WW #28: Patchwork
One of the most striking things about Nitherian culture to outsiders is their fondness for colourful decorations and clothing. Here’s an example sentence on this topic: Mosechashichi yo ithnnini mwiayawa…. Read more »
Category: Weekly Words
WW #27: Two Doses
Here’s a Kharulian sentence to celebrate finally being fully vaxxed: Shel faghióliamui niboghi tsaro anzaros. [ʃɛɫsh-elINAN.SG-this ɸaˈʝo.lʲa.mˠifaghioli-am-uispirit-leaf-GEN ɲiˈbo.ʝinibogh-ismall.cup-GEN ˈtsa-rotsa-rotwo-ACC an.zaˈrɔs]anza-ros3s.OBV>INAN.SG-need You need two doses of this medicine. Gloss provided by… Read more »
WW #26: Heat Wave
After reflecting on the experience of the first 25 instalments of Weekly Words, I’m trying a new format: I’m adding the requirement that I include at least one sentence in… Read more »
WW #25: Big Wool
Just a quick tour of words for “cloud” this week. Muipidan has an archaic word uyk’udo [ˈʊj.kʼʊ.do] for “cloud”, but the usual classical word is ngek’üde [ˈᵑɡe.kʼʏ.də], literally “big wool”… Read more »
WW #24: But I Repeat Myself
This week’s theme is reduplication. Muipidan uses partial reduplication to mark noun plurals (e.g. lilihmük’ide [ˈli.lɪˌm̥y.kʼɪ.də] “apples”, from lihmük’ide [ˈli.m̥ʏˌkʼi.də] “apple”), but nouns can also be fully reduplicated to indicate… Read more »
WW #23: They Aren’t Here
Last week was about counting things. What about if there’s nothing to count? The Nitherians had a good grasp on the nature of zero (sozmslo [soˈzm̩.ɬo], literally “they aren’t here”),… Read more »
WW #22: I Jump to the Other Hand
This week, inspired by Janko Gorenc’s extensive collection of numbers in different languages, I’m doing words for numbers. The numbers from one to ten in the Meamorian languages are: Muipidan… Read more »
WW #21: Docking in a Body
Yesterday was my birthday! To celebrate, I’ve made birthday-related words for my languages. In the Three Rivers cultures, people celebrated their birthdays when they reached an age that’s a multiple… Read more »
WW #20: The Sky is Sad
This week’s Liepzig-Jakarta word should be “rain”, but Muipidan and Kharulian already had words for “rain”, so I’ve given them words for “fly” (the insect) instead. In Muipidan, the word… Read more »
WW #19: Mango Juice
In Nitherian, the word for “mango” (the fruit) is mwo [mwo]. But in the lead-up to the Imperial period in Nitheria, it also became the normal polite way of referring… Read more »