Kílta Lexember 7: hënnëtukës "charismatic leader"

A somewhat more obscure term for Kílta today, but a matter that sometimes grabs my attention.

hënnëtukës /xən.nəˈtu.kəs/ charismatic leader < hënno tame, control + tuka eye + -ës agent and instr. nmnl

In Kílta the word tuka eye has strong connotations of nosiness, extending to surveillance. I wanted for this word to capture the role of the rather nosy techniques of group control that tend to accompany organizations headed by charismatic figures. Also, what the leader turns their eye to tends to become the interest of everyone in such a group.

Hënnëtukës luël si chasët në, nahësá luël si inachëlo.
hünnëtukës luël si chas-ët në, nahës-á luël si inach-ël-o
charismatic.leader error ACC do-CVB.PFV TOP follower-PL error ACC big-CAUS-PFV
When a charismatic leader makes a mistake, the followers amplify the mistake.

A general converb clause can be topicalized, and it has a mixed conditional and temporal sense. My translation uses when, which captures the more conditional sense here.

Hënnëtukës në pairun no.
chairsmatic.leader TOP disaster be.PFV
A charistmatic leader is a catastrophe.

Kílta distinguishes pairun, a disaster that is more man-made, from sauna, a disaster over which people have no control.

Kílta Lexember 6: rutta "tool"

Today's Kílta word is an unexpected oversight. I have several derivations that can create words for tools, but no general term. This is using another one of those hidden derivations.

rutta /ˈɾut.ta/ tool, instrument < ruto take, grab + -ta nominalizer

In this derivation the verb ruto should be taken as referring more generally to handling.

Vurpin rutta si ikko?
what.kind? tool ACC lack.PFV
What (kind of) tool do you need?

Kílta somewhat prefers to use vurpin what kind of in some places where English is content with what or which. It also drops arguments a lot, as here.

Ta rutta në súchat níko më.
that tool TOP dig.INF be.like.PFV NEG
That tool isn't suitable for digging.

The verb níko resemble, be like with an infinitive is used to describe fitness for a purpose.

Kílta Lexember 5: haimavo "disappear, fade from view"

Kílta already has the verb tëníto go/be away which I've sometimes used to mean disappear. But that refers to a physical absence. Today's word is visual.

haimavo /xaɪ̯ˈma.βo/ disappear, fade from view (new root, no etymology)

Nama asíkár, Ótahwa haimavësto.
nama asík-ár ótahwa haimav-ëst-o
sun rise-CVB.IPFV mars fade.from.view-INCH-PFV
As the sun rose, Mars faded from view.

Kílta uses the inchoative/inceptive more often than English will say "start to, get" with verbs.

You can even use haimavo and tëníto together:

Luëkëlva në úkár haimavët tëníto.
train TOP go.CVB.IPFV fade.CVB.PFV go.away.PFV
As the train went it faded from view and was gone.

Kílta Lexember 4: mukélës "symbiote"

Another fairly straightforward word for Kílta today, but with a few obvious and related derivations in the mix:

mukélës /muˈkeː.ləs/ symbiote < muko live + -él- co-, con- + -ës agent nominalizer

This is a straight-up calque of symbiote, but the derivation is fairly obvious and I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't torturously clever.

To state relationships, the postposition is tin (together) with.

Lita në kiva tin vë mukélës no.
mushroom TOP tree with ATTR symbiote be.PFV
Mushrooms are symbiotes with trees.

In Kílta, generic nouns are in the singular.

Probably a more natural way to express this is with an adjective, which is mukélarin symbiotic, again using tin with for the relationship.

Lita në kiva tin mukélarin no.
mushroom TOP tree with symbiotic be.PFV
Mushrooms are symbotic with trees.

Because I spend a certain time worrying about how systems interact and influence things, Kílta has a nominal derivation just to mean systems. So, mukéluista symbiosis, system of symbiosis.

Mukéluista në ummul vë muër no.
symbiosis TOP forest ATTR interconnectedness be.PFV
Systems of symbiosis are the interconnectedness of the forest.

The translation for that is a bit of a mouthful, but is a good example of one of the main functions of a personal conlang. It allows the language creator to express things they find interesting or important concisely.

Of course, now I've had to add parasite to my ever-growing backlog of vocabulary to create.

Kílta Lexember 3: tavëlár "slang"

Today's is a simple word:

tavëlár /taˈβə.laːɾ/ slang < tavo run + lár speech, utterance, word

The verb tavo run is used in various derivations to mean "fast, quick."  Here I'm not referring to speed of enunciation, but lifetime. The -ë- ligature is normal for verb-initial compounds.

Kattëkës kë mítarpe, tavëlár si míti hómë re.
boss DAT speak.COND.CVB.IPFV, slang ACC speak.IMP PROH PTCL
If you're talking to the boss, don't use slang.

Note that Kílta prefers the verb míto speak to anything meaning "use" here, even if that means the verb is repeated. The particle re is here to soften the imperative a bit.

Kílta Lexember 2: ísama "grave"

One funny feature of the Kílta grammar is that in the derivational section I describe some affixes as productive and others as nonproductive. On first glance, this is a bit absurd. It's my language, I can derive words however the hell I want. But even though Kílta doesn't have a deep historical process in its development, I do use historical thinking as an esthetic choice, and so I have layers of history in various places, including the word derivation system. And, I have a friend learning Kílta, an unusual circumstance for most conlangs. The productivity notes have turned out to be useful there.

Today's word has layers of derivation involved.

ísama /iːˈsæ.ma/ grave < ímo hide + -sa nominalizer + -ama place/time nominalizer

The -sa is an "older" nominalizer covering instrument, agent, and abstractions. It's not even documented in the public Kílta grammar, though it does have a long comment in the LaTeX sources. I should probably include it in a footnote or something. 

At any rate, in some parts of Kílta grammar nasal+s eliminates the nasal and lengthens the previous vowel, so there was an intervening *ísa. However, that conflicts with another *ísa exile described here. So it got the location derivation, resulting in ísama (opening the door for a possible *-sama variation for location derivations).

Though the plain verb ímo does mean hide, it is used in derivations meaning other things, especially relating to covering. If you look at the CLICS³ graph centered on hide, you find both cover and bury as common polysemies with hide.

Intentionally in keeping with using salko put, place, for planting in a garden, that'll be the verb for burial:

Avur në atta si ísama nen salko.
1PL TOP father ACC grave LOC put.PFV
We buried our father.

For location, naturally one lies there:

Ël në ísama nen ké nulo më.
3SG TOP grave LOC already lie.PFV NEG
She's not yet in the grave.

It is an interesting accident of development that the word for grave, ísama, looks related to ísui in the manner of an exile, and ína exile, outcast itself. There's a possibility for wordplay here I might explore later.

Kílta Lexember 1: këllekunaima "cave"

The Lexember 2020 Season is upon us! I have no particular theme for this season, apart from the ever-growing backlog of words I want to create for Kílta.

Today's word is cave. I was briefly tempted to coin a unique root for it, but to be honest my interaction with caves is not frequent. Since this is a personal language I do try to take into consideration just how often I'm going to use a word. I thought about various compounds, and settled on naima mouth for the final element, since that is already used as an entrance to places.

Këllekunaima /kəl.le.kuˈnaɪ̯.ma/ cave < këlleka hill, mountain + naima mouth

It's not enough just to coin the word for me most of the time. I want to spend some time thinking about prototypical usage. The normal motion in a cave is generally downward, so hímo go down, descend is the main verb for wandering a cave. For entering the cave, just use the inchoative.

Ilivëstët, útan li këllekunaima si tëtti hímësto.
iliv-ëst-ët útan li këllekunaima si tëtti hím-ëst-o
rain-INCH-PFV.CVB matter ABL cave ACC a.bit descend-INCH-PFV
It started to rain so they went in the cave a bit.

The expression útan li "from (that) matter" is an idiom for so, therefore.

I'll need to think more about how to express a cave-in.