Üyarimi!
Here, I will present a fictional constructed language named Limidu. I intend to convey its features in parts between articles. Since I have been working on it for a while, I have actually enough material to put out regular updates and remain ahead of the project. I am not very well when comes to linguistic terminology, and intend to present this language as a naturalistic one, so you shouldn't be intimidated if you are unfamiliar with conlanging. In any case, this video series is a great place if you want more info on conlanging itself. Also, I am just a hobbyist and do not have much experience, so if it feels sloppy I apologise in advance. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this presentation!
In this chapter, we will explore this langugae's background, sounds and will look at some example words and sentences:
Limidu
Limidu is the language of Moon Fairies. Moon Fairies are the group of clans of humanoid people with colorful, strong wings spanning several times their size. They fly freely on great heights, between one mountain to another, and travel across great seas and forests. This allowed them to escape being subjugated or subjugate anyone, and for much of their history, they lived without great deadly conflicts. They fly under the moon and sleep under the sun. The cultural ideals of a typical Moon Fairy clan is inspired by the moon: shining beautifully, chaotic but subtle, living in harmony. However, the language is not limited to original Moon Fairy clans, other fairies and non-fairies who live together or friendly with Moon Fairy clans, people who revere the moon and anyone who studies Moon Magic also speak Limidu as a native or secondary language.
Phonology: Sound System
Limidu has 18 consonants and 6 wovels. The consonant and vowel tables below are built according to International Phonetic Alphabet, this allows us to make sure that we can have a shared understanding on what sounds of a language are without being constrained to how individual people understand the sounds or how a language uses them.
The language is Latinized in a way to be able to be written easily with a common keyboard, and read without confusion. So, even if you don't exactly get what "alveolar" is, you can probably imagine how "n" sounds like. Still, some clarifications might be helpful:
[0] "r" being "flap" meaning you don't roll the tounge when saying "rrrrrrrrrr", it's like a weak r, close to how it often sounds. in Japanese.
[1] "c", the "post alveolar affricate " sound is like "ch" in "chair" or "check" in English
[2] "x", the "post alveolar voiceless fricative", sounds like "should" or "shark" in English
[3] "l" is always a clear "l", which means it's not like "let" in English, more like "alles" in German
(*) These sounds are always palatalized, pressing the tounge on the soft palate when you articulate the sound, giving a "y" like sound. For example "k" sounds like "key" rather than "cut"
All vowels are monothongs, which means when two vowels come together they do not blend, are spelled seperately. Also, no wovel is articulated as a long sound, if a wovel is long, it will be just written twice.
[1] "ü" sound can be found in "über" in German and "güneş" in Türkish
[2] This sound is allophones with "open central unrounded wovel". Allophones are pairs of sounds that can be used interchangebly without causing a change in meaning. This means "a" can both sound slightly colder or warmer, but they are somewhat similar sounds anyways.
Other sounds should be clear but, to provide examples, "e" sounds somewhat like how it sounds in "ayyy lmao", very fronted. "i" sounds similar to how it does in "bin", "o" sounds like how it does in "yo!"
Examples
I am planning to explore the phonotactics, the way sounds are arranged and organized, as it becomes relevant in the topic, because words are more exicting. So let's get a taste of language first by analyzing some sentences:
Tibelisam üyürümün! = I love you all
ti-be-li-sam ü-yi-ri-mi(n)
ti: Root word for "count"
be: Galaxy Complement Mirror form, this gives the meaning "to be all"
li: Brings the primary object out, giving the meaning "all"
sam: Second person topic marker, giving the meaning "all of you"
ü: Root word for "love"
yi: Void Base form, "i" assimilates into "ü", gives the meaning "to love"
ri: General Present Tense, again "i" assimilates into "ü"
mi(n): Happiness emotion marker, the speaker is happy about the situation, once again "i" is assimilated into ü"
Onnakurini? = Are you free/available?
o-nna-ku-ri-ni(m)
o: Root word for "craft, exchange"
nna: Earth Complement Inverse Comes from "nano", gives the meaning "to be idle, without work or plan"
ku: Question suffix
ri: General present tense
ni: Curiosity emotion marker
I think these examples provide some ideas. Limidu is a very synthetic/aggulinative language, it uses lots of suffixes to provide critical meanings. What does "Void Base Form" mean? How did we get the pronouns of the sentence?
Next week, we will go deeper and talk about how to construct basic sentences.
Üyobirimu!
This article is written thanks to my dearest Patrons and special thanks to: Acelin, Alexandra Morgan, Laura Watson, MasterofCubes, Makkovar, Otakundead and Spencer Gill.
