Monday, December 21, 2020

Kílta Lexember 21: kwailëmës "sadist"

Kílta has a family of derivations centered on -ëmës "caretaker, cultivator." The word for doctor (or veterinarian) is esëmës, from es health. Today's words start with that:

kwailëmës /kʷaɪ̯ˈlə.məs/ sadist < kwailo hurt + -ëmës "caretaker" derivation

Kwailëmësá útan si ontirë.
sadist.PL matter ACC conduct.IPFV
Sadists are running things.

The light verb expression útan si onto is a fixed idiom meaning "run things."

The standard adjective derivation for -ëmës nouns is -ëmarin. For both the noun and the adjective form, the intensifier word is ívin (adv. ívui) savage.

Ívui kwailëmarin íhamal si ruiso.
savagely sadistic law ACC bind.PFV
They passed a deeply sadistic law.

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Kílta Lexember 20: kuima "snail"

I realized that I didn't have a word for snail, which, I'll admit, isn't a word I use a lot, but sometimes you need to translate a conlanging meme.

kuima /kuˈi.ma/ snail, no etymology

Kuimur rëtu sotur së ën tuimata nen vëcho.
snail.PL many kind.PL also this swamp LOC remain.PFV
Many kinds of snail live in this swamp.

A word I do use more often, however, is slug, which is just lapin kuima a naked snail.

Lapu kuimur në ekiccha si sanár vëcho vukai!
naked.PL snail.PL TOP cabbage ACC eat.CVB.IPFV remain.PFV PTCL
The slugs keep eating the cabbage!

A converb + vëcho is a light verb expression that means continue to, keep on, etc. The post-verbal particle vukai indicates the speaker's displeasure about the situation. 

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Kílta Lexember 19: ósa "form, shape"

More from my terrible backlog:

ósa /ˈoː.sa/ shape, form < onna build, fashion + -sa a "non-productive" nominalizer

This takes the attributive/possessive particle  to indicate a particular shape, and prefers vurpin what kind of to just plain vurin which when asking about shape.

Ën mika vë ósa në uchin no.
this stone ATTR shape TOP strange be.PFV
The shape of this stone is peculiar.

Like many attributes, it is carried rather than simply had,

Mium në vurpin ósa si relo?
toy TOP what.kind.of form ACC bear.IPFV
What's the toy's shape?

I've decided to push on the meaning a bit for a few compounds to refer to states of matter. I almost never talk about that, but since I'm here and the idea occurred to me, I might as well add them:

ahëkósa - gas ("wind-shape")
matusósa - liquid ("water-shape")
saispósa - solid ("wood-shape," where wood is often "matter")
luëkusósa - plasma ("fire-shape")

I am not going to worry about Bose-Einstein Condensates for now.

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