I’m moving a few older posts from Tumblr to my main conlang blog. This is a sketch of a language used in The Seven Papers for naming/cultural purposes — done in under an hour, the document flexible and malleable as I worked my way through what I needed. Over the course of writing, I expanded it a bit; this is not an exact duplicate of what I posted on Tumblr.
This language was spoken in North Tvaji before the Sabaji invasion. I needed to use it in one of the stories because so much military conflict happens there, and at that specific point in The Seven Papers, it’s used by a lot of refugees.
I have characters named Tashung, Jumeidis, Ćana, Asğang, Tajei, and Sadva in that section whose native language is Gnaseklahi. As is typical, the -hi suffix is actually a Tveshi suffix that I’m applying to a non-Tveshi language; this is because the reference language for the work is Tveshi.
Gnaseklahi
Vowels
Plain vowels: i, ị, u, e, æ, a, å
Diphthongs: o, au, ei, ai, ia
Consonants
Voiced stops (S): b d g
Unvoiced stops (U): s t k
Affricates/fricatives/Generic Buzzy Category (F): v ts s dz z j sh ć hj h
Approximants (Y): l y ğ
Flaps/trills (T): r rr
Nasals (N): n gn m
Syllable Structure
FV(S)
NV
UV(F)
VF
VN
V
YV(N)
SYV(N)
UYV(N)
Word Order
OVS for normal sentences.
VSO for imperatives.
This language is agglutinative, like other Ịgzarhjenya languages. The living language most related to it is Khessi.
Vocabulary
Articles
Active nouns: æm/m’ sing; kæv/k’ pl.
Passive nouns: lị/l’ sing; vei/v’ pl.
Articles are contracted in front of starting vowels. M’asğị, the/a seed.
Words
Tash. nA. Beauty.
Tarrė. nP. Darkness, as in a lack of light.
Asğị. nA. Seed.
Tajei. advj. Loud-voiced.
Taj. nA. Oratory.
Sad. nP. Delight.
Ćanei. advj. Friendly.
Ćan. nA. Friend.
Ćau. nA. City.
Ćodei. nA. Country.
Kria. nA. Rock. Krias, in the company of the rock.
Gnasi. nP. Industriousness.
Menk. nA. Word.
Nautke. nA. Surrender.
Neke. nA. Color.
Ailer. nP. Dawn.
Jumei. advj. Used to describe things that uphold the world. An epithet of Saämatsra.
Jumeidis. name. One who is in the company of that which upholds.
Suffixes
When adding suffixes to words, if vowels touch (and are not an allowed diphthong), -m- or -l- is inserted in between. This depends on whether the root is classified as active (-m-) or passive (-l-). For words with no noun form, the mediator is -h-. Some suffixes have their own vowel separators, marked with parentheses.
Some vowels are dropped before forming suffixes. These vowels are e/ė and ị.
-ung. Possessing a quality. Transforms a noun into an adjective.
-ang. Being similar to.
-an. Within.
-ğan. City suffix. Gnasiğan, Kriasğan.
-ei. Common adjective/adverb suffix.
-s. Sociative case. In company of.
-(d)i. Suffix carrying the quality of -ness. Makes adjectives into nouns. Gnasi, industrious. Ćaneidi, friendliness. Kriameidi, rockiness.
-va. Indicates that there are many of the noun. This is how plurals are made with passive nouns.
-heyė. Denotes a noun’s centrality or importance. Ćau-heyė, City-central. This is the capital city.
-kæ. Indicates that there are many of a noun. This is how plurals are made with active nouns.
-ta. Politeness suffix for women. Tashung-ta.
-alar. Most high. Politeness suffix for women in positions of authority.
-itu. Politeness suffix for men. Ćana-itu.
-veğæ. Gender-neutral politeness suffix. Tajei-veğæ.
-a. Naming suffix applied to nouns. Gender-neutral.
-o. Naming suffix applied to nouns. Feminine.
-au. Naming suffix applied to nouns. Gender-neutral.
-otni. “At.” Both temporal and locative. Ailerotni. At dawn.