swamp |
wìmlo | home, house |
waba | to hit |
wai | calm |
wai | to trust in, believe in |
waigwul | terrible, frightening |
waivo | believer |
we'a | should participate |
wemè | neighbor |
wem | to live, survive |
wemoddo | should take stock of |
weng | wet |
wenon | to be unwelcome |
wilul | here |
wisjàve | to owe |
wisjo | now |
wo | skin |
wolai | full |
wovo | to remember |
wugu | to blame |
wuing | backward |
zin | wine |
All contents of this page copyright © 2005 by Aaron Toivo.
Feel free to link, but no content from this site may be used without my permission, except for purposes of the "Historical Telephone" game for which this language was created.