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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Erika3sis@hexbear.net to c/anime@hexbear.net

Like last time, these plot descriptions are based on those from Anilist, and you can use things like the structure of the title, the character names, and the occasional numeral to help you figure things out. You can also use the word-for-word translations from the previous quiz to help you figure out some of the more common words.

Hint: deciphering character namesThe lengths of names may be of use but don't expect them to perfectly match their lengths in Hepburn/English. Likewise initials might not always match the Hepburn.

Names are inflected with a masculine suffix -a and a feminine suffix -e, but to prevent hiatus these go through the following sound changes:

① {a(ː).V → Vː|V = any vowel} — as in *Sakura-eSakuré

② {O(ː).V → ø(ː)|O = round vowel} — as in *Tomoyo-eTomoyǒ, or *Kló-aKlő

③ {E(ː).V → jV(ː)|E = unrounded front vowel} — as in *Miyuki-aMiyukya

The sound change for front vowels may trigger further sound changes:

{Tj → TT|T = alveolar consonant} — but note that alveolar geminates are realized as palatals

ji(ː) → iː

In that order.


~~1: Ňav Zuzǒ~~

~~Kyertev R**e kot́iv ani ňey na yatazey, šo Huźisaňe ňa sinj́eskev vuśkede. Kyertev N*****ǒ na gvajera kot́iv ani tey, šo Huźisaňe ňa sinj́eske. Kav anskagunska he, R**e u N*****ǒ ńederinet́e, u xi he yéne so yegune kot́i ňey, so šo yont́i koy-rámene u žent́i yerezine.~~

2: Hay Hiḱey to yaRoyčoḱiya!

Pe-1-e A. M***ŕe ňa anime-dećti : kyertiv xaíde lo še na dećte ňa "sule : buhe" čay. Suliv daŕi to yeruňevše ko yecigempoĺevše, no še la nay nat́e yekoḱev anske hiḱev anime-dećte, na fe šo še ňa dećte dum aniḱe nay može čay. Rine K. S****é ňa ariḱe so yerokev roynasinćke : yénske, šo nat́e zede na yeydrestev M***ŕe. Ńesint́ev hazoske, šo sokruňeynevńe, yesnij́iḱev biśe so M. C****ye iḿej́eske ňa hoževše xaye : dećke he, ńehke čoḱiya na dećte va pset́e "yalanav lobuha" to yerokivńe.

3: YaVaňgleynav Buhčonska

Yaceyv vaňgla ňa keyn udet́e he, noževše u dent́e bone so ogestev ranske čay. Yažalav vaňgla ňa dot́e bone ko randogiyey so šo moḱiḱe še dum bonev gune. Yaceyv vaňgla ruňet́ey yežalevfe, no može pet́ede lo yaceyvfey so bonev so "yeKődev yeTruňeyne" iḿej́eske. Jaḱav so E. E****a iḿej́eska ňa si žari he vaňgleynav marka dent́av ŕusulska bene so yatǒvša so A*****a iḿej́eska. E****a so vaňgla ŕaza u hira va sot́a yarǒv yatǒvša na čoniya. So šo, yavaňgleyneyv 2 kot́a yőravńa va udet́a yaboneyvńa anskey, u yeKődev yeTruňeyne to yaradaxey.

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[-] CommunistCuddlefish@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
  1. I have no idea how to approach this.

  2. This post is hilarious and cool.

  3. I wish my brain hadn't gotten destroyed by trauma because I'd have found this a fun as fuck linguistic puzzle in high school

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

That's the trouble with using an a priori lang for this sort of puzzle rather than an a posteriori lang like Esperanto — most of these words are completely opaque, there's no clear relationship between most of these words and their English equivalents. For that matter there's the issue of, like, what if you just haven't heard of any of these shows? Which is maybe remedied a bit by the fact that this is a collaborative puzzle. Last time I did this people actually got all the anime surprisingly quickly, but this time I think I might've made it a bit too hard.

I can give you some hints, though, if you'd like.

[-] aebletrae@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My attempt to make sense of these (with some guessing) is:—

spoiler


2: Hay Hiḱey {to|in???} {yaRoyčoḱiya|the R***}!

Pe-1-e A. M***ŕe {ňa|TOPIC} anime-dećti {:|is/are} {kyertiv|love??? CONS} {xaíde|most ADJ???} lo {še|she???} {na|on} dećte {ňa|TOPIC} "sule {:|is/are} buhe" čay. Suliv daŕi {to|in???} yeruňevše {ko|to} {yecigempoĺevše|???book???}, no {še|she???} {la|yet} {nay|not} {nat́e|VERB make???} {yekoḱev|the move???} {anske|first???} hiḱev anime-dećte, {na|on} {fe|that} {šo|that} {še|she???} {ňa|TOPIC} dećte {dum|as} aniḱe {nay|not} {može|a possibility} čay. {Rine|A friend} K. S****é {ňa|TOPIC} {ariḱe|a girl} {so|with} {yerokev|the mind??? CONS} roynasinćke {:|is/are} yénske, {šo|that} {nat́e|VERB make???} zede {na|on} yeydrestev M***ŕe. Ńesint́ev hazoske, {šo|that} sokruňeynevńe, yesnij́iḱev biśe {so|with} M. C****ye {iḿej́eske|named} {ňa|TOPIC} hoževše xaye {:|is/are} dećke {he|TEMP}, ńehke čoḱiya {na|on} dećte va {pset́e|VERB???} "{yalanav|the universe-CONS} lobuha" {to|in???} {yerokivńe|their minds???}.

3: YaVaňgleynav Buhčonska

Yaceyv vaňgla {ňa|TOPIC} {keyn|who} {udet́e|VERB???} {he|TEMP}, noževše {u|and} {dent́e|VERB???} bone {so|with} ogestev ranske čay. Yažalav vaňgla {ňa|TOPIC} {dot́e|VERB???} {bone|a thing} {ko|to} randogiyey {so|with} {šo|that} moḱiḱe {še|she???} {dum|as} {bonev|a thing CONS} {gune|other}. Yaceyv vaňgla {ruňet́ey|VERB(pl.) head???} {yežalevfe|this??? ???}, no {može|a possibility} pet́ede lo yaceyvfey {so|with} {bonev|a thing CONS} {so|with} "yeKődev yeTruňeyne" {iḿej́eske|named}. Jaḱav {so|with} E. E****a {iḿej́eska|named} {ňa|TOPIC} si žari {he|TEMP} vaňgleynav marka {dent́av|VERB??? CONS} ŕusulska bene {so|with} yatǒvša {so|with} A*****a {iḿej́eska|named}. E****a {so|with} vaňgla ŕaza {u|and} hira va {sot́a|VERB???} yarǒv yatǒvša {na|on} čoniya. {so|With} {šo|that}, yavaňgleyneyv 2 {kot́a|VERB go???} yőravńa va {udet́a|VERB???} yaboneyvńa {anskey|first???}, {u|and} {yeKődev|the Code??? CONS???} yeTruňeyne {to|in???} yaradaxey.

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Better than chance! Much better than chance!

Going through the wordsto — you're right to think preposition, but not "in".

yaRoyčoḱiya — you're right to think definite article, but this is not a word you're going to get unless you truly understand the inner machinations of my mind (which are an enigma)

: kyertiv xaíde — very close, but I would maybe render this as "are things loved bigger/more". There's no distinction between comparatives and superlatives.

še — this does indeed mean "she" but we've got grammatical gender here so sometimes it means "it" instead.

yecigempoĺevše — I'm honestly impressed you managed to get that this was any kind of book just from the three letters poĺ, but yes, this is "her [_____] book".

nat́e yekoḱev anske — this is indeed the phrase "make the first move", although nat́ isn't necessarily the verb "make", it's a different verb which is being used as an auxiliary verb in this phrase.

ariḱe so yerokev — this is indeed "a girl with the mind of"

pset́e, udet́(e/a), dent́(e/a), dot́e, sot́a — I think you've started to notice a common pattern across most of the verbs...

yalanav — not necessarily always best translated as "universe", could also be "cosmos", "world", et cetera.

to yerokivńe — not necessarily "in" their minds but you're very close!

keyn — the interrogative and indefinite pronouns are the same, so in this case the intended meaning is "somebody" rather than "who".

u — this can mean either "and" or "as well, also, too".

ruňet́ey yežalevfe — not necessarily a plural verb but rather an imperfective verb, and indeed a verb derived from the word for "head"; yežalevfe is indeed "this [____]"

na — "on", "at", "in", "by", this is a general locative preposition, it can also mean "about" or "because".

kot́a — go/went to/on, yes.

anskey — "first", yes, alternatively "original" or something to that effect.

yeKődev — not the code, no.

[-] aebletrae@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

Thought processes

There's no distinction between comparatives and superlatives.

From
nǒnska (mysterious),
nǒnskeyde (most mysterious),
vurede (best), but also
vuśkede (more beautiful),
I couldn't see how to disambiguate more/most, and briefly considered they might be the same, but felt that was quite presumptive given so few examples. Instead, I started wondering if the local suffix was the same and the nuance was more remote somehow.

še — this does indeed mean "she" but we've got grammatical gender here so sometimes it means "it" instead.

The assumption here was that the -o, -e, -a gender inflections for proper nouns would be paralleled from šo (that/where). The ya-/ye- prefixes looked they might be doing that for grammatical gender, so the assumption didn't feel unreasonable. Although "she" is more of a physical gender word, it gets the point across more snappily than "some kind of pronoun, possibly demonstrative, feminine". There was also šenǒnsulet́e (she debates) pointing in that direction.

yapoĺa (the book) and
yapoĺav (the book CONS)

Taking off ya- as a common prefix and correlating CONS (QUERY 1: what do you mean by this???) with -av, -e(y)v, -iv (though -v alone might be the marker), -poĺ- was all that was left as a root for something book-y. (I got the impression that roots were broad).

nat́ isn't necessarily the verb "make", it's a different verb which is being used as an auxiliary verb in this phrase.

Here, I used "make" as a colloquial translation given the proximity to an assumed first move, but I had noticed na (on) before correlating -t́e and -t́a with verbs (at least in present tense), so I did wonder if place or put might also work in other contexts.

roktárev (a psychic link) and
Yerokdǒvfe (this psychological war), combined with
Xaydǒ (a great war)
suggested -rok- as a root equivalent to psych-, but yerokivńe looked like it needed a simple noun, so "mind" fit the bill.

ńe (they)
uńe (theirs)
Fe (that)
yegevfe (this type)
Yerokdǒvfe (this psychological war)
had given me the impression that ye-XYZ-(iv)ńe meant "their XYZ".

keyn — the interrogative and indefinite pronouns are the same, so in this case the intended meaning is "somebody" rather than "who".

I noticed you'd translated šo as both "that" and "where", so something like this was evident.

ruňet́ey yežalevfe — not necessarily a plural verb but rather an imperfective verb, and indeed a verb derived from the word for "head"

yeruňev (the head CONS)
indicated -ruň(e)- as the root "head". I got the plural notion from
zuruňet́ey (jointly rules) and
truňet́ey ([everybody] believes),
since those verbs' agents are plural (pair jointly, everybody) but -y- crops up enough elsewhere for me to have been cautious about that.

Incidentally, (QUERY 2) are zuruňet́ey (jointly rules), truňet́ey (believes), and yekruňuynev (the academy CONS) all using the -ruň- root? I can see a potential there: someone who "heads" an organisation also "rules" it; belief is an activity within the head; academies put ideas into heads. But false cognates are a thing too, though I am left wondering if sokruňeynevńe belongs in that group (QUERY 3).

yeKődev — not the code, no.

Capitalisation like that looks like it's representing proper nouns (or perhaps loan words), where there's a bit more phonetic similarity to English, so this was just a bit of simplistic guessing.

kay (INT)
kaysuliv (questions CONS)
kaysulećke = (inquisitive)
kaysulet́e (asks)

QUERY 4: Does -ećke indicate either having the property of, or maybe motion away from?

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

This is awesome!!!

The queriesQuery 1: What is CONS supposed to mean?

The construct state is marked by -v and indicates that a word is modified by the following word(s).

Query 2: Do zuruňet́ey, truňet́ey, and yekruňuynev all use the ruň (head) root?

Yes!!! You've got the right idea for zuruňet́ey and yekruňuynev; you're close with truňet́ey but it's not "within" a head, but a different preposition.

Query 3: Does sokruňeynevńe also use the ruň (head) root?

Yes it does!!!

Query 4: Does -ećke mean "having the property of" or "motion away from"?

-ćk forms active participles from -t́ verbs — hence kaysulet́e becomes kaysulećke.


Other notes

Instead, I started wondering if the local suffix was the same and the nuance was more remote somehow.

There's a particle that forms comparisons. That same particle also forms "beyond" or "so much that" type phrases.

The assumption here was that the -o, -e, -a gender inflections for proper nouns would be paralleled from šo (that/where).

This is close — the deal is that šo is a pronoun that points to the previous clause, or serves as a complementizer or relative pronoun (hence rendering it as both "that" and "where" in glosses). I formed this word šo from š (root for third-person singular pronouns) from which we indeed also get še for "she" and as you evidently predict ša for "he", but the -o in šo is not a gender inflection so much as it's just a "filler vowel" I chose based on a number of other function words. I wonder if you might be confusing and -o?

The ya-/ye- prefixes looked they might be doing that for grammatical gender, so the assumption didn't feel unreasonable.

Note however that in possessive relationships, the possessed noun is inflected for the gender of its possessor — this can sometimes obscure a noun's grammatical gender.

-poĺ- was all that was left as a root for something book-y. (I got the impression that roots were broad).

The dictionary form of this root is really poli but because of the hiatus avoidance stuff it becomes poĺ more often than not.

but I had noticed na (on) before correlating -t́e and -t́a with verbs (at least in present tense), so I did wonder if place or put might also work in other contexts.

That is indeed the meaning of nat́, "to place" or "to put"! However I'd like to note that this language doesn't inflect for tense, only aspect.

had given me the impression that ye-XYZ-(iv)ńe meant "their XYZ".

Or at least ye-XYZ-ivńe means "their XYZs".

Capitalisation like that looks like it's representing proper nouns (or perhaps loan words), where there's a bit more phonetic similarity to English, so this was just a bit of simplistic guessing.

Capitalization marks proper nouns, yes. In this case yeKődev yeTruňeyne is a calque.

[-] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

That's cool, i usually use an abjad for my conlangs (biased lol). I can guess some letters sound like, but i'm lost on others

š: sh

č: ch

t́: ta?

and uhh, that's all i can guess lol. What do capital letters imply, since for words like yeTruňeyne there's a capital in the middle? what does ő, ň and ž sound like? I'm more interested in scripts than the actual languages most of the time, which is why I'mfocusing more on this lol. TIA :D

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

The T with acute makes a geminated voiceless palatal stop, so imagine making a T sound with the middle rather than tip of the tongue and you should be most of the way there. The Z with caron makes basically a zh sound like at the start of j'accuse, N with caron makes an ng sound, O with double acute makes the same sound as the vowel in the word "bird" spoken in a New Zealand or South African accent. I can make a full chart of the alphabet in the morning. Capital letters in the middle of a word are just capitalization of proper nouns -- the ya- or ye- at the start of many words is a prefix.

[-] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago
[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Letters with an acute or double acute accent are pronounced as a rule about twice as long as letters with a caron or no diacritic. This is represented in the phonetic transcription using either the ː symbol or by simply writing the letter twice. Note, however, that there is some amount of dialectal variation in how the letters are pronounced; this is the "anchorman's speech". Also, the voiceless stops (K, P, T) don't necessarily have as much aspiration as they often have in English.

A Á /a, aː/ — somewhere between the vowel in "hat" and "bra" in a typical, like, Ohio dialect

B B́ /b, bb/ — a regular B sound like in "butler"

C Ć /ts, ccɕ/ — C is like the end of "hats"; Ć is like that but you use the middle of the tongue instead of the tip (palatalization)

Č C̋ /ʈʂ, ʈʈʂ/ — close to the ⟨ch⟩ in "change", except the tongue is curled backwards (retroflex)

D D́ /d, ɟɟ/ — D is a regular D sound like in "delicate"; D́ is a palatalized version

E É /e, eː/ — the vowel in "bed" in an Australian or New Zealand dialect

F F́ /f, fː/ — a regular F sound like in "firefighter"

G Ǵ /g, gg/ — a regular hard G sound as in "goose"

H H́ /h~x, xː/ — the short version of this letter is pronounced with a regular H sound like "hello" at the start of words, and is otherwise pronounced like the H of a stereotypical Russian accent, or like the ⟨ch⟩ in the Scottish English pronunciation of "loch"

I Í /i, iː/ — the vowel in the word "bit" in an Australian dialect, or like the vowel in "beet" in most English dialects

J J́ /ɖʐ, ɖɖʐ/ — the J in "juice" but retroflex

K Ḱ /k, kk/ — a regular K sound like in "kid"

L Ĺ /l, ʎː/ — L is a regular L sound like in "lemon"; Ĺ is a palatalized L, a bit like the ⟨lli⟩ in "million"

M Ḿ /m, mː/ — a regular M sound like in "mother"

N Ń /n, ɲː/ — N is a regular N sound like in "novel"; Ń is a palatalized N, a bit like the ⟨ny⟩ in "canyon"

Ň N̋ /ŋ, ŋː/ — like the ⟨ng⟩ in "singing" in most dialects

O Ó /o, oː/ — like the vowel in "yawn" in RP or "bro" in Indian English

Ǒ Ő /ø, øː/ — as said, like the vowel in "bird" in New Zealand and South African English

P Ṕ /p, pp/ — a regular P sound like in "pecan pie"

R Ŕ /ɾ, rʲː/ — R is like the tapped T or D in General American "latter ladder"; Ŕ is like the trilled R of Scottish and Welsh English, or the ⟨-d it⟩ in some AAVE realizations of "speed it up", except that the trilled Ŕ also involves, I want to say, raising the body of the tongue while trilling until it becomes impossible to trill any longer. It's a tricky sound to make but it's found in e.g. Russian царь (tsar').

S Ś /s, ɕː/ — S is a regular S sound like in "sight", Ś is a palatalized S sound which sounds a bit like a sharper "shush" sound.

Š S̋ /ʂ, ʂː/ — like the ⟨sh⟩ in "ship" except retroflex.

T T́ /t, cc/ — a regular T sound like "tomorrow" and its palatal equivalent.

U Ú /u, uː/ — like the vowel in Australian English "book", also similar to the vowel in "boot" in most accents but further back in the mouth ※may be realized as a W sound when next to another vowel

V V́ /v, vː/ — like a regular V sound like in "vendetta", except when used as the construct state suffix, particular before a consonant other than Y, W, or V, in which case the -v suffix is commonly read with a W sound

W Ẃ /w, wː/ — a regular W sound like in "water"

X X́ /dz, ɟɟʑ/ — X is like the ⟨ds⟩ in "pads"; X́ is the palatalized equivalent

Y Ý /j, jː/ — like a regular yod sound like in the word "yarn", except in a cluster of /jwC/ (C = any consonant), in which case the /jw/ will fuse into /ɥ/, which is like a yod sound with rounded lips.

Z Ź /z, ʑː/ — a regular Z as in "zebra" and its palatalized equivalent

Ž Z̋ /ʐ, ʐː/ — like the J in "j'accuse" except retroflex

[-] Sulv@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago
  1. I don’t even know where to begin

  2. Does your keyboard have extra keys? Or is it like you press a function button?

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

I first type these up using an ASCII-friendly romanization system, and then I just find-and-replace the digraphs and trigraphs with copy-pasted special characters — or using a dead key in the case of á, í, ú, é, ó.

On my old laptop I did create a special keyboard layout that assigned I believe the Q key to Ň, Ø to Ǒ, and Å, Æ, and ¨ to Ž, Č, and Š, and then I could type the long versions of each letter by holding down AltGr. However since I normally just use the ASCII-friendly romanization system anyways since I can rest assured that it will work regardless of font or program, I just never bothered recreating that keyboard layout on my current laptop.

The special characters and their equivalent digraphs/trigraphs:

Ň = Ng | N̋ = Nng

Ǒ = Oe | Ő = Oee

Ž = Zj | Z̋ = Zzj

Č = Cj | C̋ = Ccj

Š = Sj | S̋ = Ssj

Otherwise an acute accent just represents a doubled form of that letter, so Á = Aa et cetera.

[-] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

My guess for #1 is Yuru Camp, on account of:

reasons

  1. Huźisaňe = Fuji-san
  2. Names are Rin and Nadeshiko
  3. Structure of title matches (two words)

Will take a look at the other two later, since nothing jumped out immediately.

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

congratulations And also rámene = ramen.

Word-for-word{Ňav|A-Camp-CONS} {Zuzǒ:|Laid-Back:} {Kyertev|Something-loved-CONS} {Riňe|Rin} {kot́iv|goes-to} {ani|alone} {ňey|camps} {na|by} {yatazey,|the-lakes,} {šo|where} {Huźisaňe|Mount-Fuji} {ňa|TOPIC} {sinj́eskev|is-seen-CONS} {vuśkede.|more-beautiful.} {Kyertev|Something-loved-CONS} {Nadeśkǒ|Nadeshiko} {na|on} {gvajera|a-bicycle} {kot́iv|goes-to} {ani|alone} {tey,|places,} {šo|where} {Huźisaňe|Mount-Fuji} {ňa|TOPIC} {sinj́eske.|is-seen.} {Kav|A-day-CONS} {anskagunska|one-or-another} {he,|TEMP,} {Riňe|Rin} {u|and} {Nadeśkǒ|Nadeshiko} {ńederinet́e,|befriend-each-other,} {u|and} {xi|after} {he|TEMP} {yéne|the-one} {so|with} {yegune|the-other} {kot́i|goes-to} {ňey,|camps,} {so|with} {šo|that} {yont́i|eats} {koy|cup}-{rámene|ramen} {u|and} {žent́i|enjoys} {yerezine.|the-verdure.}


Compared to the originalLaid-Back Camp: Rin likes to go camping by herself along the lakes that provide a scenic view of Mt. Fuji. Nadeshiko loves to take cycling trips by herself to places where she can see Mt. Fuji. After they meet, Rin and Nadeshiko take camping trips, eat cup ramen together, and enjoy the scenery.

[-] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Is "{Kyertev|Something-loved-CONS} ____" the equivalent of saying "____ my beloved"? Don't remember that one coming up before! (kyertev Kumikǒ) Also you'll have to forgive me, but I'm a little rusty on my glossing--what's CONS, again? At first I was naively treating it like の, since that would work for the kyertev example, but in the other cases (what I interpret to be) the modifiers appear after (e)v, not before, so there's clearly more to the story.

I'm curious about a few other features:

  1. Does the language have obligatory temporal marking for perfective (or perhaps simply completed) actions? I was having trouble parsing the beginning of the third sentence, since it doesn't straightforwardly map onto the English original, but I realized it would make sense as an idiomatic placeholder of sorts for an unspecified time in the past.
  2. Does {ne|the-one} consistently refer to an earlier mentioned person and {gune|other} a later mentioned person? (idk what morphophonemic stuff might be going on, so I apologies if those aren't the correct forms) What other kinds of pronouns exist, if any?
  3. Does {so|with} {šo|that} simply mean "together"? Is {šo|that} itself a pronoun encompassing the pair previously mentioned? Something else entirely?

 

Aside from the strictly linguistic questions, is the orthography patterned closely on a natural language? Naïvely, it reminds me of Serbo-Croatian orthography, but I know basically nothing about the language, so I don't know how to read it offhand (besides a sense that the carons represent palatalization).

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

No one else has got the other two yet, you wanna have another go?

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

Alright so my conlang's a bit of a mess so you'll have to forgive me for some of these things, but I'll do my best to setsumei suru.

CONS is construct state, which means that it's close to の but sort of "in reverse". This is to say, when a word is put in the construct state, it means that the word is modified by the following words, rather than modifying the following words itself. This is a feature most associated with Semitic languages — the go-to example is {malika|queen} vs {malikat|queen-CONS} {sabaʾ|Sheba} for "Queen of Sheba" in Arabic — but the construct state is also found in a number of other languages, Western Micronesian languages have them too for instance. So "kyertev _____" really means "a thing loved by _____", and when this phrase is the subject of a verb, it really means "_____ likes to..."

—Oh, I should clarify, the literal meaning of kyerte is just "a heart", a word with which it Definitely Isn't Cognate. So basically if we're translating things even more literally it's maybe more like "Rin's heart goes alone..." for "Rin likes to go alone..."

As for the other features:

  1. Not necessarily obligatory, or at least I don't think of it as obligatory, but you're on the right track to think that kav anskagunska he is an idiomatic placeholder — it's really just the equivalent to "one day". Sometimes I question whether not marking tense in verbal inflections actually was such a good idea after all!
  2. The lemmata for those words are an and gun, and yéne so yegune was really just supposed to mean "the two of them together", I wasn't necessarily thinking consciously about which character was yéne and which was yegune. There's no form of obviation in this lang in any case, and there's a healthy class of pronouns including interrogative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, personal pronouns, demonstratives, among others, all the classics.
  3. The pronoun šo is used as a complementizer and relative pronoun (very European!), and can in general be used as a pronoun pointing to the previous clause, which is the meaning of šo in the phrase so šo. This phrase so šo most often means "thereafter" but may also just mean "as well", because my lang is perhaps a bit more vibes-based than it should be.

Then as for the orthography, Ňň represents the /ŋ/ sound (modeled on Turkmen), Šš, Žž, and Čč represent /ʂ/ /ʐ/ and /ʈʂ/ respectively (these three are indeed modeled on Slavic languages like Serbo-Croatian), and then Ǒǒ represents a vowel in the vicinity of /ø/ for really no other reason than that it would feel "inelegant" to suddenly use a different diacritic for that letter. The doubled versions of these caroned letters replace the caron with a double acute accent, so N̋ /ŋː/ S̋ /ʂː/ Z̋ /ʐː/ C̋ /ʈʈʂ/ Ő /øː/. Non-caroned letters all double by just adding a single acute above them.

The letters Aa, Bb, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ii, Kk, Mm, Oo, Pp, Ww are really pretty boring. They make exactly the sounds you'd expect from the IPA. Uu is normally read as /u/ but if next to another vowel may become /w/. Vv normally makes a /v/ sound, but can make a /w/ sound when used as the construct state suffix — officially only before consonants other than glides or another V, but in practice I often end up just reading the construct state suffix as /w/ almost always regardless of what comes after it. Yy normally makes a /j/ sound, but when followed by the aforementioned preconsonantal construct state suffix, /jw/ will fuse into /ɥ/.

The letter Qq is not normally used. The letter Hh makes a /h/ at the start of a word but a /x/ elsewhere. The letter Jj makes a /ɖʐ/ sound.

The remaining letters are the alveolars: Dd, Ll, Nn, Rr, Ss, Tt, Zz make the sounds you'd expect, Cc and Xx make /ts/ and /dz/ sounds respectively, and all of these when doubled will palatalize: D́d́ /ɟɟ/ Ĺĺ /ʎː/ Ńń /ɲː/ Ŕŕ /rʲː/ Śś /ɕː/ T́t́ /cc/ Źź /ʑː/ Ćć /ccɕ/ X́x́ /ɟɟʑ/

[-] AernaLingus@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

Thank you for the extensive explanations! I studied a fair bit of linguistics in university, and while I never went much beyond my coursework (certainly not to the point of building a conlang!) I found it fascinating and still like to learn things about it here and there. I feel a little sheepish that I'm not able to contribute much in response when you make these detailed posts, but I want to make sure you know that I do read and appreciate them and I love seeing your passion for the subject doggirl-happy I also just like puzzles in general, so combining that inclination with anime and linguistics is like catnip for me.

Also, up to this point I've been kind of stubborn in that I've tried to figure out the answers leaning solely on my knowledge of anime due to some misguided conception that anything else would be "cheating", but I guess the point is to also leverage knowledge of your conlang as we glean more information about it through the side-by-side translations and your more in-depth explanations.

By the way, what is the language called? I don't recall you mentioning it before, but it may have just slipped my mind.

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

I've decided to call it Manjatian.

this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
24 points (100.0% liked)

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