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Edally Story 3 – Fingers Itch

Chapter 12-18, Book One: Tesdes (and Kekdela)

“You!  You, come here, would you?  Come here.”

The girl grabbing Tesdes’ arm was dressed in such elaborately tailored clothes that he was surprised that she could move.  Her overvest was to her knees on one side and above her hip on the other, and closed with what had to be fifty teeny pearl buttons – and that was just one layer.

She was going to find the uniform she was carrying very boring, he thought.

That was secondary.  She was grabbing. Grabbing!  His arm.   He looked at her hand, looked at his arm, looked back at her hand.

She dropped his arm and shook her head.  “People! All right, yes, we don’t technically know each other, but you’re Tesdes, right?” Continue reading

A Conlang Word for the Day (written for Patreon)

Today we’re boiling!

Likkooz is an old word for bubble, as to roil or froth.

Likkoz is to boil; Likozok is a boil. (“bring to a boil…”)

The word got is a pot, generally a kettle for cooking over open fire, more generically any pot.

But for a modern teakettle, using Libbaano, music as sung, you end up with a Libbaangot, a sing-kettle.

Tairiekie, Libbangot-noo in-likkooz-ak – Tairiekie, the kettle is boiling.

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A Quick Conlang Post

I’ve been doing a bit of conlang over on Patreon this month as I play with people’s names in Reiassan and their post-Edally titles.

But I realized that a core concept of Calenyen, the language, had no word: Use

Time to fix that!

Calenyen has three grammatical genders:

Useful/of Use – toka
Useless/with no use – tyok
Beyond use – etok 

-tok- is used only in this setting and for nothing else.  Discussing use as -tok- is a philosophical concept that is intensely important to the Calenyena from their  goat-herding days through to their Industrial Revolution and beyond.

 

 

Edally Academy Houses III

Every one of the nine houses of Edally Academy has its own tower (which serves as a dormitory and social area), its own classroom building, its own uniform colors, and its own sigil.

House Gepmingippai (Geppai*) are the people you want to talk to if you want your school uniform to fit right; they are the school of Fashion and Textiles.

Weaving and knitting,  sewing and embroidery are all the purview of House Geppai. (GEP-pie).  Their perfectly-tailored, usually very carefully embroidered uniforms are in goldenrod, fushsia, and lime, the most brilliant colors that they can dye and nodding to no one god at all.

Their sigil is a needle athwart a loom, or just the needle, sometimes crossed with knitting needles. Continue reading

Some More New Words From a Name (written for Patreon)

@RixScaedu asked for an etymology for her name in Calenyen, so, based on the meanings of the words that her pen name is based on and playing a bit with some etymology, I went looking.

Rik is from Beatrice, “bringer of joy”, and Scaedu is Old English for ‘shade’ , which has a sort of fun etymology to it.

I didn’t yet have a word for Joy yet!  Okay then, I can make it.

Rikkido : to give joy

Rikkie – Joy

Nor did I have a word for shade!  So I decided to steal a bit of English Etymology (shh)

Kadoo, shade: from archaic Kadkaddo, to give protection, to have one’s back (now only used in a social situation)

Kadtad, shield or protection, modern, used as aegis in English, that is, “she is under my protection.”

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A Digression to figure out a word in Calenyen – Written for Patreon

Three conlang words: kaler, pailizdanon, and dieddetpaiz, with conScript "translation."

All right, today we’re figuring out the word for Diplomat, the title for many people to graduate Estiessyaa house.

Let’s see, the English etymology of the word… is one of those weird ones, where state papers come from the Greek word for folded paper.

I’m thinking blunted-spear is the word for diplomacy.

And it looks like I have:

paiterz, snow-spears, with the quote “The Cālenyena call almost everything long and pointy a spear. When all you have is a hammer, etc.”

The Arran/West coast word for spear-leaf: adavijamin (Spear-blade is adavi in that language) Continue reading

Edally Story 2 – Just Good Enough

Chapter 6-11, Book One: Saydrie

The monitor had come down from somewhere in the north, escorted by two soldiers and walking as if she thought that the ground in the enclave would stick to her and ruin her boots.

The biggest building in the enclave was the Temple of the Three, but instead of that room, she had called them all into the town hall, every child of the appropriate age, past the changing of the voice but before the full adult growth had been reached.  Not that most of them weren’t already taller than the monitor, Saydrie noticed, not without some rather unkind pleasure.

She had a list of names and read them off – or attempted to.  “Genkee. Zadree. An- Tanton. No, I said Zadree.” Continue reading