I have these four words in my list, although I cannot find the post in which I posted them:

telyen: story
telnyent: truth-known
telyentozh: myth
telnyenttozh (hunh. I think that should be telenyentozh): history (Wow, that’s clumsy, don’t take that one as canon yet, or the myth one)

Where I wanted to get with this post was BOOKS.

Because the Cālenyena love books. Well, they love the written word. They were fascinated with it when they discovered it. They wrote histories into their tents. Usually biographies. They decorated their clothes with tales of their prowess, and lessons learned. They painted stories on their saddles.

Actual books, paper in a library? That took a little longer.

The word for writing come from the [east-coast-people] word Saayish, and is zhēzhet

The word for book comes from the proto-bitrani word urnia, and is turnē

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/497340.html. You can comment here or there.

Children! They are required for continuation of the species!

Like all people, the Cālenyena have children, and they have words for them, of course

Pabap is a baby, a “carry-on,” or tes-tyētyē (self-carried), testyē.

Lerū is a child, generally one tall enough to walk but not tall enough to carry a spear or throw weapons.

This is the equivalent to their goat terms:

Pebyab is a tiny goat, not large enough to do much but bleat.

Lelū is a young goat kid, old enough to walk but not to be ridden.

The similarities in terms is not accidental. Especially when a herding culture, the Cālenyena tended to gather all their young together and raise them, so that babies and goat kids would grow up under the watchful eye of the pregnant mothers and the too-old to ride. Similar still happens today in remote villages and small towns.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/492794.html. You can comment here or there.

In the early days of the proto-Cālenyena, snow was not something that they often saw. Their Texas-like climate never had lasting snow, and rarely had snowfall at all.

Thus, their word for snow was a compound word: rain-cold-hard, teb-run-zē, which, through the centuries, and, in their new home, their far more consistent exposure to snow, became terunz. (The ending sound is actually stolen from the Bitrani. Very few Cālenyen words end in a double consonant).

And, as they were becoming more familiar with drifts of the white stuff, they needed a way to get around in this terrain.

paiterz, snow-spears, were the first innovation (essentially skis. The Cālenyena call almost everything long and pointy a spear. When all you have is a hammer, etc.)

And, in different places but for similar need, Begerz, shoes-snow, snowshoes, were developed.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/485729.html. You can comment here or there.

I may go forward with the suggestions listed here in the future and, for example, do Febumantau and put forth compound words. But for today, I want to talk about fire.

Fire: apa

This word has two thing of note:

First, it begins with a vowel, indicating that it’s of the third (first? zeroth?) gender: beyond use. Very few things in the world (the current list can be found here), but fire is considered by the Cālenyena (or at least by the proto-Cālenyena) to be one of those awesome things of the world that is simply always there.

Secondly, it has nothing to do with the god of fire and blood that the Cālenyena worship in the time of the story, Veignevar.

This is because the Cālenyena have had fire for a much longer time than they have had these three god. Fire dates back longer than any history, while the god Veignevar is a loan-god from the Bitrani.

What’s more, the god Veignevar is actually a combination (Maybe he’s a portmanteau!) of at least three proto-Bitrani gods.

Which is a story in and of itself…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/468457.html. You can comment here or there.