Day 43 (1:16) Of Rewriting My Novel

Kshafa Morphosyntax

For Kshafa I want to have a more complicated morphosyntactic alignment than what I had for Ngįout, which was marked nominative, but otherwise just plain vanilla nominative accusative. What I had come up with was inspired mainy by what I'd read about alignment in Majang, which is a complicated variant of tripartite fluid-S, in which the subject is nominative if it's "topical/expected", and ergative if not.

This whole split based on pragmatics is a bit too complicated for me, so I decided that for Kshafa the split is going to be based on the definiteness of the subject. If the subject is definite it is nominative, and if it is indefinite it is ergative in transitive clauses and absolutive in indefinite clauses.

The diachronic explenation I have for this to make it make sense in my mind is that originally it was an ergative fluid S language that is based on definiteness - transitive clauses are ergative, intransitive clauses are fluid. Then, a kind of focal definite demonstrative article thing stuck to a definite ergative argument and the nominative case was made.

In addition, another part of the system (that was also inspired form Majang) is that the verb agrees with the definiteness of the subject, and because Kshafa has can be pro-drop, it can distinguish between intransitive clauses and transitive clauses with a dropped agent. Some examples:

A dog runs - run.3SG dog.ABS

The dog runs - run.3SG.DEF dog.NOM

A boy is being bitten - bite.3SG boy.ABS

The (known thing) bites the boy - bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS

smth bites the dog - bite.3SG.DEF dog.ABS

A dog bites a boy - bite.3SG boy.ABS dog.ERG

The dog bites a boy - bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS dog. NOM

Final thing is that nominative arguments can be freely fronted, so:

The dog bites a boy - bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS dog. NOM => dog.NOM bite.3SG.DEF boy.ABS

I'm pretty happy with that, it makes sense to me. The only thing is that I need to figure out what to do when non-subject arguments are definite, because I don't want to have a morphological definiteness destinction in the other cases, and having a definite article just for non-subject cases feels weird. Maybe I can just say that just like how turkish only marks definiteness on accusative arguments, Kshafa only marks definiteness on subjects.

OC Lore Excerpt

I got the brilliant idea for this short excerpt after listening to one of my favorite songs.

This excerpt is a piece of Aito’s lore, where he lost someone he loved dearly due to his lack of acceptance for himself.

Edit note: This specific excerpt is set in 19th century England (Aito is hundreds of years old) (that’s a whole other piece of lore but whatever)

WARNING: THIS EXCERPT CONTAINS SEXUAL THEMES.

“Do you love me?”

It was morning, and the sun peeked through the drawn curtains onto his tanned face and reflected in his eyes, making them shine like a swirled caramel. I sat on the edge of the bed, in my nude, and he laid behind me with his cheek propped on his hand and the sheets covering his lower body.

I looked at him, a mild visage of bewilderment on my face. I gave a scoff as I stood and grabbed my shirt off the nearby chair. “I just had sex with you. Why wouldn’t I?”

I felt his fingers trace down my spine and stop above my rear, then he placed his hand on my lower back. I shivered as I began buttoning my white shirt.

“I don’t know. You just felt…distant the whole time,” he said softly. He tugged at the back of my shirt, and I turned to face him after I picked up my tie.

“How so?” I asked, looking down at him as I straightened the black tie around my neck. 

He slipped the covers off himself and sat off the edge of the bed in front of me. My eyes traced his figure as he looked up. He ran his hands up the sides of my thighs and stopped at my hips, massaging them. “You just looked…apathetic the whole time. As if you weren’t enjoying it.” His eyes would flit up my body, and I inhaled sharply as he ran his hands down my front. I swallowed hard and slipped my trembling fingers into his messy black hair, although gingerly.

His hands rested on the backs of my thighs as he looked up at me again, a faint, pained expression on his face. His hands dropped and clasped in his lap as he pressed his forehead into my stomach. “That. You’re hesitant. Why?”

I stared down at him, then dropped my hands as well. I felt a vise grip my chest, and I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it. After a moment, he raised his head and eyed at me expectantly. I exhaled deeply and closed my eyes. “I…I don’t know.”

I did know. But I hated that I knew. I knew it was because I still couldn’t fully approve of all the love I wanted to give.

I opened my eyes, and his expression was one of unconvinced hurt.

Gently, he placed his hands on my hips and pushed me a step back. He stood and tilted his head up at me, his voice breaking. “You hurt me so. You can’t even say you love me back.”

My breath hitched in my throat, and I stared at him silently. I felt my eyes begin to sting and gloss over.

“Cry for me,” he challenged, although it came out more as a quiet, choked beg.

I blinked away my tears.

100 visitors of the archives!!

holy shit, the archives has gotten to 100 followers!!!

i am beyond grateful, it's so amazing to see so many people pass through, reading the stories, engaging with tag games, and simply existing here. i am so touched and incredibly thankful, this feeling is really beyond compare. you are all amazing <3

i won't tag everyone this time, because that is a lot of people and i haven't slept properly in three weeks, but just know i am so happy you've stopped by, even for just a moment.

thank you so much everyone.

I’ve never read this book, I only watched the series on YouTube. I must read it at some point. David J. Peterson’s content on linguistics is immaculate.

I FOUND A BOOK

Look what we got from the library!!! Look at it! Look!

Now that we have The Book, there's no stopping us. You will all be drowning in words and grammar and scripts >:D

But seriously. If I had a flappy hands emoji, I'd be using it right now.

every time i see someone call kirk and spock the oldest ship, i'm filled with the urge to go "hmm actually the holmes and watson girlies have been here for a hundred years now", and i refrain because i know the natural conclusion of this game is gilgamesh and enkidu

Joining in. I got king, also.

"There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David's boy" Duty. Strength. Resignation. You were told to do things and you did them. The world is something that was put into your hands and that you must deal with - so you will. You have a rigid back and steady hands, either metaphorically or physically. Is it nature or nurture ? You don't know. You are tired of being steady. You dream of feeling alive. Not that you aren't, but, sometimes, it's hard to remember that there is a heart between your ribs. Your love is where you breathe. Come on, breathe. In. Out. It starts now."

They didn't have any siren-like features, so you will have purple Lex for today.

To fill the rest of this post up, here's "king" in a couple conlangs:

Zispoel: Nourer (m), Nourerief (f)

Ipol: Nurrite (m), Nurrif (f)

Low Zeneth: Dvrr

High Zeneth: Dva

Usual suspects, join in if you want! @quillswriting @oldfashionedidiot

✨Picrew and uQuiz Tag✨

Thank you for tagging me here, @kaylinalexanderbooks ! 💛✨

Rules: take this uquiz to find out if you're a soldier, a king, or a poet, then use this Picrew to make yourself as that!

I got The King

The King

"There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David's boy" Duty. Strength. Resignation. You were told to do things and you did them. The world is something that was put into your hands and that you must deal with - so you will. You have a rigid back and steady hands, either metaphorically or physically. Is it nature or nurture ? You don't know. You are tired of being steady. You dream of feeling alive. Not that you aren't, but, sometimes, it's hard to remember that there is a heart between your ribs. Your love is where you breathe. Come on, breathe. In. Out. It starts now.

I guess this would be me as a king (Peter please don’t rob me 👀💦)

+open tag for whoever wants to do this picrew and uquiz! 💛✨

do you guys ever just have the most BRILLIANT of ideas randomly come to you and make you suddenly SUPER happy? >:D

Introducing: Néndisfas

Consider this post a very brief introduction to my in-progress conlang, Néndisfas.

In summary, Néndisfsho is a fusional language with phonemic pitch-accent, personal agreement in verbs, and split-ergative based on animacy.

Phonology

Consonants

/p/, /b/, /m/, /t/, /d/, /n/, /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /kʷ/, /gʷ/

/f/, /v/, /s/, /ʃ/, /z/, /xʷ/, /h/

/w/, /j/, /ɾ/, /l/, /ʎ/, /ʟ/

Not much to say here but for the three way /l/, /ʎ/, /ʟ/ distinction held-on from the protolanguage.

Vowels

Five-vowel system with length distinction, making 10 vowels. Not interesting at all here.

Phonotactics

Max syllable: CV(C)(C)(C) / CV(C)#

Indeed, this means that the maximum size of a consonant cluster could be 4-consonants long,

Morphology / Syntax: Grammar

Verbs

Verbs (and predicative adjectives) are simple, comparatively, to the syntactic nonsense going down with nouns.

Verbs take a prefix for perfective and passive, and a suffix for past or present and to agree with the subject in gender (animate, inanimate).

Due to sound changes, verbs fall into one of six categories, but classes II, III, and IV all have alternate forms.

Nouns

Néndisfsho nouns take on one of two genders: Common or Neuter. Common nouns were derived from old animate nouns, and neuter nouns were derived from old mass nouns. The nouns which didn't fit with either were grandfathered in.

Due to sound changes, nouns take on one of six endings depending on their class. Classes I, III, and V have alternate forms.

Nouns also inflect for one of 5 cases: Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, Allative, and Commitative. The Allative, though, is beginning to be used like an Ergative, marking an animate subject of an intransitive verb, and an animate object of a transitive verb.

Take, for instance, the following sentences:

Yés-e váw-i ve-kát-ur-o.

Yessei.C-NOM car.N-ACC PRV.drive.PST.ANIM

"Yessei had driven the car."

Since the car is not animate, Yessei is rendered in the nominative, and the car is rendered in the accusative. In the following sentence, however:

Yés-ivā búm-pe kéht-us

Yessei.C-ALL dark.N-NOM hate.PRES.INAN

"The dark hates Yessei."

Here, the nominative case is reanalyzed as an absolutive, and the allative as an ergative.

This structure could be rewritten with a passive, like

Yés-ivā (búp-ko) ver-kéht-o

Yessei.C-ALL (dark.N-GEN) PASS.hate.PRES.ANIM

"Yessei is hated (by the darkness)."

Here, the genitive marks the agent, and the allative (ergative) marks the subject. Yessei, in this context, is treated as the object of a transitive verb, rather than the subject of an intransitive verb.

The reason this is so messy right now is because the language is in the middle of evolving the ergativity.

Other Notes

Néndisfas has no "true" 2nd or 3rd person pronouns, because pronouns are a completely open class in Néndisfas. The general 1st person pronoun is "gémse, géra, gésho" (I, me, my).

This is probably a language I'll wind up using as a meme language throughout my writing. It originally started as a language used in the deserts of Southern Atepsi, but now it's Yessei's first language, so I decided it can be both. In the context of Meiste, though, this is a long-dead language.

Paging the usual suspects: @quillswriting @oldfashionedidiot @ominous-feychild

Also if y'all have translation suggestions don't hesitate to drop them in my asks or as a reply/reblog to this post lol.