amiu - "linguist"

[pauraque_bk]

For ellen_fremedon:



ammíiuaú naý nrúl "I know language"

X-SAMPA (ignoring tone): [ {m:iIU{u n{1 nr\ul ]

Since Ellen does indeed know language, I'm going to get a little denser with my explanations on this one, so bear with me.

ammíiuaú "that which is spoken"

The root verb here is mí "to speak deliberately". m- and -i indicate no actor and no target, respectively. a- and -u together form a circumfix indicating a restrictive, object-head relative clause. mí doesn't have an object in this sentence, so the whole clause is understood to be a nominal formation -- such is the fate of the Headless Relative in Amíu. (If you're guessing that the word "Amíu" itself is a form of this clause, you're right.) -aú is the first person marker; our new noun is now assigned the first person.

naý "knowledge; understanding"

'Understanding' is classed with the emotions, so its written form gets the emotional determinative, the nose. The phonetic is /nai/ "tree". (I have to admit this is a pun on my part -- tree of knowledge.)

nrúl "I have it"

This is the main verb. The root is rúl "to have deliberately". n- indicates a second-person actor (the speaker, in this case). The zero suffix indicates a first person target -- it must be ammíiu. The only word left is naý; it is the object of nrúl.

So, in the most literal terms, we're saying "I deliberately have knowledge directed at that which is deliberately spoken". But a much better translation would be "I know language" or "I'm a linguist"!

As always, I'm open to requests for icons, examples, explanations, anything. Next up will be "tracing mansions" for spican.

Edited to correct my X-SAMPA.

Comments

Re:

[pauraque]

Thank you! I've certainly been inspired by our colleagues from the ZBB. Noyatukah is one of my favorite conlangs, so your comparing mine to it is a great compliment. :)