Lexember 4th: raumo "stick, adhere"

I was not planning to post this word today. In fact, I had no plans for this word at all. But in the course of preparing for tomorrow's word, I needed today's word in an example. I really think this is another of the hidden benefits of creating examples for all your new vocabulary — it often leads to ideas for even more words.

There are a few things coming out of today's new root, raumo /ˈɾaʊ̯.mo/, stick, adhere. It uses the ablative postposition li for the point of attachment.

Kausin has chátis li raumo.
dead fly window ABL stick.PFV
A dead fly is stuck to the window.

And it can be used in the causative (-ël-):

Kúsa li kítuël si raumëli re.
kús-a li kítuël si raum-ël-i re
wall-SG ABL map ACC stick-CAUS-IMP PART
(Please) stick the map to the wall.

Among other jobs, re tones down the impact of a command.

Next, we can derive an adjective of tendency, raumohin, prone to stick, sticky.

Ën para në vuttë raumohin chaso vau?
this book TOP why sticky do.PFV PART
Why the hell has this book gotten sticky?

The combination of any question word with vau adds a WTF tone to the question. And chaso do is preferred to mëlo become for adjective states.

Ta pamma në kólla raumohin no so.
that plant TOP seed prone.to.adhere be.PFV ASSEV.PART
The seeds of that plant are prone to adhering. (As a burr, for example).

The particle so slightly buffs up how much you are asserting something.

Lexember 3rd: suilta "tattoo"

Derived from the verb suillo prick, pierce, jab, the noun suilta /su.ˈil.ta/ is tattoo. As is normal with states and bodily attachments, in Kílta you relo carry these, rather than simply have them.

Ha në valu suiltur si relo.
ha në val-u suilt-ur si rel-o
1SG TOP three-PL tattoo-PL ACC bear-PFV
I have three tattoos.

When it comes to giving someone a tattoo, though, a complex converb expression is used. The imperfective converb of suillo comes first, taking the patient of this action, and the main verb is kicho incise; write.

Naula në ël si suillár kicho.
naula në ël si suill-ár kich-o
friend TOP 3SG ACC prick.IPFV.CVB write-PFV
His friend gave him a tattoo.

Lexember 2nd: lé "into water"

There is a perfectly fine word for just "water" in Kílta, mata, and even a way to say "into water," mata mai, but the adverb lé /leː/ is preferred for motion into water or any other liquid. If for some reason the exact nature of the liquid was focused, then you could use mata mai or the like.

Ëla në kiva li tunákirë, lé oto.

3.PL TOP tree ABL hang.IPFV into.liquid fall.PFV

They were hanging from a tree and fell into the water.

Likër si tëlpár, in natena in tërta si lé salko.
soup ACC cook.CVB.IPFV and onion and meat ACC into.water place.PFV
Making the soup, he added onion and meat.

Lexember 1st: unnuluikin "expensive"

I haven't done Lexember in a few years. The last time I added a month worth of ideophones to Kahtsaai. This time I'm just going to grab my very long backlog of words I want to add to Kílta. I've been working on Kílta for years now, and is the only language I've worked on where I consistently follow my own advice to always, always, always have examples for new vocabulary. The results have been much more satisfying.

This is a personal language, so a lot of the vocabulary is likely to be fairly mundane.

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Today's word is unnuluikin /ʔu.nu.lu.ˈi.kin/ expensive. It is a compound, from unna wealth, property and the adjective luikin heavy.

Para në unnuluikin nomën, chí chí hammo so.
book TOP expensive be.CONCES.CVB, against against buy.PFV ASSEV
Although the book was expensive, I bought it anyway.

Kílta metaphor: SALT IS VITALITY

One standard feature of my current grammars for new languages is a separate section after the dictionary where I focus on particular areas of interest or difficulty. For example, copulas and verbs of existence in Kílta have a few complications, so there's a section on those. This lets me limit cross-references in the dictionary definitions to something reasonable, while still being able to give a thorough overview later.

A subsection on conceptual metaphor (Conlangery Podcast #66) is now standard in my grammars. I've recently been working out the metaphor SALT IS VITALITY (for some reason, conceptual metaphors are often given in all-caps like this). 

When I first thought about this metaphor, I spent a little while first thinking through the implications. In this instance, I already had an idiom involving salt that would interact a bit oddly with it —

Ches si tirat vuëtiso.
salt ACC give.1R-INF try-PFV
They tried to bribe me. (lit., "they tied to give me salt")

I decided this wasn't a vital problem, and in fact slightly enhanced the idiom and the conceptual metaphor I was about to develop.

Kílta has a modest set of derivational affixes, so I first thought about how some of those might work:

• chesámin - "saltless," has the standard meanings of dull, lifeless, with an additional sense of mildly ill
• chesëtin - "salty, having salt" is the core sense, but also means vital, lively, vigorous

For now, no other derivational elements have suggested themselves for this metaphor. In general, I try to take these metaphorical derivations only if they have a clear literal use, too.

Next, Kílta, as a verb-final language, favors N-V combinations for creating new verbal senses from nouns, rather than derivational affixes. These are more obviously idiomatic, with less clear-cut literal use:

• ches si raho - literally, "throw (the) salt," has the same basic sense and tone as the English idiom "kick the bucket," but is a touch less respectful than the English
• ches tëníto - literally, "(the) salt is gone," matches the idea of being dejected, or "the life has gone out of him/her/it"
• ches si kwilë relo - literally, "carries too much salt," is for someone who has too much nervous energy, or a pet having the zoomies

That's as far as I want to take things for now with a new metaphor. I've made a notation in the dictionary entry for ches salt which reminds me of this sense if I add new examples to that headword, in addition to the conceptual metaphors section after the dictionary. Maybe that's as far as this metaphor will go, but it's always nice when a new metaphor-based idiom suggests itself.

Two Notes on Walman

The Walman language of Papua New Guinea has two interesting grammatical features: a conjugated and, and an inflectional diminutive.

Conjugated Conjunction

Walman's verbs have polypersonal agreement on transitive verbs, marking both subject and object. Conjunction is handled with two verb stems, -aro- and <-a-> (subject is a prefix, object is a suffix):

nyue w-aro-n ngan
mother 3SG.F.SUBJ-and-3SG.M.OBJ father
a mother and father

Since verb serialization is already present in Walman, it looks like a verb got grabbed to mean and and got dropped into the serialization chain. There is also a non-conjugated and, which may be used instead of the conjugated form, but seems to be preferred for inanimate constituents and clauses. Interestingly, the Lamaholot language of Indonesia also has an inflecting and, but it can be used to join clauses.

See Verbs for 'And' in Walman for all the glorious details.

Inflectional Diminutive

Walman also has a third person singular diminutive marker which occurs on verbs and adjectives.

Pelen l-aykiri.
dog 3SG.DIMIN-bark
The puppy is barking.

Pelen w-aykiri.
dog 3SG.FEM-bark
The female dog is barking.

Pelen n-aykiri.
dog 3SG.MASC-bark
The male dog is barking.

Pelen y-aykiri.
dog 3SG.PL-bark
The dogs are barking.

The authors of the paper below believe that the diminutive marker was originally a neuter gender.

See Diminutive as an Inflectional Category in Walman for details.

Lexical Exploration: "bruise"

The English bruise is related to words for "crush, injure, cut, smash." The usage for blemished fruits is first attested in the 14th century.

In Ancient Greek, several words related to the core sense of "crush" are also given the definition "bruise:" θλάω, τρίβω. There is also the rare-appearing word μώλωψ, "mark of a stripe, weal, bruise" which generates a denominal verb.

In the Dravidian family, again, quite a few words related to "crush" or "(strike a) blow, beat," and occasionally "press," are also glossed "bruise." See for example, naci and tar̤umpu.

In the Austronesian family color terms seem to be a popular source domain, as in the color root, -*dem, which generates a term in one daughter language, and the root *alem, also related to color, does in another. Also *baŋbaŋ₈, which generated terms related to a range of skin discolorations. There are other source domains, however, such as baneR, which in addition to "bruise, weal" also generates a specific term for blemishes on fruit.

In Mbula, -berebere across dialects means "be bruised and swollen, itch and burn, have blisters."

Mandarin has a large collection of terms glossed "bruise," most of which seem to be polysemous with more generic injury terms, "wound, abscess, bump," or the aftermath, "scar." The term 烏青 wū qīng refers to the color ("dark/black" + "grue/grey"), and can be used alone as a color term.

Somba-Siawari's yöhöza covers all of "bite, sting, rub, hurt, bruise, weigh down."

In Malayalam the terms are all polysemous with other injury terms, of which ആഘാതം āghātaṁ is most flush with meaning: "stab, stroke, beat, trauma, blow, waft, bruise, bump, impact, poke, push, shock."

Other dictionaries consulted: Maori, Turkish, Angave, Swahili, Arabic, Wolof, Korean, Armenian, Malay.

Summary: the cause of bruising ("hit, crush, pound, press," occasionally "abrade" or "dent") is a common source domain. In some families, the word is polysemous with other kinds of injuries, "weal" and swelling, in particular. Color terms are an occasional source. It's hard to tell history from some dictionaries, but there may occasionally be root terms for a polysemous injury word that includes "bruise." Finally, languages that are robustly reduplicating seem happy to use it in "bruise" terms (but this might be due to the stative sense rather than specific semantics).