Whee, new verb!

[bloodygranuaile]

For the synthetic language, which as of now has no name. And probably won't for a while.

to thank kazh

Which leadeth to sakazh rif, "Thank you" [lit. "I thank you (sing.)]; plural being sakazh rihi. And the response "you're welcome" would be nekharulnef or nef kharulnef [lit. "It is nothing", as per usual for many languages]. We don't need zhe "to be" in there because it's unnecessary for communication in this language (because I said so because I _hate_ "to be"), but I'm not sure if one is supposed to combine the subject and the object when there's an implied verb or not. I should ask someone who knows. Then again, "You're welcome" is a common enough phrase that it could in the vernacular be combined into the shorter, easier-to-pronounce single word even if it was technically grammatically incorrect, because every language needs its idioms and annoying irregularities.

It helps to come up with idiom-type things if you're working with a culture as well as a language. I don't believe we know where this language is set yet; we'll have to address that sooner or later; most likely sooner. It seems to me like it'd be a more primitive society, because the language sounds like broken glass and seems to consist of stringing concepts together, and we're going with very logical grammar, not whacked-out muddled grammar and vocab like English has from several hundred years of throwing extra languages into it. (Modern English is mostly Anglo-Saxon and Old French; Anglo-Saxon was a mix of the languages of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and Old French I'm not sure about; my best guess would be mangled Latin and mebbe a bit of the language of the Gauls. I've also heard Old Norse influenced English, but I may be mistaken on any or all of these counts.

We need words for and, or, and but. I'd recommend them not be from our list of three-letter syllables, but only be two letters each.

And the closest I can get to "farewell" at the moment, as we haven't done greetings yet:

Zheri ika,

-Claudia

Comments

Old Norse and English

[agent-moody.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if Old Norse affected English. It affected Scots Gaelic. Hey, it's where "Moody" comes from. That's what you get when large numbers of well-trained fighters swarm in from Norway and Denmark.

[frozen-light.livejournal.com]

I know you hate 'to be', but nekharzhe makes more sense, literally "it not-be", as opposed to "it not a thing". Just because thats the construction of no-thing in English doesn't mean it's better.

and we need another more specific word for good behaviour perhaps, rather than just a positive adnoun, cause you are saying "be good".

Nitpick

[agentclaudia.livejournal.com]

It's not "it's nothing" in English, actually. It's "it's nothing" in French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Anyway. You do have a point.